Yunus Barisik, Author at Next Level Athletics

Yunus Barisik

Author Archives: Yunus Barisik

Yunus Barisik, CSCS, specializes in making hockey players strong, fast and explosive. He has trained 500+ hockey players at the junior, college and pro levels, including NHL Draft picks and World Champions. An accomplished author, Yunus has had articles published on top fitness and performance sites, including T Nation, STACK and Muscle & Strength. He also wrote Next Level Hockey Training, a comprehensive resource for ice hockey players on building athletic strength, size and power, while staying injury-free.

The Problem With Olympic Lifts

They say Olympic lifts are invaluable for athletic power development.

If you want to jump higher or sprint faster, you better do them.

And it's hard to disagree with the virtues of cleaning, jerking and snatching big weights rapidly.

After all, Olympic lifters are often cited to have impressive vertical jump and 20-30 meter sprint results.

Here's what nobody tells you, though...

Adults make for horrible Olympic lifters.

They simply don't have the requisite hip, shoulder, thoracic spine and ankle mobility to get into a deep squat with a bar over your head.

(Most adults can't get into a deep squat even without a bar)

Why?

Our Western lifestyle doesn't support this.

You can't spend a couple decades sitting on your ass in traffic while commuting to work, hunched over writing memos for eight hours a day, staring at a smart phone screen morning to midnight, then one day decide to pick up Olympic-style lifting because some "fitness coach" on the Internet said that'll help with your first step quickness on the ice.

Yes, it looks rad and manly when elite lifters hoist heavy weights overhead at the Olympics.

And you can't help but marvel at the athleticism those guys demonstrate.

But they've been practicing their lifting form every day since they were six. Same goes for their hip and shoulder mobility.

You can see this for yourself on Youtube videos where Chinese kids, fresh out of diapers, display perfect clean and snatch technique.

When you try to replicate their movements, however...

Smooth has left the building.

Your form looks messy and the timing just doesn't feel right.

So let's face the music... You won't be stepping on the platform any time soon.

But you keep plugging away at it. You're stubborn like that.

And the "coach" on the 'Net convinced you. Oly lifts and improved skating speed go hand in hand. So you can't just drop 'em from your program, right?

Soon you notice how your low back or shoulders start acting up.

Slight irritation at first.

Gets worse after each workout.

Until one day you wake up feeling like someone's twisting a knife between your spinal discs.

And your shoulder?

Like that Mexican family living down the street had all taken turns whacking it with sticks as if it were a piñata on Cinco de Mayo.

Maybe Olympic lifts aren't the answer, after all?

But how are you gonna gain more power without them?

Simple...

You sprint, jump and throw.

That's it.

For a complete training program that helps you gain first step quickness without beating yourself up, visit:

NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

How This NHL Draft Pick Added 192 Pounds to His Lifts in 13 Weeks

"What kinds of results can I expect to achieve following your training program?"

That's a question I hear often.

So here's a real, meat on the bones "case study" for ya.

Over the 2017 off-season, my boy Kasper Björkqvist - Providence College sophomore and Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick - followed the 4x per week, upper/lower split laid out in Next Level Hockey Training.

In 13 weeks of off-season training, his 1RM improved:

* Power Clean from Hang 105 kg / 231 pounds -> 132.5 kg / 291 pounds

* Front Squat 140 kg / 308 pounds -> 165 kg / 363 pounds

* Trap Bar Deadlift 205 kg / 451 pounds -> 240 kg / 528 pounds

Total improvement = 192 pounds in three key lifts measuring lower body strength and power.

(Funny thing is, he added 55 pounds to his front squat and 77 pounds to trap bar deads by performing both lifts only six times all summer)

I should also mention that he ranked #1 in physical tests at the Penguins' 2017 prospect development camp.

Exceptional results, I should say...

Moral of the story?

No program can add nearly 200 pounds to your lifts overnight.

But a smart training program will help you get significantly stronger across the board in a single summer.

Thing is, you gotta work your ass off for those results.

If you're willing to put in the sweat equity...

... and if you're ready to experience gainzzz like Kasper...

... then go ye here:

NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn Ya

Hip, groin and lower abdominal issues plague a ton of hockey players.

