Move Well, Perform Well - Featuring Joe Lorincz (Strength and Conditioning Coach, NJ Devils)

Move Well, Perform Well - Part 1

Featuring Joe Lorincz (Strength and Conditioning Coach, NJ Devils)

WATCH NOW > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S_V_VdQxHY

Move well. That’s the advice of Joe Lorincz, the strength and conditioning coach for the three-time Stanley Cup winning New Jersey Devils, sharing his views on the best way to get your body into its best shape. Joe, who develops the off-ice workout, nutritional education, and rehabilitation programs for injured players, says that if you can’t move well, you can’t train well, and he builds his training programs for the Devils with that in mind.

How does that translate into building a conditioning program for yourself? Of primary importance, Joe states, are big, general movement patterns. Once you can perform those correctly and fluidly, you can add load and speed to your workouts.

His exercise recommendations? Concentrate on three, simple exercises each workout, plus your core. The most important thing is consistency. To maintain your body’s condition, then to improve your body’s condition over time, Joe reminds us, you must commit to your program: it’s imperative to actually come in and do the work. (How many of us are guilty of saying, oh, I meant to work out, but I had to (insert poor excuse of your choice) instead…?)

That commitment is important. What’s also important, he says, is allowing yourself to be human. You are striving for progress, not perfection. With that attitude, every small step is a success.

Move Well, Perform Well - Part 2

Featuring Joe Lorincz (Strength and Conditioning Coach, NJ Devils)

WATCH NOW > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Z8aFEFBRs

When you think of pro athletes, the first thing that comes to mind is what amazing shape they’re in, and how hard their workouts must be.

But there are lots of other factors at play. For example, ever wonder how a pro athlete eats? Well, pro athletes eat … the way their coaches tell them. In the case of the New Jersey Devils, says Joe Lorincz, their strength and conditioning coach — in charge of off-ice workouts, educating his players about nutrition, and developing rehab programs for injured athletes — that means breakfast and lunch are provided every day during training and playing seasons. Players get options for lean proteins, starches and carbs, vegetables for micro-nutrients, salad, and fruit.

Why? It’s because, according to Joe, nutrition and sleep are everything when it comes to performance. You can have the best training regimen in the world, but if you aren’t eating right or sleeping well, you won’t be at your best. Massage, foam rollers, compression garments, stretching — all nice add-ons, but nutrition and sleep are key.

There are other factors to consider as well. One is stress. In devising strength and conditioning programs for his players, Joe says, he relies on stress monitors, which watch an athlete’s heart rate and systems while exercises are being performed in order to assess the ease or difficulty of the movement, and to determine whether to increase load. It also gives a good look at the starting stress level (as it is reflected in the heart), as an indicator of overall health.

Another component is variation. For example, says Joe, his skaters are told not to skate in the off-season; they’ll do track training instead. That’s because of overuse injuries, something he says many younger athletes are subject to: playing the same sports, using the same motions, year after year, they’re not getting out of those movement patterns and are causing too much wear and tear on certain muscles.

Similarly, Joe says he gets questioned about why his skaters do high weight training. After all, isn’t their sport all about speed and dexterity? Well, yes, he says: it’s the fastest sport with the highest speed collisions. And to prevent injury in a collision, you need muscle. The muscle keeps the integrity of the joint, holding it together.

When you build your conditioning program, these are all factors to consider.