Training to make the U.S. junior ice hockey team
Ice Age
Julian Talavera builds endurance to amp up his hockey game.
Julian Talavera
AGE: 17
OCCUPATION: Focused on hockey
24 HOUR FITNESS LOCATION: Littleton, Colorado
THE PLAN: After graduating high school early and playing in a junior hockey league for 6 months in Vancouver, British Columbia, Talavera, a goalie, will try out for several U.S. junior hockey teams this summer. He hopes to makes it on a junior team because scouts frequent these games, upping his odds of being recruited for either college or pro hockey.
THE OBSTACLE: While he gets in plenty of strength training in the gym, he hasn’t focused on cardio. Playing in pickup games here and there will not be enough to give him an endurance edge during a string of team tryouts.
THE SOLUTION: Chris Powers, an assistant fitness manager at the Littleton Active 24 Hour Fitness in Colorado and a former strength and conditioning coach for a semi-pro soccer team, trains Talavera three times a week. Powers set Talavera up with a combo of strength and sport performance training—muscle endurance exercises using higher reps with lighter weights. “I’m not seeing how much he can lift at one time, but how much he can lift over a period of time,” Powers says. Talavera completes grueling back-to-back super sets that check off both strength and cardio. “A goalie has to be an endurance athlete too,” Powers says. “When the puck is on his end he might not get a break for long stretches and doesn’t get to call timeout.”
A typical training cycle for Talavera starts with a machine, such as the chest press, for four sets of 10 reps; goes to unstable surface training for three sets of 20 reps (building his core and balance for when someone larger slams into him); and then heads straight into cardio equipment, such as the revolving StairMaster for 3 minutes skipping every other stair. All of this is one cycle and will be repeated multiple times with only short 30-second rest periods, alternating through different muscle groups on the machines. “I’ve definitely progressed, not only in strength and size, but now I feel better about the tryouts because I’m more conditioned,” Talavera says.