Those who have experienced that know what I'm talkin' 'bout...

If you haven’t yet, pay close attention. You’ll save yourself years of pain and frustration.

Some cold, hard facts:

1. 43% of all injuries in hockey occur around the groin area.

2. Adductor strains account for 10% of all injuries.

3. Once you experience an adductor strain, a repeat injury will occur with a 44% likelihood.

4. A groin injury will force a player out of the next seven on-ice sessions (game/practice) on average.

5. Over 90% of groin and abdominal strains in the NHL occur when there's NO CONTACT with another player. This is a significant number and it's expected to grow in the future.

6. According to a conservative estimate, each NHL team will lose 25 man-games to groin and lower abdominal injuries every season.

Any hockey player this side of Stevie Wonder can see how big of a problem groin injuries present.

So I went back and looked at my athletes' injury history over the past few years.

Specifically - how many games they missed due to hip, groin and lower abdominal issues...

Two years ago, one of our U18 National Team forwards was experiencing pain in his anterior hip on the ice. As a precaution, we took him out of the line-up for one game.

After that, he didn't miss a single game all year.

Nor did he last season when he played for our pro team.

Same thing with our U18 National Team goalie last year. Groin pain. So the head coach had him sit on the bench as the back-up in back-to-back games over one weekend.

Two cases in two years... only three total man-games lost among the 150+ players I've coached during that time.

(And both players COULD HAVE played in those games. Had it been the playoffs, no doubt they would have...)

I don't know about you but that's a very, very low number in my eyes.

Especially considering how NHL teams lose nearly 10x that many man-games in a single season.

Obviously, I'm not just yapping bullshit when I say how excellent off-ice programming can dramatically decrease your chances of getting injured.

Check it out for yourself here:

NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

From Back-Up Goalie to Best Goaltender Award & All-Star in One Year

Should goalies lift heavy weights?

And how does their training differ from skaters when your goal is to boost on-ice performance?

Those are questions I hear all the time from goalies, parents and coaches...

My boy Filip Lindberg, who won the Best Goaltender Award and was named First Team All-Star in the Finnish U18 Elite League, sheds some light on the matter:

---

"I used to believe that goalies don't need to lift weights.

In fact, some goalie coaches had told me gaining upper body strength and size would be detrimental for my game because it would slow me down when stopping the puck with my arms.

That's why I had focused mostly on goalie technique and speed drills when training on my own.

At the same time, I also realized that I wasn't physically strong enough to play the game at a high level.

That soon changed when I started following Yunus' programs!

My body has matured physically a lot during the time I've been training with him.

I've gained muscle all over my body, my shoulders got broader, I got leaner, and my strength levels went through the roof.

As a result of all that, my on-ice performance improved tremendously.

I'm now much more explosive on the ice.

More agile in the crease.

Faster and able to get into a better position on rebounds.

Moving laterally and squaring up to the shooter feels effortless now thanks to all the lower body and core strength gains I've made.

Training under Yunus is intense and demanding. But at the same time, we have a fun, motivating atmosphere at the gym.

The best part is that he always comes up with new exercise variations that keep things fresh and interesting in addition to the tried and true heavy barbell lifts.

I've learned so many movements I had never even seen before, yet I feel they've benefited my performance immensely.

Here are a few key training lessons I've taken to heart:

- If you want progress, you MUST train hard. The competition isn’t resting on their laurels, so you've got to show up and put in the work every day to succeed.

- Going to the gym and just lifting some weights isn’t enough. You need a solid, quality program to really experience big gains.

- Unlike what I used to believe in the past, strength training is extremely important for goalies.

You need 100% focus and effort off the ice if you want to get ahead on the ice. You have the greatest window for progress in the off-season, so don't miss it by being lazy or doing things that don't improve your performance.

- Even when on-ice training takes priority during the season, you shouldn’t stop lifting heavy. It's the only way to improve all year long.

To any hockey player reading this, I highly recommend Yunus and his training methods. Not only is he a great strength coach, he's a great person as well."

---

How did Filip go from playing for our club's second team to winning a National Championships silver medal and a bunch of individual awards in one year?

