Nicole Lark

Hi Everyone,

Below is my 28-day program. It was a challenging program to make as it is designed for a large number of Ringette athletes involved in the Provincial body’s ‘Excellence Program’. The program needed to be written for a group of 80+ athletes all ranging in age (chronological (14-18+) and training age (novice to intermediate), in skill-set, and fitness levels (so, I needed to tailor to as many athletes as possible by working somewhere close to the middle of the pack).

There were several key factors I had to take into account:

1) It is the off-season – I wanted this first phase to be lighter in volume as the athletes will be just starting to get back into training after finishing the current season.
2) I needed to ensure all athletes have equal access; therefore, very little equipment could be included in the program.
3) For adherence, consistency, and buy-in, the program needed to be manageable and not create a sense of the athletes feeling overwhelmed by the demands of time.

[NL] Ringette BC Excellence Program – Off-Season Foundation Building

The 4-week macrocycle is designed to steadily increase in volume over the 4-weeks. When phase two starts, the first week will see a drop in overall demand before increasing the overall work load.

Many of the concepts built into this program will be new to most of the athletes. I believe the repetition will help the concepts (i.e. Workout versus Work-in), and the particular exercises become less foreign over-time, and eventually this will be the new norm.

I opted to always include at least one day where nothing is planned – For our mental well-being, I think athletes (and everyone) can always use one day per week where nothing is prescribed.

Weeks 1 and 2 have two days where nothing is planned – this is intentional as they are just getting back into the swing of things, and I think a gradual build-up is a safer approach (from a physical and mental standpoint).

Weeks 3 and 4 include one session of High-Intensity Interval Training. I kept the volume relatively low and the same for both weeks. Again, they will see a gradual increase in HIIT, HISS, and power training as they get closer to the start of the next season (in the Fall).

The recovery modalities – I also needed to consider what was accessible for all (some may not be able to afford or find a service at an extra cost, others may not have any recovery tools, etc.,). I chose recovery methods that are very low in cost (i.e. foam roller, tennis ball, etc.,) and relatively easy to learn and implement. Also, for greater buy-in, I chose more conventional methods. As the phases progress, and more education is provided, less traditional methods will be introduced.

Hope everything makes sense.

Thanks everyone, the course has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience!

Cheers,
Nicole

Hi Aimee,

Quick question: what is ‘Bio-coffee’??

Great recovery day, definitely appreciate the aspect of letting the kid have free reign (within limits)!

Thank you, Johnny! As always, the feedback is much welcomed and appreciated.  And, thanks for sharing my work on last week’s webinar – that’s a big compliment amongst this group of people!!

Hi,

I created an example of a week-long program for ringette/hockey athletes that focuses on relative bodyweight strength coupled with metabolic flexibility. Each workout is programmed assuming the athletes may have little access to fitness equipment and/or a fitness facility.

I programmed the LAR Day after the most intense session of the week, the cyclical HIIT workout, to facilitate recovery from a physical and psychological viewpoint (training can be mentally fatiguing, in addition to the associated physiological fatigue, so having days that require “less-effort” can help maintain motivation and drive).

The recovery day focuses on the hips and t-spine – two areas of the body critical for skating mechanics, stick-handling, body positioning, and resiliency.

I also included the Rock Mat at the end of the day to further target the parasympathetic nervous system and include some minor foot mobilization – an area of the body that can get quite rigid inside of a skate.

Lastly, I included a precovery block based on sleep hygiene. As we know, hammering home the message around sleep quality and quantity is vital to health and performance success!

[NL] Bodyweight Strength & Metabolic Flexibility – SISS, SIIT, HIIT, & LAR

Hi Johnny,

Thanks for your thoughts. Here is what I was thinking when I programmed it:

The fast feet drills in the Tabata were intended primarily to raise their HR in a simple, unloaded movement pattern.  I knew it would be too long of a work interval to work on true quickness; however, I thought it would be an effective way to get the HR above 80% without any equipment, and with relatively easy movement patterns, that can then be used at another time at a higher intensity to train true quickness (i.e. 5-10 s bursts).  It is challenging to find drills that (1) require no equipment; (2) are relatively uncomplex (3) can elevate the HR enough (4) can be programmed for a large number of youth/young adults.

I understand what you’re saying about the Underswitch exercise – my thinking was that at the end of the set, the HR will still be high, and doing something with full body would keep it quite elevated if done with a decent tempo/cadence.

I invision doing a TABATA with full body power just too difficult for this group of athletes, at least at the moment.

Does my counter-rationale make sense??!!!

Thanks for your thoughts!

[NL] Ringette/Hockey HIIT Cyclical Spike & Short Waves

I decided to go with a predominantly metabolic session this time, but squeezed in a little bit of neuromechanical in the warm-up.

The program is for Ringette/Hockey Athletes.

Hockey/Ringette are both sports that require short bursts of speed and power, but for multiple times over the course of the game.  So, I included Spike Waves of 15 s (probably longer than the average “burst” on-ice, but not all of the time). And, Short Duration Waves of 30 s with 60 s rest.  The 30 s would be pretty similar to the length of a shift and the 60 s would be equivalent to the rest time on the bench if the team is rotating 3 lines (which is pretty standard).  I chose 10 sets of 30 on/60 off as it would be comparable to one period of a game.

As the athletes become more accustomed to performing these type of workouts, I would certainly incorporate a multitude of different length of intervals and mix them up, but I think this would be a good starting point for most athletes.  Nothing fancy but I think it would be effective.

[NL] Ringette/Hockey Cyclical & WBI SIIT

This program is designed for the older youth ringette/hockey athletes in mind.

I made the program with little or no equipment as most fitness facilities are still closed here, and I want it to be accessible at any time.

The workout has two modes of SIIT training, one being cyclical (which I like for tracking progress over time) and one is WBI (as it also helps build body awareness, coordination, motor skills, and overall athleticism – something youth athletes need!). Plus, being WBI, I am confident the HR will be increased without needing to increase an external load.

I made the dynamic stretches more t-spine and hip focused as these two areas of the body are critical for movements on the ice.

Thanks!

Hello everyone, happy to be starting Level 2.

What expectations, if any, do you have for Level 2?

I am hoping to have a good “refresher” with some of the science, and of course, build upon my current knowledge-base as well.  Presently, I often think about metabolic conditioning more based on the percent of maximum HR, and considering if it should be tempo-based, interval-based (shorter versus longer/lower versus higher intensity), or steady state (i.e. shorter vs longer/higher-intensity versus lower-intensity etc., such as LSD) so, I am looking forward to having a new perspective on HOW I can organize the programming aspect, and add another layer onto my current thought-processes.
What successes have you seen so far implementing what you’ve learned in Level 1?

Many successes, but specifically, I have really enjoyed the 7-Step warm-up sequence for many clients, and the idea of using forced exhalations for small motor unit recruitment and percussive breathing during the excitation component.
From a 4Q Metabolic perspective, which quadrant(s) do you have a bias towards?

I think my bias towards the quadrants depends on whom I am working with.  For example, I am probably more biased towards HISS, SIIT and SISS for a recreational runner but more HIIT and HISS for a hockey player.

For myself, I have a bias for more HIIT versus HISS – mostly because from a mental standpoint, the idea of doing something for a shorter duration is more doable (Tempo runs are the worst ; )), and for SISS.