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Moving Weight vs Working the Muscle

A lot of guys don’t understand this simple training concept…

Certain exercises are about moving big weights and others require you to really feel the muscle for the movement to be effective.

This is something that you can really only learn over time, but there is a total difference between making muscle work and moving weight through space.

A few examples:

Moving weight…

– front squats

– trap bar deadlifts

– all types of barbell pressing

– cleans

– snatches

Making muscles work…

– rows

– pulldowns

– Romanian deadlifts

– glute ham raises

– hip thrusts

If you never feel a pump or get sore after upper back or posterior chain work, you’re doing something very wrong.

Romanian deadlifting or hip thrusting 300+ pounds – while certainly a decent amount of weight – will hardly produce the gainzzz you want if you can’t feel the exercise in the hamstrings/glutes.

The only thing getting bigger and stronger from that is your ego.

While pump and soreness should never be your #1 goal in training, you want to add some assistance movements for higher reps to fatigue the muscles after your standard “strength lifts” (Oly/powerlifts and their variations).

Doing that will balance out some of the muscular imbalances that affect 99% of hockey players.

And add some muscle on your frame.

Plus keep you healthy in the long run.

For 49 weeks of done-for-you off-ice workouts combining big weights and assistance work perfectly, visit:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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Hilariously Horrible NHL record

I was up early mindlessly surfing the Internet and came across a fun little stat.

Apparently, the Edmonton Oilers have now tied the record for the longest playoff drought in NHL history after missing the playoffs every year since 2006.

Check out these random things that have happened since the last Oilers’ playoff game:

– 2 new countries have formed

– Liquid water has been discovered on Mars

– Pluto was deemed not a planet

– 4 elements have been discovered and added to the periodic table

– The first black US president has been elected, re-elected, and will finish his presidency before the next Oiler playoff game

– The entire Hunger Games series has been released as novels, and then released as movies

– The very first iPhone was released

– Facebook, Netflix, and Instagram have gained 1.5 billion, 74 million, and 300 million accounts respectively

– Donald Trump has hosted 14 seasons of the Apprentice, fought in WWE Wrestlemania, and has won 678 delegates

– Breaking Bad started, ended, and then had a spinoff show

– Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for 3 Oscars

– Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar

– Microsoft has released, had two service packs for, and discontinued mainstream support for Windows Vista. Microsoft has since also released Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10

– Ovechkin has scored 465 goals

– I served in the army, lived abroad for 3 years, graduated college and moved house 7 times

Clearly, the Edmonton Oilers are a prime example of how to fail big time.

For a great resource on how to succeed in hockey, visit:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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Here’s How Ya Avoid Cement Legs

I get a lot of questions asking how to avoid cement legs on the ice after a lower body workout…

I’ll answer this today so you’ll have 1 less thing to worry about in your training.

The two biggest culprits behind muscle soreness are:

1. High training volume (especially if you jump straight to high volume workouts without gradually increasing training volume over time)

2. Slow negatives (on a squat, this would be the part where you descend)

Combine those two in a training session and you’ll be on the verge of crawling to the wellness center and requesting a wheel chair.

While I use both of them (sparingly!) in the off-season, you’ll want to decrease overall volume and drop the slow negatives once you transition into in-season training.

No player wants to step on the ice with heavy legs during hockey season.

What’s funny is that muscle soreness has ZERO correlation with improving strength or athletic performance by itself.

If that were the case, every numbnut you see doing 20+ sets per body part each workout or following P90X would be the strongest, fastest dudes on the ice.

Obviously that ain’t happening.

Training programs and methods that thrive on making you feel sore mask their failure to make you BETTER.

Simply put, the true mark of a great training program is not subsequent muscle soreness.

It’s when you’re hitting new PR’s week after week that you have found a winning plan.

To beat your previous bests every time you step inside the gym, go to:

http://NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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What I Learned From a 5x Stanley Cup Champ

It was another bright October afternoon in NYC.

I had just caught the Rangers play against the Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden the previous night.

The home team was boo’ed off the ice by a hostile crowd at the end of the second period trailing by 3-0.

Somehow the Rangers rallied back, turned the game around and won 5-4 after a spectacular third period that left everyone excited like a geek about tomorrow’s pop quiz (barring a few guys wearing Wild jerseys).

You rarely see New Yorkers take to the streets around Penn Station grinning as broadly as that eventful evening.

Anyhoo, the following afternoon, I was waiting for my flight back home at JFK.

When I lifted my gaze up from the book I was reading to pass the time at the gate, I recognized a familiar face standing just a few feet away from me…

Former NHL player, Esa Tikkanen.

As we all remember from his successful years with the Oilers and Rangers, Tikkanen was being his usual self… yapping away non-stop.

Only this time he wasn’t doing it to get under the skin of Wayne, Stevie Y or Mario.

He was verbally sparring with some guy in the group he was hanging out with.

