After a recent talk with 27th overall draft pick and Montreal Militia player, Veikka Toivanen, we quickly learned that he didn’t spare any breaths when asked about his, well, his anything. We asked him about his plan to improve for the season and were given a comprehensive breakdown of his plan on how to get ‘shredded’ (his words), which supplied us with enough information for one article. On the flip side he took enough time explaining his process that we had run out of time for the interview. Without further ado, here is “How to get Shredded”, as spoken by Veikka Toivanen.




"I’m glad you’ve asked about how I want to improve. I have a plan, an idea I’ve formulated for the years leading up to this draft year. I know if a lot of people look at me they probably wouldn’t think this, but I did a lot of strength training leading up to this seasons draft. I was not exactly the strongest of players, it was difficult to move people in front of the net. I learned how to use my stick to break up plays, in fact it was mostly all I could do. I was like a limp noodle with no arm strength whatsoever. Of course now I know the tried and true tactic of sticking a leg in between their legs and pushing them around, but that was really a learning experience. Either way, it made me learn to get some strength so I could push people around, and also go for some hits every now and again.

Strength was also really really helpful when it came to blocking shots. I don’t know if all of you reporters know about this, but blocking shots hurts. I could be in perfect position for a shot but I would get obliterated physically because of how much of an owchie it was. I also started on trying to work on my… my stamina. I was out of breath, chasing people around—I wasn’t fast back then—and catching up to where I knew I had to be defensively. It took a lot of work but I tried some endurance running but… it didn’t end up all that good. It helped me out before the draft so now I am not tuckered out so easily, but I definitely still get the breath beaten out of me.

Other than those I cannot think of anything that was a big challenge for me. I always have worked on being a defender who’s solid, and it always was nice to pass and make plays like that, so I worked on those all the time at practices when I was younger. Younger is in the past though, I am a lot older now so i should really be talking about the plan I follow now, yes? Yes.

Today I still like to work on becoming better at hockey, but I also like to focus on get buff, you know, becoming shredded in every way possible. To do that, I plan to undergo more strength training. As more funds come in I plan to pay to get some help, but I will still upkeep my body so that I will be in peak physical condition. I haven’t quite found a store here… actually maybe I could ask someone who is a veteran if they know of any places I could get prot- oh wait, I forgot to say what it was. Oopsies. Uhh, so back on track what was really helpful in looking big is protein powder. I don’t know how it works, that’s not my job, but I know that it works. 

Normally after taking a big chug of protein powder, and maybe having fish, I will work out. Every day demands a new schedule. For offseason I go bicep, back, and abs. Then I go leg and shoulder, then tricep, chest and abs again. I repeat that once more in the week, except I do abs on leg day next time, and then I have rest. I keep all of the weights the same. Wait, I forgot to tell you about the workouts for each one. Oh well, I can just tell you all of that now.


BACK AND BICEPS


For back and biceps, I start off with working out my back. I normally do this using pull-up’s, and lateral rows. The good thing about working back and biceps as a group is that working your biceps also works you back, and working back also works on biceps! It’s a win win situation for all of the muscles. At least that’s how I justify not doing a lot of back workouts. Then for biceps there is a lot that can be done. You can do the hammer curls, where you take dumbbells, hold them by your side, and bend your elbow to raise them. It kills. What I do a lot is do one arm at a time for this, before doing concentration curls. For concentration curls you have to do them one arm at a time. Basically you take the dumbbell, sit down, and put your elbow on the inside of your knee. You then curl the dumbbell up towards you, and then do the same with the other leg after doing ten reps with the first arm. You take a break then go back to hammer curls, and then you get the biggest burn you will feel.

If you have any machines with adjustable grips you can put different handles on them, set it’s height to the lowest it can go and just curl them. You can use tricep ropes, curl bars. Anything really. But I don’t use those a lot, I prefer to do some preacher curls. It is hard to explain how to do them. It is kind of like doing a bicep curl, but without a machine needed. If you go to a gym, they might have those seats where if you sit down, there will be like an upside-down checkmark at shoulder level. If that helps any readers of this interview, then I am glad I have good descriptions. But what you do is take a barbell, put on a comfortable weight, and just lean over the checkmark and curl it towards you. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. Just be sure that you don’t do preacher curls and the bicep curl machine things in the same workout. At least in my opinion, at least. They are kind of the same workout, so it would be like doing the same thing twice. That doesn’t add up, so don’t. Just don’t.


