Archive: Roberts Carved Out Excellent Careers As NHL Player And Trainer Of NHL Players

Veteran NHL power forward Gary Roberts carved out an excellent on-ice career for himself. But in this major feature from The Hockey News’ Fully Loaded edition (May 1, 2011 cover date), current THN managing editor of digital media Michael Traikos wrote an in-depth story on Roberts’ impact as an elite trainer and builder of hockey players.

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Roberts’ impact on modern-day training cannot be overstated. He’s used his own past as an NHL player to know what players are looking for in their training.

“Basically, what I’m doing now is offering these young athletes information I’ve gained from 20-plus years in the NHL,” Roberts told Traikos. “And I’ve had a lot of challenges. It’s not like I didn’t get hurt much in my career. I probably played over 1,200 games but if you look at it, I bet I missed 500 or 600 from injury.

“That’s what led me to where I am today. I know that nutrition, rest and recovery are the reasons why I played until I was 43…(S)ometimes as an athlete you think you’re invincible. And until you go through those challenges and those hurdles, sometimes you don’t realize how hard you have to work to have a chance at longevity in the NHL.”

GARY’S PHAT FARM

By Michael Traikos

Gary Roberts has no illusions of what he is and what he isn’t.

He is not a certified strength and conditioning coach. He did not go to school to be a nutritionist. He is, like many people, just a guy who tries to eat right, exercise daily and live a healthy lifestyle.

But if you were trying to have a successful career in the NHL, you’d be a fool not to listen to the player-turned-trainer.

“Have I taken a lot of courses? No. But I’ve learned from life experiences,” Roberts said. “I know what works for me in terms of energy, recovery and volume of food. I say, ‘Guys, I’m not a nutritionist. But this is what I eat.’”

Not that Roberts’ lack of formal education – to be fair, he has read countless books and keeps close friends with professional trainers, holistic healers and naturopathic doctors – has affected business.

Each summer, 20 to 25 hockey players make the trek to Roberts’ home/training center in Uxbridge, Ont., to sweat with the master. Steven Stamkos, who was on pace to win his second Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal-scorer, is a client. So is rookie sensation Jeff Skinner, as well as James Neal, Stephen Weiss, Cody Hodgson and several players in the Ontario League.

The demand is so high that Roberts, who has a waiting list the size of a hockey team, gets calls all the time from agents begging him to train their clients.

Why do they come here? Why train with someone who does not have fancy initials after his name or diplomas hanging from his office walls? Why Roberts?

“Are you kidding? He’s been there and done it,” said Neal matter-of-factly. “He’s been through a lot. He knows what it takes to be a professional.”

Roberts’ career was his classroom.

Everyone knows the story by now. But he still tells it every summer to remind his students that success does not come easy. Consider it the textbook portion of his course.

In 1996, a 30-year-old Roberts broke his neck while playing for the Calgary Flames and briefly retired from the game he loved. For six months, he was essentially Nicholas Cage’s self-destructive character from Leaving Las Vegas. He golfed, he stuffed his face with chicken wings and he drank beer – but not necessarily in that order.

While that lifestyle might seem like “the good life” to many armchair athletes, it was a death sentence for a high-level hockey player who was in his prime.

“I couldn’t play two games of golf in a row,” Roberts said. “Unfortunately, if I kept living like that way for those six months, I don’t even want to say what would have happened. I’d probably be gone.”

One day, a depressed Roberts said enough was enough. At the urging of a friend, he saw a renowned chiropractor who stripped away the years of abuse his body had taken. He hired a trainer, who in addition to his regular fee was paid an extra $100 per hour if Roberts returned to the NHL. He replaced beer with protein shakes and only ate organic foods.

You probably know the rest.

Roberts, who got a second lease on life by returning to the game at 31, played 11 more seasons in the NHL with Carolina, Toronto, Florida, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. He retired at 43. And now, as the player development consultant for the Dallas Stars, he is passing on his knowledge to anyone willing to listen.

“Basically, what I’m doing now is offering these young athletes information I’ve gained from 20-plus years in the NHL,” Roberts said. “And I’ve had a lot of challenges. It’s not like I didn’t get hurt much in my career. I probably played over 1,200 games but if you look at it, I bet I missed 500 or 600 from injury.

