Many youth hockey players advancing in their competitive rep leagues have trainers (sometimes multiple), spend 2-3 days per week in the gym to enhance their hockey performance, have coaches of varying purposes, and nutritionists with full-on diet plans focusing on optimal performance and recovery.

I’m not one of those players, and more likely than not, you aren’t, either. You’re probably like me, trying to get your recommended 150-300 minutes of moderate-to-intense exercise, and you aren’t spending every day in the gym to enhance your hockey performance, because the whole purpose of your hockey routine could be that the gym bores you to death.

Like many players (including those beer leaguers slamming back a couple tall-boys after each game), I thoroughly enjoy beer, and nachos are my vice (extra sour cream, please). This article explains how hockey can help you enjoy the things you love, while getting the recommended amount of exercise.

Note & Disclaimer: This article contains some satirical elements, as I am not seriously recommending you increase your beer and/or nachos intake as part of your hockey routine. However, regular exercise (including hockey) can help you live a healthier lifestyle with whatever diet choices you do make. I am not a medical professional. I also do strength training twice per week and am not advocating against the gym to enhance your hockey performance.

How many “minutes” of moderate to high intensity exercise do I get playing hockey?

Unfortunately, unless you’ve gone through fitness testing playing competitive hockey, you likely have more questions than answers with respect to how good an exercise hockey actually is. For example:

• I have 60 minutes of ice time, but 2 lines of players. Therefore I’m only actually on the ice for about 30 minutes. Does that count as 60 minutes of exercise, or 30?
• I’ve read that hockey burns about xxx calories per hour. In the above-mentioned 60 minutes of ice time, does that mean I burned xxx calories, or should I divide that by 2 (because I only played for half)?
• In order to meet my recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-high intensity weekly exercise quota, does that mean I need to play 300 minutes of hockey?
• My team drinks beer in the changing room after each game; if I participate, am I wiping out all the calories I burned?

Many fitness trackers, like those from Fitbit or Garmin, don’t have ice hockey-specific fitness modes, and therefore the general sentiment is that confidence in those products for tracking ice hockey is limited at best.

The Hockey Tracker app is available on the Apple Watch and gives many interesting statistics, including shift length, skating speed, effort, and more. However, I find the total calories burned to be on the high-side (some players reporting over 1000 per hour of total ice time) which I find suspect. While hockey is incredibly intense (almost incomparably so), it burning twice the calories as running when you’re only actively participating a percentage of the time seems unrealistic. Effort aside, I don’t think thermodynamics in general supports this. More on calories later.

So back to the original question: how many minutes of exercise am I getting from 60 minutes of ice time (actively playing about half that)?

In my experience with a basic fitness tracker and heart rate monitor (with an ice hockey specific mode), I find that your heart rate does remain elevated while on the bench, and despite high-and-low heart rate intervals (due to being on and/or off), your total minutes of moderate-to-high intensity exercise is closer to the total ice time rather than just time-on-ice. That means, 60 minutes of ice time ~= 50-60 minutes of exercise, +/- say 10 minutes.

On the plus side, that means that no, you don’t need to play 300 minutes of hockey per week in order to hit your exercise quota. Note: I play 6+ times per week, often in 2hr ice time increments, and achieve over 500 minutes of moderate-to-high intensity exercise, almost exclusively from hockey.

So, how many calories am I burning during hockey?

This is going to vary significantly depending on your skill level, size, age, gender, and more. What may be extremely exhausting for some will be more leisurely exercise for an experienced player with superior technique, skill and fitness. So while I can’t cover all scenarios, I can list some assumptions based on my personal situation:

• 39 year old male
• ~80kg (~175-180lbs), 180cm (~5’11)
• Very good cardiovascular fitness level (on ice 6-7 times per week)
• Intermediate-to-advanced player

Given that, let’s take a look at a few charts:

The above image depicts about 2.5 hours of ice time, the first hour being a league game playing defence (only 1 sub on D) followed by pick-up hockey with a full-change lineup. Note the amount of exercise was approximately equivalent to the total ice time, with heart rate peaking at 164. For more intense league games, I find my heart rate peaks around 165-170 playing defence (i’m a natural defenceperson), and can peak in the 170-180 range playing forward (if playing and forechecking aggressively). Calories burned for 2.5hrs was approximately 1000, or ~400kcal/hr.

The above image similarly depicts 2 hours and 17 minutes of total ice time, beginning with an hour of repetitive drills (no breaks) followed by a fairly casual, low-level pick-up game of hockey, with a full shift-off. Heart rate peaked at 159 and was during drills; low-level pick-up was at a much more moderate rate. Calories burned was ~800, or ~350 calories per hour.

Lastly, the above depicts 1 hour and 45 minutes of a bit higher-level hockey (still just pickup), and minimal subs (1 per team). Heart rate peaked slightly higher at 169. Calories burned ~800 or just over 450kcal/hr.

So, how many calories do you burn playing hockey? Again, it depends on the level/intensity and number of players. Here’s an approximation. These numbers would be in additional to whatever your basal metabolic rate is (as in, if you burn 500kcal playing hockey, you should be eating ~2500kcal/day, not just 500).

• Casual, low-level pick-up hockey
  • Approximately 350kcal per total hour of ice time (including rest)
  • Playing 3 hours per week: 1050kcal
  • Guy (or Gal)-et Summary (based on weekly):
    • 5 tallboys of beer, or
    • 2 McDonald’s Big Macs
• Higher-level hockey, still pick-up
  • Approximately 450kcal per total hour of ice time (including rest)
  • Playing 3 hours per week: 1350kcal
  • Guy (or Gal)-et Summary:
    • 1 entire order of nachos (because of course you want the whole plate), or
    • 7 tallboys of beer
• Intense hockey
  • Approximately 600-700kcal per total hour of ice time (including rest)
  • Playing 3 hours per week: 1800-2100kcal
  • Guy (or Gal)-et Summary:
    • 1 entire order of nachos AND 3 tallboys of beer

Note all Guy (or Gal)-et Summaries imply you’re consuming this in addition to whatever your normal diet is. If you’re replacing your normal Friday night dinner (say 800 calories) with the 1300 calorie plate of nachos, you’re only exceeding your norm (and need to burn off) by 500!

In a nutshell (and totally self-serving), yours and my weekly Friday nachos & beer habit is absolutely no problem given our exercise habits. Note: I am on the ice approximately 14 total hours per week over the 7 days.

If you have comments, questions, want to criticize me for not sharing my nachos, or more, drop me a line!