If you talk to any of the athletes I work with one of my most talked about components of training is recovery methods.   I strongly believe that it's not the amount of training you do that will lead to your success, but rather the amount of training you can recover from and make progress.   If for example I spent 2 hours a day in the gym training the squat it would not be long before my muscles couldn't adapt (at which point injury or reduced performance is guaranteed).   Some of us need a little training, others need a lot more.   The bottom line that I stress is that if I can improve your bodies ability to recover from a workout then technically I can work that area again sooner and harder than if I simply let you sit on the couch playing X-Box. 

This leads me to the stick.  The stick (along with the foam roll) are the two greatest recovery tools ever invented.   Their purpose is to help blow out muscle knots and tissue damage by slowing rolling along the surface of the muscles.   If you have never used one then perhaps your training should return to throwing rocks and painting animal figures on cave walls.   The point is that they work...and very well I might add.

Now if you are like me I hate to buy something if I can make it at home (especially since I usually make it stronger and better than the original).   Take the stick for example.   These babies cost $39.95 (plus shipping) for a rolling device that is made out of plastic and bends when you really roll out a stiff area.   That's not good enough...not for a hockey player.   So I decided to build my own stick.   Here's the result:

After a quick trip to Lowe's I came away with 1-24"x1/2" galvanized steel pipe (with threads on both ends), 2-Half inch iron caps (for the ends), 1 piece of 1 inch PVC pipe that is 4 feet long, and 8-3/4 inch PVC couplings.   The grand total for my project was $8.19.

Step 1
Take one of the iron end caps and screw it onto one end of the galvanized steel pipe.   Make sure to really tighten it on with a wrench or vice grips so it won't twist off.

Step 2
Use some hockey tape (white) and cover the steel pipe from the start of the end cap to 4 and 3/4 inches out so that when you put on the handle it will not slip or move.   Three to four pass with the tape should be plenty.

Step 3
Cut a 4 and 3/4 inch piece of PVC from the 4 foot long x 1 inch wide piece you bought.   Twist this on to the galvanized steel pipe OVER the tape you just put on.   It should provide a solid fit so that it doesn't move around.

Step 4
Now take your 8-3/4" coupling and file off any edges there might be on them and put them onto the stick.   These will be loose as they are suppose to rotate around when you use the stick on the muscles.

Step 5
Take some more of your hockey stick tape and tape up the other end of the galvanized steel pipe.  Make sure you leave about a half an inch at the end for the end cap.   Again three or four passes with the tape should be plenty.

Step 6
Cut another 4 and 3/4 long piece of PVC (from the 4 foot long piece you bought) and slide it over the hockey stick tape.

Step 7
Screw your end cap onto the end of the galvanized steel pipe and you are finished.   When it is all said and done it should look like the picture below.

Now you have a recovery tool stick that won't bend when you use it and will last a lot longer (and work better) than any commercial model ever made.   If you need to replace one of the middle couplings then it is a simple operation (you would spend 18 cents) rather than throwing out the whole stick and spending another $45 bucks.   So go on folks and roll your way to faster recovery times and stronger muscles.   You might even want to take the $35 bucks I just saved you and buy some Tribex Gold or protein powder so you can recover even faster from your workouts.   But that is another article...