“That’s what led me to where I am today. I know that nutrition, rest and recovery are the reasons why I played until I was 43.

“I didn’t change anything I did on the ice. But I played the rest of my career at an average of 210 pounds instead of 188 pounds. All of a sudden, I got 22 pounds on me. Yes, I gave up a lot on my hands. But my body was healthy and I had a second opportunity.

“The point is, sometimes as an athlete you think you’re invincible. And until you go through those challenges and those hurdles, sometimes you don’t realize how hard you have to work to have a chance at longevity in the NHL.”

Hard work. Yes, that is something Roberts stresses. Playing hockey in the NHL is not easy. So his program is a four-month test of will power and endurance.

Forget heading to the cottage for a few weeks of drinking and unwinding. You want to do that, you might as well stay home. Hockey is a year round sport. The days of showing up to training camp looking to shed those summer pounds are as extinct as wooden sticks.

A typical day has players arriving at his house at 8:30 in the morning, where they are served an egg and oatmeal omelet. After the food is digested, they head to Roberts’ personal 2,000 square-foot gym for upper body or lower body workouts depending on the day. Then another homecooked meal and they are done.

Nothing too unusual, says Roberts. The sessions last about 90 minutes. And for the most part, the players are lifting the same weights you would find in any gym.

But there are twists that make the workouts more challenging.

Squats are done with different weights on each side, forcing the player to counter-balance the uneven distribution. At the same time, everything is done at a high intensity so as to mimic an NHL game.

“You’re focusing on lifting the weights as fast as you can,” Skinner said. “It makes you stronger and faster. But it hurts like hell.”

On non-lifting days, Roberts moves the guys outside for interval training. Think pulling a 120-pound sled in the summer heat is tough on your legs? After running for 30 yards, try ditching the weight and sprinting for another 30 yards.

No, that is not an earthquake you feel underneath your feet. It is just your legs turning into rubber bands.

“It isn’t about piling on all this weight,” Roberts said. “If your frame can’t handle 210 pounds, then you don’t go to 210. You have to be fast and strong. Added weight is going to mess up a guy’s hands and skill.”

“Stamkos has been with me for three years and he hasn’t put on more than three pounds. People say he’s stronger and bigger. No, he’s stronger and faster.”

To get stronger and faster takes a total commitment. It is a lifestyle change, says Roberts. Anyone can work out. But it is what happens before and after those workouts that determines how a player develops.

That begins in the kitchen. Or, rather, the grocery store. And we are not talking about the local Stop N Shop or Sobeys.

Field trips are taken to Nature’s Emporium, a massive organic grocery store/café about 20 minutes from Roberts’ house. Walking in, you almost expect there to be a sign that reads “no socks with sandals, no service.” The store does not sell Pop Tarts or Twinkies. But there is almost an unlimited selection of vegan cheeses, tofurky and – Roberts’ personal favorite – quinoa-based products.

“It’s a grain,” he explains. “They actually call it a super-grain. It’s got carbs and protein and lots and lots of fibre.”

Quinoa is about 18 percent protein. Because it contains all eight essential amino acids, NASA is considering it as a possible crop to be used in space stations. But it tastes awful. Even birds won’t touch it.

So Roberts often has to slip it into foods like a mother trying to trick her kid into eating vegetables. A blender comes in handy. Or he will simply take shredded zucchini and pass it off as pasta.

“They were saying, ‘oh, Robs is treating us,’” Roberts said. “Then they’d eat it and be like, ‘this isn’t spaghetti.’ You mix it all together and they don’t see it.”

Some players were pickier than others. New York Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto once texted Roberts to ask what that “strange green stuff was in my sandwich.”

Roberts wrote back: “That’s sprouts, Michael. Sprouts.”

It is somewhat funny that players still need to be told that what they put into their bodies affects how they play hockey. But in a league where the standard pre-game meal is chicken parmigiana, and where pizza and chicken wings are popular post-game snacks, there is still a lot to be learned.

“The nutrition, I believe, is the part for all these young athletes that puts them over the top,” Roberts said. “Everybody’s working out, everybody’s looking for the right information on that side of it, but who’s spending time at whole foods buying their groceries?”

Roberts’ message is getting through.