Aerobic Circuit (Zone 2)
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
“Zone 2” simply means easy, steady cardio you can keep up for a long time. Pick 3–5 low-impact movements you can repeat comfortably — for example a brisk walk or easy march on the spot, an easy stationary bike or ride, light step-ups onto a low box, easy skipping rope, or gentle shadow-skating footwork — and move through them continuously for the prescribed time (usually 10–20 minutes), flowing from one to the next with little or no rest. Keep the effort easy: you should be able to hold a conversation, or breathe in and out through your nose, the entire time (about 60–70% of your maximum). If you get out of breath or have to stop, you are going too hard — slow down. Smooth, steady, and comfortable is the whole point: this builds your aerobic engine without beating up your joints.
Why It Works
Zone 2 training develops the aerobic base — increasing mitochondrial density, capillarization, and the heart’s stroke volume and ability to use fat for fuel; this low-intensity, high-volume work builds the cardiovascular engine that underpins recovery and endurance with minimal fatigue cost.
Hockey Transfer
Builds the aerobic base that drives recovery between shifts and across periods — the better the aerobic engine, the faster a player recovers and the longer they sustain high-quality efforts; foundational conditioning for repeated high-intensity hockey output.
Coaching Cues
- "Easy, conversational pace"
- "smooth and continuous"
- "stay in the zone, nasal breathe"
Common Mistakes
Drifting too high in intensity (out of Zone 2); stopping and starting; treating it as a hard workout
Progression / Regression
longer duration
shorter duration or lower intensity
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Aerobic
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
← Back to Exercise Library