Gar Cartier Ice and Roller Hockey as a Fitness Plan

Do you want to become more physically fit? If so, Gar Cartier has a great fitness plan for you—ice and roller hockey.

Ice and roller hockey, you see, are not just sports. They can provide great ways to exercise your body. Gar Cartier has been enjoying the physical benefits of these two sports for quite a long time and he would like to share some tips with you.

Gar Cartier On Stretching

Before you practice ice and roller hockey (or any other type of exercise) it is important that you take the time to stretch. There are two types of stretching as regards ice and roller hockey: static and dynamic.

Static stretching involves working the muscle while you’re in a static position, such as sitting or lying. Gar Cartier recommends that you always engage in 10-15 minutes of static stretching before you begin your ice or roller hockey practice.

Dynamic stretching is done both during the start of practice and at the end of practice. It is accomplished through slow to medium skating as a warm up and as a cool down of your practice.

Both of these forms of stretching are important because they will minimize injuries.

Building Physical Endurance

Gar Cartier knows that few sports offer the level of physical challenges as ice or roller hockey.  Consequently, this sport offers you a wonderful opportunity to become physically fit.

The most important skill you can have in hockey is consistently winning 1-on-1 battles. To do this, however, you need to develop a high level of physical fitness. Gar Cartier advises that you should use a combination of strength and endurance training to accomplish this.

Strength and Endurance Training

Your program of strength and endurance training should include a combination of machine-weight, body-weight, and free-weight exercises.

Machine-weight exercises involve the use of special equipment which helps you to isolate and work certain muscles.

Body-weight exercises involve exercises such as pushups, chin-ups, leg lifts and others that use your own body weight resistance. Gar Cartier loves doing body-weight exercises because he can do them anywhere; no special equipment is needed. However, when doing these exercises you will not be able to isolate certain muscles nor increase resistance.

Free-weight exerciseis another favorite of Gar Cartier because it lets him increase resistance and isolate muscles. However, the risk of injury is also greater in this form of exercise.

While developing your workout plan, you should factor in the number of reps, the number of sets, and the amount of weight to use. All of these should be gradually increased over many months until you achieve your workout goal.

Gar Cartier Workout Plan

Whatever workout plan you create, however, should consist of the following:

1. Warm up: a few minutes of moderately-paced walking or riding a stationary bike.
2. Stretching: approximately 5-10 minutes of stretching exercises. (Try to stretch all of your muscles).
3. Weight training: approximately 20-30 minutes of weight training that incorporates both strength and endurance training.
4. Cool down: a few minutes of moderately-paced walking or riding a stationary bike.

If you follow the above tips, Gar Cartier believes ice and roller hockey will make you physically fit in no time!