Who are the Fittest Players in the NHL?
This is an older post from the blog, Angus Certified, back in January. It’s a great synopsis on some of the most athletic and fittest players in the NHL, including videos of their workout regimens. – Source
Kris Letang
Pound for pound, Letang may be the strongest player in hockey. At 5-11 and 200 pounds, he gives up height and weight to almost every single forward he comes up against in the NHL. However, thanks to his brutally tough off-season training regime, he is able to use his strength, quickness, and hockey sense to play a shutdown role for the Penguins. Letang started working with Montreal-based trainer Jonathan Chaimberg back in 2011, and the results were impressive:
Moving forward, Letang wants to pair the endurance he’s built with his quickness and agility, which he’s also been focusing on in his workouts.
“Before I focused more on being powerful and building strength,” Letang said. “To play the way I play, I think it was important to work on my conditioning because I’m a guy who has a good first stride and strong skating. So I want to be able to skate my whole shift. I want to be able to have quick feet, to be able to jump in the play and never get tired after a 30-second shift.”
The split squats Letang demonstrates at the 1:15 mark are difficult enough with just body weight – he has 280 pounds of external load as well:
Letang has found a new training partner in recent years in Montreal, too. Canadian MMA fighter Rory MacDonald and Letang have been training together, as they are both phenomenal athletes. There are obviously specific strength and muscular focuses for each athlete and their respective sport, but hockey and MMA are similar in terms of the overall conditioning an athlete needs to be in, and how a player needs to get as strong as possible without adding any excess weight or bulk.
Being strong is also very important for Letang because he is undersized relative to most other NHL defensemen. He has battled a few injuries in recent years due to his aggressive playing style, and he needs to keep his body in top shape at all times to combat this.