LEGS AND SHOULDERS


Ok. I am going to be very frank with you when I say I don’t do much of shoulder workouts. I do one thing, and that is it. I just raise the dumbbell over my head. That’s all I do, I just focus on legs. Don’t sue me, because that’s just how I go about it. For legs I do a lot, however. I want my legs to have the taste of death in them by the time I am done working out. I start off with leg presses. Throw on a plate or two and let them rip. 4 sets. 10 reps each. Rock it out. Then I do perfect squats with a plate on either side of the machine. Same reps and sets as last time. In fact, those reps and sets go for every workout I do. Then I do leg extensions, again, throw on a plate and crank out my sets. Do a plate for hamstring curls, then finish off with calf raises, using a plate on each side again. For a lot of these machines it is very self-explanatory when you get to the machine on how to use them. The seats are in ways that you cannot really mess it up. It is also smart to do deadlifts. While they work all of the body, I find they really get my legs pumping.

What you can mess up, however, is the ball busters and the abductor. These are workouts I don’t normally do, but I just do them when I want to feel pain. Big pain. The same machine works either of these workouts, you just need to adjust some things. First, the machine you want will have two little pads coming off of the seat. Again, the english descriptions aren’t in my mind, but you will have these two pads that are like… around where your knees would be? That’s my best description of that. Anyways, when you get in, I would set up the pads to do the ball buster. So I put them real close, get on the seat, then adjust them on the machine so that they go as far apart as my legs will take me. But this isn’t the ball busting part yet, no, we aren’t even close. After setting your weight close your legs until you cannot close anymore. It hurts, and it works your inner groin-y area, and trust me, you feel every minute of it. Then you can do the abductor, where you put the pads as close as you can with your legs between them, and spread. And that would be a typical leg workout.


TRICEPS AND CHEST


Triceps and chest are a lot like biceps and back, they work each other out. What I normally do is start with chest, where you do a horizontal arm extension, and then a vertical one. Those are easy and simple, and all of the gyms I have gone to have had these machines to help with it. Then I would bench press. Always get someone to spot you for this, it’s dangerous and death is not fun and games. It’s real life. Don’t be silly. Those workouts are all self explanatory, and so is tricep workouts. You do tricep extensions, you can go back to the adjustable grip machines, put things at the top and pull them down. There is just a lot of things you can do. Another thing you can do, which is maybe not as well known, is skull crushers. Skull crushers are normally done at benches similar to ones you would bench press on. You can use dumbbells or barbells, I use barbells. so you take what you have, lie down on the bench, and raise them straight up. You then, using both hands, lower the dumbbell or barbell right to your head, or a little bit past your head, and then raise them back up. This works wonders and always makes me a sore boy the next day.




ABS


Abs are fun. They are very noticeable, and six packs just feel nice to give a little rub. But how do you get this big monster six-pack? By working hard. First off, there are a lot of things to do here. So much, that I cannot even hope to describe everything perfectly well. Well, first off, I’ll start with the constants of abs. Every morning you wake up and crank out 50 push ups, and 50 sit ups. Then, at some other point in the day, you do another 50 push ups and sit ups. You also want to preform chin-ups almost every day. Just pump out as many as you can do. As well, if the gym you are going to supplies it, you can do hanging leg raises. Hanging leg raises are basically where you are suspended in the air via holding yourself up in the machine, and you raise your legs ninety degrees. You can do the form of this where you lie down, which are called lying leg raises. While here you can also perform your sit ups and push ups for the day. Be sure to crunch your abs while doing sit ups, it works wonders. You can also do crunches to build your abs. Another staple of ab work is planking. Planking is the process of lying straight on the ground, and holding yourself up with your arms and feet. If you can do that for a minute, good for you. There are also bicycle kicks, wherein you lie down flat, raise your head slightly with your hands beneath it, and then pump your knees towards the opposite elbow. This is mostly what I do, along with side planks.



And that’s about what I do for the typical workout. The only other things I can talk about, which, now that I think about it would fall in line with your question, would be my plan to improve before the season starts. To start, I am going to be working hard on improving on my skating, as well as improving minority on my strength, endurance and checking. My main goals, however, are to devote my time to stick handling, passing, and my defensive awareness and positioning. I just… I don’t know. I want to be dependable for my tender while also contributing to the offence. That’s how I’m going to make it to the SHL, so in my opinion Mr… well I forgot your name, but in my opinion you and the scouts better watch out for me in the coming years, because I’m gonna be a force."




That was all the time we had to speak with Mr. Toivanen. We expected to get through a quick presser, but of course that didn’t last. We hope you enjoy this report on how to get shredded, as reported on by ESPN 8, the Ocho



~2200 words + x2 media week for being about a draftee