As they were going back and forth with their lighthearted chirping, Tikkanen played the ace card by referring to his nearly immortal status in Manhattan after winning the Rangers’ first Stanley Cup in 54 years (and his personal 5th) back in 1994:

“I’m still the only guy at this airport in possession of the city keys!”

That effectively shut the other dude up.

Just like Tikkanen shut his opponents down in the rink when the Cup was on the line.

He never topped any scoring charts.

Nor was he considered an offensive threat in a line-up with names like Gretzky, Messier, Anderson or Coffey responsible for producing goals.

But you won’t find a more versatile player in all of hockey history.

He could play on the first line and score a game-winner in the playoffs (as he did 11 times during his career)…

Or shadow the Great One or any other superstar into frustration, irritation, even agitation with the constant stream of Tikkanese (a combination of Finnish, Swedish, English and a few words he made up himself) flowing from his lips all at once…

And his level of competitiveness, as well as his ability to get the job done no matter his role pales in comparison to nobody.

If there’s one thing we can all learn from a player like Tikkanen, it’s this…

You don’t need to be the most skilled guy.

You don’t need to be the most talented guy.

And you don’t need to be the physically biggest guy to “make it”.

You just gotta be the dude that out-hustles everyone else in sight.

The dude who works his ass off to move forward.

Who does whatever it takes to get to the top.

Who won’t let anyone or anything stand between him and his dream.

That’s how you win, jefe.

And who knows, maybe one day you’ll have a Stanley Cup ring (or 5) to show for it…

For an awesome resource that top hockey players use to outwork the competition, go to:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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The Myth of “Quick Feet”

I don’t know about you…

But I’m sick of all these “great” training methods that do NOTHING for your performance.

For example:

The speed ladder.

As a kid playing soccer (I played soccer among other sports), the speed ladder was a big part of our workouts.

Seemed like our soccer coaches were obsessed with it.

So almost every practice would begin with 10-15 minutes of speed ladder drills.

Forward. Backward. Diagonally.

One step. Two steps. Three steps.

Fast. Fast. Fast.

Know what happened?

Nothing.

I never got faster.

Neither did any of my buddies.

Crazy.

I’m sure that as a hockey player, you’ve been using (and abusing) the speed ladder for a long time.

But here’s the kicker…

Being fast is not about “moving your feet quick”.

It’s about producing force!

Look at the fastest people on the planet… top sprinters.

Dudes are jacked AND lightning fast.

What does that tell us?

Strength and speed go hand in hand.

You will not find a fast, explosive athlete who is weaker than puppy piss.

And that’s exactly where my Next Level Hockey Training System comes in.

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

You will get strong.

And as a result…

You will get faster.

No… you’re not gonna turn into a beast overnight.

But you WILL get better every week.

And you’ll never feel confused or frustrated again.

In fact, when you follow it consistently, you’ll be hitting new personal records every time you step inside the gym.

At that point, the strength gains just get ridiculous.

It’s simple.

It works.

And it’s waiting patiently for you at:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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Top 5 Reasons Why Hockey Players Fail to Get Strong

When guys follow training methods that I share in my Next Level Hockey Training System (http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com), they get strong.

Without fail.

And when they get strong, they perform better on the ice.

Coming out of board battles with the puck.

Fresh legs when playing back-to-back games.

Faster first steps that create time and space to fly right past a defender.

But…

Having trained hundreds of hockey players at all levels of competitive hockey, one thing has become crystal clear…

Hardly anyone – whether a player or coach – knows how to gain unstoppable, athletic strength.

There are 5 big reasons why hockey players can’t get strong:

1) They don’t follow progressive overloading

2) They do too much volume (sets & reps)

3) They use the wrong exercises

4) They do excessive amounts of cardio (mainly slow, long distance)

5) They follow crappy training methods of “gurus” and get injured

So how do you make sure you don’t stay weak, slow and out of shape forever?

We’ll get to that in another post soon. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, grab a proven training program for getting brutally strong at:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

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What Do Kim Kardashian and Jaromir Jagr Have in Common?

Answer…..

A big butt.

As much as I enjoy viewing that round derriere of Kim in a body-hugging cocktail dress in the tabloids… (nod your sleazy little head if ya know what I mean)

… I’m more interested in how big booties help increase performance on the ice.

Take Jaromir Jagr, for example.

Does he stuff his legendary #68 jersey inside pants covering a pancake ass?

Nuh-uh.

Dude’s rockin’ a real “hockey butt”.

And he’s been using it to power past, through and around defenders and goalies for well over two decades.

Here’s why that’s so important…

The benefits of strong hips and glutes for a hockey player are a-plenty:

– skate faster

– change directions quickly

– protect puck along the boards and in the corners

– power through sticks and opponents

No wonder Jagr still breaks scoring records at age 44.

Ya think having a big, strong butt would improve your performance too, mi amigo?

You bet your gluteus assimus it does!

Check out the Next Level Hockey Training System (www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com) for more info on how to build brutally strong hips and butt.