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peej2189 · 05-22-2020, 02:12 AM

Panda Panico is by no means a household name. He was picked 35th in the S54 Entry Draft to the Tampa Bay Barracuda. While having known he didn’t perform anywhere near where he wanted to in his rookie season with the Carolina Kraken, he wanted to change that. He set out to improve himself through the off-season and into the pre-season. Somethings he had been doing his entire life leading up to this point came naturally. Some things, as he knew, were going to take some effort.

Panico knew after what he had a lot of growing to do after his first season with the Kraken. The winger posted 7 goals and 8 assists with 66 SOG. Defensively he had 54 hits and 85 shots blocked. While looking good on paper, there is a lot of room for improvement. To accomplish his goal of improving he started at the base level of everything, his body.

A proper workout routine can make a decent player into a good player with ease. A proper diet added onto that can make them better than most. With proper training in the skill portion of the sport the player is focusing on, they can become great. Panico set out to stick his feet into the dirt and start grinding to get ready for the upcoming season. Crafting an extensive workout and diet he had a few goals.

Strength
Body Fat %
Speed (Quickness)

Pure strength seems fairly self explanatory, there are four crucial lifts that Panda found to be the things to truly measure strength. Front squat, Clean, Deadlift, Bench. These four lifts knock out a vast majority of the muscles in the body. Bumping up the weights will increase his effectiveness on the ice with proper training. The goal was to add 105 lbs to his front squat. 95 lbs to the clean. 175 lbs to his deadlift. Then 115 lbs to his bench. These seem like quite large jumps, however in the months spanning between the seasons, it should be doable quite easily.

Panico had himself tested and measured to see where he was sitting shortly after the Kraken were knocked out of the playoffs. 22% body fat. Not absolutely terrible by any means, however not stellar. Weighing in at 245 lbs, that is just under 54 lbs of fat. Turning into steel was the next move.

Finally, Panico's speed needed to change. To go more in depth, his explosiveness on the ice. Getting stronger is the first step in making this happen. Stronger legs and core muscles can make a huge impact on how fast he can get moving. By incorporating a good amount of lower body workouts the sheer strength can increase quite a bit. With that, a strict cardio regimen to help boost his stamina and how his body moves when sprinting.

Panico’s workouts went as such.

[Image: Workout.PNG]

Working out 5 days a week seems quite intimidating at first. However, the weeks went as such. Individual A, B, and C days. Two of the workouts would get to be done each week, rotating out which one gets the single workout for the next week. For example a month's workout would go as such. ABCAB, BCABC, CABCA, ABCAB. This would continue as such for the rest of the summer.

To help increase Panico’s speed he did various things on a field to help. Hill sprints, Long distance jogs, and interval running were all a part of this. To work on the specific mechanics of running properly, which would then transfer to skating, included a number of things. To start, how you explode out of a lowered stance, keeping the head and torso lower while slowly raising it up as you accelerate helps with this. Next is proper timing with the arms and legs moving in unison. Opposite arm up from the leg that is picked up off the ground. This helps with balance and keeping you in a straight line.

Front Squat: 285 lbs to 385 lbs +100 lbs
Clean: 225 lbs to 330 lbs +105 lbs
Deadlift: 2695 lbs to 435 lbs + 140 lbs
Bench: 225 lbs to 335 lbs +110 lbs

While he didn’t quite reach the goals he set for himself, these are huge leaps and bounds towards his strength. This jump alone will help make him a force to be reckoned with on the ice. His speed increased substantially as well.

As rudimentary as it is, he used 3 specific exercises to monitor his gains in speed. The 40 yard dash, Shuttle run, and the 1 mile run.

40 yard dash: 4.95 to 4.75
20 yard shuttle run: 4.4 to 4.2
Mile run: 7 minute mile to 5 min 45 sec mile

Hockey is a game of quickness on the ice, but having superb acceleration off the ice can translate to the ice. Quickness is the key to be effective on the ice. Both the 40 yard dash and the shuttle run show acceleration changes, as well as top speed. The mile run shows just how much Panda increased his stamina at higher speeds. Doing these things will allow him to change direction much faster on the ice, and stay out there longer to make more of a difference for the Kraken this season.

The last thing he checked after doing all of these things throughout the offseason, was checking in to see where he was at with his body fat. He was still at 245 lbs, but he dropped a staggering 8% off his body fat. Sitting at 14% body fat rolling into the start of the season. That is a change of 20 lbs of fat from where he started.

Panico put in quite a bit of time this off season. It is with high hopes that with proper coaching, and working on the mechanics of his game that he can start to produce how he wants to. “We have a solid group of guys here in the locker room, it is easy to see that we will be able to accomplish big things”. With the work Panico and his teammates have put in, the Kraken will be a scary group of people. Now it is time to see how this work translates into the season.

Word count: 1229

Kraken

***hockeyiscool*** · 05-22-2020, 02:24 AM

Good Stuff, time to go follow the work out of Panda Panico. Except the deadlife might be out of my comfort zone.

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