Simples.

He followed the off-season training programs laid out in my Next Level Hockey Training System.

Grab yours here:

NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus "All-Star Maker" Barisik

How Players Go From Skinny-Fat to Lean, Mean NHL Machines

Check these mangos out:

The Hockey News ran a cool article on NHL players' off-season training.

Strength and conditioning coaches Ben Prentiss (trainer to guys like Jonathan Quick, Max Pacioretty, James van Riemsdyk) and Matt Nichol (Tyler Seguin, Wayne Simmonds, Mike Cammalleri, etc.) chimed in with some interesting facts:

- The best hockey is played when the players are in their worst shape of the year in the playoffs

- Guys enter the off-season bruised, battered, and beaten from the game

- They have lost muscle mass and strength, their body fat has gone up during the season, resulting in a "skinny-fat" appearance

- Their hormones are out of whack due to travel, pre-game coffees and energy drinks, stress, low vitamin D levels, and going to bed at odd hours in the AM

- The focus of the first part of the summer is just getting healthy

- A nutritional detox is applied; this includes a high-fat diet with fish, nuts, eggs, avocados, coconut oil, lots of water and cutting out all sugars

- Players spend a considerable amount of time in saunas, hot tubs and on a massage table working out the kinks in their bodies

- Many won't go near a dumbbell or barbell for the first couple of weeks in the summer; instead, they work on breathing, proper posture and mobility

All of that, of course, is just the beginning.

Then it's time for the real work to commence.

To build that size and strength for next season.

Here's the training program hundreds of elite junior, college and pro hockey players trust to turn into lean, mean machines in the off-season:

NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

- Yunus

Speed Training Interview With Travis Hansen – Part 3

This is it... the final part of my interview with Travis Hansen.

After this, you have no excuse for not running faster.

Here. We. Go.

YB: What are your thoughts on genetics and speed? How much does the former influence the latter? And what can you do as an athlete if you’re not blessed with a relatively high distribution of fast-twitch muscle fibers at birth?

TH: ACTN-3 or Alpha-actinin-3 is being deemed as the speed gene by some and genetics are influential to adaptation and progress, no doubt.

This speed based gene manufactures a protein found specifically in fast twitch skeletal muscle fibers that serves various roles in human running speed. I've read some information that every high level olympic sprinter that was tested for the gene came back positive.

With that being said, far too many athletes fall into the trap of blaming their alleged poor genetics or whatever else, even though they haven't been specifically tested.

Also, many athletes respond very well to speed training and make great progress who have poor baselines when they start. The genetic issue weeds itself out naturally at the elite levels and most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

The reality is that even if someone has a poor predisposition to running fast, there is so many channels in the nervous system and muscles that athletes and coaches can capitalize on to become faster through training and nutrition and proper recovery methods.

Hormone levels, muscle growth, muscle recruitment, and so much more contribute to someone's speed and everyone can utilize these features to their benefit and become faster. I've seen it too many times in athletes who came in who I'm quite confident were poor responders genetically.

YB: Let’s dive into sprinting technique for a moment. What are some typical technique flaws athletes make when trying to run fast that slow them down without them even realizing it?

Speed Training Interview With Travis Hansen – Part 2

This is the second part of my interview with strength and conditioning coach Travis Hansen.

It's kinda like Rambo: First Blood Part II... only more violent.

So with the mandatory disclaimer out of the way, let's pick up right where we left off...

YB: You and I share a similar training philosophy in that we both advocate heavy strength training for making guys faster. Why is maximal strength so important for developing speed?

TH: The first reason is just simple physics.

The more force you create in your neuromuscular system the faster you run, period.

Of course there is time and directional factors here that you have to consider, but there is as much real world evidence to support more strength for faster running as just about anything training related from what I have seen so far. There is about a half dozen studies in my book to support this relationship, and I've located quite a few more since publication.

If you aren't strong enough to overcome the weight of your body you can't get any momentum going and move faster, and since athletes are constantly required to initiate movement from very low speeds or still positions the need for strength becomes absolutely critical to perform and compete at a higher level.

YB: What would be your TOP 5 lower body strength exercises for speed development? And why did you choose those?

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