BRODEUR TRAINS SMART THIS OFF-SEASON WITH STRIVE
Professional hockey player Jeremy Brodeur doesn’t take his health and performance lightly. He understands that in this profession, goaltenders are at a high-risk for injuries and aches in the lower body. Brodeur is not an exception, and in November 2021, he started using STRIVE with the aim of solving this problem.
Brodeur’s first impression was how comfortable STRIVE was, he couldn’t even tell there were EMG sensors in his compression shorts. This made it fairly seamless to integrate STRIVE into his standard training. Brodeur soon began using the STRIVE consistently during training and games, with only a few exceptions.
Every few weeks, he took the extra steps in preparation to sit down with a STRIVE sports scientist to gain further insights about the data. Through the STRIVE data, he realized that he was using his quads more than his glutes during practice. This was surprising to Brodeur, as it showed he was not as locked in during his training and practice as he was during games. Brodeur was not aware of this and as he aims to train just as hard in practice to help simulate game intensity, he saw a gap.
“Now that I have the insights from STRIVE, I can be more cognizant and mentally aware of my muscle activation throughout training. Focusing on keeping my muscles firing in practice as they would during a game.”
Had he not understood the root of his problem, injuries and aches could have continued to present themselves in painful ways throughout the season. Brodeur was used to injury-prevention based training, but until now it had highly lacked data like this and Brodeur didn’t plan on letting this newfound knowledge go to waste.
Brodeur immediately applied what he learned to his training and games. Now that he knew his body wanted to use his quads more to save energy – and that sometimes he naturally relied on quads if starting to approach fatigue – he was able to divert his efforts to ensuring his glutes were helping him be as explosive as possible. Brodeur didn’t just stop there. Throughout the season, he began tailoring his workouts to strengthen his glutes. Brodeur knew that being consistent in training different muscles prevents fatigue. His patience and diligence paid off, and as the year went on, he began to notice great improvements!
“I’m grateful to have these insights into how my body is performing,” Brodeur said. “It gives me a view of what’s going on versus playing a guessing game.”
Looking to the future, Brodeur plans to keep using STRIVE during the off-season. Brodeur has spent part of his standard off-season competing in 3ICE, a new 3-on-3 hockey league touring around North America this summer. He plans to study the progressions in his muscle usage to prepare himself to be as strong as possible going into the next season. STRIVE has helped him look at training with a new perspective. He now trains much smarter in a very informed way rather than going with his gut.
