Yunus Barisik, Author at Next Level Athletics - Page 4 of 40
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 Most Overlooked Way to Boost Athletic Performance

Want to know the most overlooked way to boost athletic performance?

This little-known tactic has been proven to make you run faster, shoot with greater accuracy and just feel better overall in your daily life.

So what is this performance-boosting magic pill I’m talking about? 

Is it a special weight room exercise? 

A brand-new training method you’ve never heard of? 

A secret supplement manufactured in an underground Soviet lab?

None of those things.

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5 Best Off-Ice Exercises to Skate Faster

"What are the top 5 off-ice exercises to get faster?"

That's by far the most common training question I hear from hockey players and coaches.

So with that in mind, let's look at the 5 best off-ice exercises that will help you turn on the jets and blow past opponents.

(If you’d rather watch than read about these TOP 5 dryland exercises… Check out the video below.)

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How to Get Super Strong on Single-Leg Squats

Having great single-leg strength is crucial for a powerful skating stride and balance in hockey.

Unfortunately, most hockey players neglect this area. Even if they use some single-leg or so-called "unilateral" leg exercises in their workouts, more often than not, they fail to get strong on them.

For the record, if you're banging away with a pair of 55-pound dumbbells on split squats, you're not strong.

We have females who can do a lot more than that.

Our strongest 17-year-olds can split squat over 300 pounds with the bar in the front rack position, and our slightly older guys can do around 350. Split squatting almost 2x your body weight? That is STRONG.

Now, you may be wondering how our athletes are able to build such impressive single-leg strength quickly and if you can replicate their numbers.

The answer is:

Yes.

As long as you stick to these 3 very important training principles:

(If you’d rather watch than read about how to build impressive single-leg strength for hockey… Check out the video below.)

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World Champions 2018!

Team Finland beat USA last night and won gold at the U18 World Championships.

So join me in congratulating my boys, goalie Jere Huhtamaa and forward Lenni Killinen, as well as the entire Finnish U18 National Team for bringing gold back home after last year's final defeat against the US.

That makes it two gold medals for Finland in the last three U18 tournaments. Not too shabby...

Off-Ice Hockey Training for Unstoppable Strength and Speed

If you are looking for off-ice hockey training advice online, I have good and bad news for you.

Let's start with the bad news:

Much of the information you'll find on off-ice hockey training via a quick Google search is published by "trainers" with zero expertise in training athletes.

I've seen too many websites and YouTube/Instagram channels where people's idea of dryland training consists of stickhandling a tennis ball while balancing on a friggin' BOSU ball.

Or performing 20-rep sets of box jumps.

Or doing silly ladder drills for "quick feet".

That nonsense has got nothing to do with improving athletic performance when the goal is to build a bigger, stronger, faster and less injury-prone hockey player.

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How to Get Bigger, Stronger and Faster for Ice Hockey

How can off-ice hockey training help boost your on-ice performance?

It's a question I hear all the time.

In this hockey training guide you'll discover how to add pounds to the bar, muscle to your frame, and improve your skating speed and power with dryland training techniques.

I have successfully used these same off-ice training methods and principles with hundreds of junior, D1 college and pro hockey players

Check out the video below to see some of them going after it in their off-season training.

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