PROGRESSIVE TRAINING

If you expect to get stronger through your training, your training must be progressive. Often I hear stories of people who are exercising regularly but fail to see the desired results. "I've done 50 wooders three times a week but I don't seem to be any stronger than I was when I started." Actually you probably aren't any stronger. You were strong enough to do 50 wooders when you started and now you are still strong enough to do 50 wooders. There has been no PROGRESS. To improve you have to keep adding to the quantity of work. In an ideal situation you would be able to add to your work load at your regular skating sessions. This is done by either reducing lap times, increasing the number of laps, reducing the length of rest intervals or a combination of all of these. This is the way it is done when training with a national team or some other elite group. In the typical club situation, however, the skaters' abilities vary too much to be able to accurately control the workload of individual skaters. Therefore it is essential for club skaters to be making PROGRESS in their off-ice training during the skating season. Even in an area where skaters can be on training ice four or more times a week, it is very difficult for skate training to be progressive in a typical short track club format.

It is very easy, however, to make your off-ice training progressive. You simply do more repetitions of each exercise than you did the time before. On exercises such as wooders or stepups, weights can be used to increase resistance once the repetitions reach fifty or so. Workouts on a stationary bicycle or stairmaster can easily be progressive by the use of speedometers and a watch it should be possible to continue to improve throughout the skating season watch. More speed, for a longer period of time.

Of course you will not always be able to do more work in each workout than you did the time before. Sometimes it's all you can do to maintain your present level of strength. Through perseverance and consistency, however, it should be possible to continue to improve throughout the skating season.

1 BILL’S BARE MINIMUM

SCHEDULE FOR THE WORKING PERSON

It is my firm belief that for one's skating to improve it is necessary to skate at least three times per week. Most accomplished skaters don't feel they can maintain their present form with less ice time than this. For this program I am assuming you are practicing at two of our club sessions plus skating in a competition each week.

MONDAY / TUESDAY / WEDNESDAY / THURSDAY / FRIDAY
2 MILE RUN
WOODERS
STEPUPS / SKATING / WOODERS STEPUPS / SKATING / SLIDEBOARD
10 min. total actual skate

WOODERS

Stand on left leg- Place right foot on chair behind you. Do one-legged knee bend. Do as many as possible. Repeat immediately with other leg. Rest 5 minutes.

STEPUPS

Stand in front of chair. Place left foot on chair. Step up onto chair. At same time raise right knee to chest. Return to starting position. Repeat as many times as possible. Repeat on other leg immediately. Rest 5 minutes.

Repeat wooders and stepups once more.

SLIDEBOARD-

Slideboard should be done as low as possible using a mirror to ensure proper alignments and 90" bend of knees. Ten minutes should be divided into shorter intervals so as to be able to maintain perfect form. If PERFECT form can be maintained for only one minute, then ten one-minute intervals should be the goal.

This program requires a minimum amount of time for a busy person with family and work commitments. Forty minutes should cover Monday's workout. Twenty minutes plus some warmup should cover Wednesday's workout.

More work can be added to this program on any day of the week without fear of over training. More skating should be the first choice followed by dry-skating exercises or one more run per week. More wooders and stepups can also be added with a very small increase in time.

2 BILL’S STANDARD SCHEDULE

This schedule is intended for the skater who desires to compete on a regional level and has a moderate amount of time to devote to training. It is important to keep in mind that this plan is light on quantity so quality must be very high.

MONDAY / TUESDAY / WEDNESDAY / THURSDAY / FRIDAY
SKATE STEPUPSx3
WOODERSx3
SQUATSx3
CALFRAISESx3
STRETCH / SKATE
1/2hr.CYCLE or
l/2hr.STAIRSTEP
or 1/2hr. RUN
STRETCH / RUN or CYCLE or STAIRSTEPPER
(any combination)
1 hr. total
STEPUPS X 3
WOODERS X 3
STRETCH / SKATE
2 MILE RUN
or SPRINTS
or TEMPO RUN
STRETCH / SLIDEBOARD DRY-SKATE
10 min. EACH
STRETCH

This is intended as a general guide. Individual changes to fit your own personal schedule are of course necessary. Friday’s workout is light in anticipation of competition on Saturday. If the weekend competition is on Sunday, the Friday workout would be good for Saturday. A more difficult workout should be planned for Friday. If no competition is scheduled for the weekend an additional Wednesday workout and Tuesday or Thursday workout should be substituted. If ice is not available, slideboard and dry-skating exercises should be substituted.

Stepups, wooders, and squats should be done using weights to keep the repetitions down to thirty for wooders and stepups and twenty for squats.

Progress must be realized in order for desired training effect. See progressive training instructions.