This profile of professional hockey player Shiann Darkangelo is part of Street Meet, FLEETSTREET’s series, where we meet up with trailblazers and thought leaders to deliver unique insight and inspiration into issues we all care about.
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PWHL forward Shiann Darkangelo on making a difference
“Practice makes perfect.” “Bring your A game.” “When you put the puck in the net, good things happen.” There’s no shortage of clichés and mantras for motivating athletes. Not to kill positivity posters and daily affirmation app industries, but doing better and being better is about building on what you have. That’s what I learned from my conversation with Shiann Darkangelo, a forward on the Ottawa Charge team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). We chatted about how she improves her game with tactics off the ice.
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Getting better workouts: Change things up!
Armed with a strength coach and training staff and a pretty sweet partnership with GoodLife Fitness, Darkangelo, 31, has access to resources that will make her faster and stronger, including the 30,000-square-foot Ottawa Lansdowne Park GoodLife Fitness Club. But it means nothing if she doesn’t put in the work with a focus on improving how her body performs.
And it’s all about change and keeping things different.
“Every day looks a little bit different,” she says about her fitness program, also admitting that how she’s trained has morphed over the years, noting that her workout calendar is flexible and follows her game schedule. Most days involve lifting, strength training, speed work, and/or plyometrics. “We do two supersets, typically full body.” She says you wouldn’t be surprised by the exercises, but she trains to get her heart rate in the 155 to 160 beats per minute range. She focuses on explosive movements with weights. So, one superset could be step-ups, squat jumps, glute bridges with groin squeezes, all done with dumbbells (50 or 55 pounds). The other superset could include explosive chin-ups, push-ups and push-presses. “Enough to get your central nervous system firing fast and quick.”
When asked about a move that she’d kill in a challenge, Darkangelo doesn’t shy away. Here, the entire regime is about making her a better athlete, the best athlete she can be. She conditions for both weight and power in cardio, too. “I’m pretty well rounded, to be honest,” she says. “I have really good stamina, and I think that would play into my favour.”
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Eating better: Enjoy food!
When you’re active, you need to eat. Full stop. So much of diet culture tells us less is more. But what if more (exercise) means faster (metabolism) and more (food)?
“Sometimes people get too fixated on food in general, and it can be a really sensitive topic for some,” says Darkangelo, who’s eaten plant-based foods for 10-plus years. “I just try not to let food control me.”
She does her best to make good food choices, cook at home, and eat things that make her feel energetic on and off the ice. But, simultaneously, “I eat what I want to eat. I want to like the food I’m putting into my mouth. That’s part of it as well.”
Vegan food has come a long way, and she finds that she doesn’t have a hard time finding or making something good to eat. Instead, she focuses on having what she calls “a complete meal” that includes adequate fats, carbohydrates and proteins (tempeh, tofu, falafel, beans) for her impressive daily 3,000 caloric intake when she’s in-season.
“If I ate a bagel and went to practice, I’m not going to feel good. But if I had an oatmeal bowl with fats, carbohydrates and protein in it, that would keep me full for longer. I definitely notice the difference.” And the same when she doesn’t drink enough water; she feels it.
She always travels with a water bottle and snacks. And she takes what she calls “the basic stuff” for supplements, including vitamins C, D and K2, oregano oil, iron, magnesium, and protein powder. But it’s always a food-first effort, and she never wants to get bored.
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Make better decisions: Trust your body!
Something athletes do that us regular folk do more of: Let your body communicate and listen to it. Admittedly, this is something I’ve had trouble with the past few years after dealing with some shoulder stuff. But Darkangelo reminds me that pushing the body is about understanding what it needs.
She doesn’t get days “off,” as days when she’s not training would be either a game day or a travel day. So, that’s when she focuses on stretching, ice baths or mobility workouts, like a kettlebell circuit or a barbell complex program, just to move the body.
“I’ll use a bit of weight, get the heart rate up, and do some bike sprints. Just to get the heart rate up and get the blood pumping, because that typically feels better for me than doing nothing. So for your ‘off days,’ do what works best for you.”
She admits it might be harder to have that mind-body connection if you don’t move every day or you don’t take note of how nutrition makes you feel, but it’s worth taking note of any cues. See how water plays into feelings of hunger, cramping and energy; carry a protein bar in your bag, start off the day with an acai bowl, or do anything that is about taking better care of yourself. Feel what your body likes and doesn’t like and go that way. “As an athlete you were, I’m always trying to get 1% better and find things that will work for me.”
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Be better: Be a role model!
Of course, I couldn’t talk to a PWHL player and not ask about how amazing it is to have a professional hockey league for women. It’s given Darkangelo a career, she says. “To be able to sell out crowds, playing in NHL ranks, have these people come to our games and recognize [the players] is pretty incredible, so incredible. … But what’s really cool is the young kids, honestly, that now can say, I want to do that. I never had that when I was a kid, only the NHL or the Olympics. It hits you, and you’re like, ‘Whoa’.”