Bo Horvat was pooped.

He was just wrapping up his final summer workout at the Total Package Hockey training centre in the bowels of the Western Fair sports centre.

He was officially ready to fly back to Vancouver.

Jarred Tinordi, the Montreal Canadiens defenceman, sensed a glorious opportunity.

"Bo had the power clean (lift) record in the gym," Mitch Stewart, the TPH trainer and current strength and conditioning coach of the London Knights, said. "It was his last day here, he was kind of tired and Tinordi says, 'I'm going to break Bo's record'. So he did it -- 295 pounds -- and Bo was pissed.

"Now, he doesn't have a chance to beat it until he comes back after his NHL season."

That, in the competitive gym culture of pro hockey players, is known as a prank well played.

All over London and southwestern Ontario this summer, the men and boys who will entertain us by chasing pucks for the next nine months have been preparing their bodies for the work to come.

The gym Stewart oversees has been an epicentre of that iron-pumping pursuit for many years.

The impressive part isn't just the growing number of London-bred stars hanging around the place. It's the guys who aren't from this area -- the former Knights and friends -- who keep coming back.

"It's a battle there -- just like on the ice," said Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Olli Maatta, who splits his summers between second-home London and his birth nation Finland. "In our group, everyone has the same goal -- playing in the NHL and being the best players we can be. That pushes you. When the guy next to you -- (Tommy) Hughes or (Michael) Houser or Tinordi -- lifts more than you, you want to do better. If someone runs by you, you want to run faster.

"It's a great motivator."

Maatta doesn't like to discuss his second NHL season, which was ravaged by shoulder woes and a cancer battle. He is proud that, after losing weight and muscle mass by being forced to sit around and heal, he has built himself back up to an ideal 200 pounds.

"All I want to do is be ready Sept. 17 when training camp starts," the 21-year-old said, "and show the Penguins I can be the same player -- and even better -- than I was before."

Stewart communicated with Pittsburgh's medical staff and Knights physiotherapist Doug Stacey in building Maatta's summer sessions.

"You don't just put him on a bodybuilder program because you don't want to stiffen up the joints too much and take away the functionality for hockey," Stewart said. "Olli is incredibly motivated. I've never seen anyone like him, actually. When he's in the gym, he's working and when he's on the ice, no one's distracting him or taking him away from what he's there for."

After struggling in his first OHL season, it buzzed around hockey circles that giant Habs first-rounder Michael McCarron wasn't strong enough or in good enough shape. The consensus was it could end up costing him a long, productive career.

This past spring, he was a dominant centre on the Memorial Cup champion Oshawa Generals and is one of the gym's best stories.

"Mike was always pretty motivated and never came across to me like he didn't want to do it," Stewart said. "He was excited to work out all the time. You tell him what you're doing that day and it was hilarious -- he would be so jacked up and ready to go. But he had been doing a lot of circuit training, stuff that wasn't making him stronger, and his core wasn't what it should've been.

"He just didn't have the guidance in the weight room and he made leaps and bounds and it was great to see his season."

Hockey players require -- more than strength -- mobility and power. If your body gets too stiff, it's a liability.

"After a season, it's like they've been getting into minor car accidents every Friday or Saturday night," Stewart said. "They're in the corners digging. If they're righthanded (shots), they're constantly pushing down on their right hand so they're going to put a lot more stiffness into the right side of their core opposed to the left.

"We spend a lot of time correcting that. The junior and pro guys are different in terms of volume, but a lot of a program is based on the position they play or their style. Some guys need more muscle mass, others need to be stronger."

The six-foot-six Tinordi is a tremendous natural athlete. He tied with Hughes for top vertical jump (36 inches), led in broad jump (120 inches) and ran neck-and-neck with Horvat for anaerobic capacity.

Horvat can squat 400 pounds. Strength isn't his problem. The Canucks want him faster with a more explosive first few strides.

"Bo's strong -- we had to make him more powerful," Stewart said. "We spent a lot of time working on lower loads, not as much weight but more speed. He's goine from (vertical) jumping 23 inches to 32 the last three years.

"One of these days, he'll be able to dunk (a basketball)."

And, when Tinordi least suspects it, get his power clean record back.

ryan.pyette@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/RyanatLFPress