Conditioning guru took fitness to the extreme

In the autumn of 1996, Gary Roberts’ NHL career appeared over. His crashand-bang style had left him with nerve and disc damage in his neck that doctors told him was irreparable. After years in and out of the lineup and a pair of surgeries, he’d been forced into retirement at age 30.

Then Roberts met Charles Poliquin, a strength-and-conditioning guru under whose exacting tutelage Roberts would spend the ensuing 10 months transforming his body with a commitment to two-a-day-workouts and virtuous nutrition. And by the autumn of 1997, Roberts was resuming an NHL career that would continue for another 11 seasons, including a memorable fouryear run with the Maple Leafs in which Roberts played 50 playoff games.

It ranks as one of the great comebacks in NHL history. And this week Roberts was remembering it with a heavy heart after news that Poliquin, a largely unsung but influential contributor to Canada’s sporting scene for the past few decades, had died at age 57.

“I’m obviously devastated with the news,” Roberts said. “Charles Poliquin changed my life.”

Poliquin trained members of various Canadian Olympic teams in sports ranging from bobsled to alpine skiing to speed skating. But it’s arguable he made his most enduring impact in hockey, where he helped popularize the kind of science-based off-season training that’s now seen as essential. Ben Prentiss, a Connecticut-based trainer who interned with Poliquin in the late 1990s and whose NHL client list now includes Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Quick, said Poliquin was a pioneer in the sport.

“No matter what anybody says, he is the first guy to really introduce strength and conditioning to hockey. I mean, before Charles, it was basically the old school, hacking darts on a bike,” Prentiss said.

For Roberts, adherence to Poliquin’s methods required a sea change in his way of life. If Roberts’s post-game meals once frequently consisted of cold beer and deep-fried chicken wings, Poliquin demanded abstinence from alcohol and a shift toward healthier forms of protein.

If the workouts were hard and Poliquin was merciless — Roberts remembered the coach mocking him on a day he could complete just five pullups in a set — the results were undeniable. Roberts played until age 42 before he retired from the NHL to build a stillthriving business as an offseason trainer to stars from Steven Stamkos to Connor McDavid.

“Everything Charles taught me 22 years ago, I’m still implementing today. Nutrition, lifestyle, practicing what I preach,” said Roberts, now 52. “Gary Roberts High Performance Training ... I don’t think would be formed, if it wasn’t for Charles Poliquin.”

A prolific author and columnist who was widely read by denizens of the fitness industry, Poliquin was born in Ottawa but in latter years largely based himself in the United States. A tribute to Poliquin on a weightlifting website to which he was a contributor indicated Poliquin died Thursday of a heart attack.

“He lost his father early to a genetic heart disease. He knew he had this in his family. He had had a heart attack previously,” Roberts said. “So he was on top of his nutrition as a result. I knew that was a concern for him.”

Matt Nichol, the former Maple Leafs strength coach and one of the founders of the Biosteel brand who now trains NHLers such as Tyler Seguin and Wayne Simmonds, credited Poliquin as a trail blazer.

“When I first started in this business, anyone who was anyone doing anything was doing it down in the States. He came along, and whether people liked him or didn’t, he put Canada on the map in this industry,” Nichol said. “Regardless of whether you subscribe to his philosophies or his ideas, if you’re a strength and conditioning coach in Canada making money, you owe him your gratitude. Because he was the first guy to really go out there and do that and charge money for it. The rising tide raises all boats.” GARY ROBERTS Poliquin was seen by some as a controversial figure, in part because he was uncompromising in his beliefs and unsparing in his assessments.

“If you’re fat, you don’t deserve carbs,” Poliquin insisted in 2017.

Poliquin prescribed meal choices some saw as unconventional. For breakfast, he was a proponent of a mixture of meat and nuts. Roasted yak with goat butter and cashews was a favourite. Nichol said that while many strength coaches could see the merits of Poliquin’s arguments, most were more likely to “soften” the message to their clients in the hope they might be more likely to comply.

“But Charles would say, ‘This is exactly what you need to do. You need to never eat another carb. You need to stop drinking for a year,’ ” Nichol said. “There was a non-negotiable, ‘This is exactly what you need to do.’ A lot of times it was extreme. But he got extreme results.”

Prentiss said that Poliquin was known for being unapologetic for charging premium prices for his services. Prentiss remembered how, way back in 2004, Poliquin charged $350 an hour for consultations and as much as $25,000 for a sum- mer of training for NHL players. Even many contemporaries didn’t charge as much, Poliquin’s prices helped raise the industry standard. Roberts, for his part, laughed at the memory of negotiating with Poliquin for an appropriate fee for his transformative 10 months on the comeback trail.

“I told him I’d pay him twothirds, and that if I made it back to the NHL, I’d pay him the other third,” said Roberts. “Let’s just say it wasn’t cheap. But it was the best 10 months of schooling I could have gotten. Yes, I paid for it. But when you look at what I made in the final 12 years of my career, I’d say it was a pretty worthy investment. As I try to preach to the players today, you’ve got to make an investment into your body. You’ve got to make an investment into your career. Charles proved that to me, that’s for sure. And for that, I’m grateful.”

“Everything Charles taught me 22 years ago, I’m still implementing today.”