In-Season Training: Why You Can't Afford to Stop

Hockey Horizons Staff Writer | Fitness Kits

The information in this article is for general educational purposes only. The author is not a certified personal trainer or strength and conditioning specialist. Always consult a qualified fitness professional or sports medicine provider before beginning or modifying a training program, particularly if you have any existing injuries or health concerns.

The season has started. Games are on the schedule, practices are structured around the game calendar, and the temptation to let off-ice training slide is real. Between school, travel, games, and practices, where does training fit? The answer — the honest, performance-centered answer — is that it has to fit, because the alternative is a season-long fitness decline that costs you exactly the physical qualities you spent all summer building.

Research on detraining — the loss of fitness adaptations when training stops — is unambiguous: the strength and power gains from a summer training program begin to reverse within two to three weeks of complete cessation. Aerobic conditioning adaptations are somewhat more durable, but they too decline over the course of a long in-season period if not maintained. A player who trains hard all summer and does nothing from October to March will arrive at next summer's camp measurably less fit than they were at September's camp. That's a wasted summer.

In-season training does not need to match summer training in volume or intensity. The goal shifts from building fitness to maintaining it. Two well-structured strength training sessions per week — thirty to forty-five minutes each, focused on the major compound movements — are sufficient to maintain the majority of summer strength gains through the season. These sessions should be low enough in volume to not significantly impair skating performance or recovery, but high enough in intensity to provide the stimulus the body needs to hold its adaptations.

When to Train During the Week

The optimal placement of in-season strength sessions depends on your team's game schedule, but the general principle is to avoid heavy lifting the day before a game and the day after a back-to-back. The most common in-season training structure for junior players is: lift on the day of a practice (immediately after, not before), and use off-days or light practice days as the primary strength training windows. Talk to your coaching staff about the team's training philosophy around in-season lifting — alignment between your training and your team's schedule is more important than the perfect theoretical timing.

At Hockey Horizons, we believe that physical preparation is one of the most controllable variables in a player's development. The work you put in away from the rink is reflected in every shift you take on the ice.

For guidance on the complete development picture, visit us at hockeyhorizons.com.