A year ago, during an early round in a Stanley Cup playoffs, James Duthie jumped into a broadcast of a Montreal Canadians vs. Washington Capitals game with the update that Mark Recchi has just scored his third goal of the postseason—giving the Boston Bruins a 2 – 1 lead over the Buffalo Sabres.

To put this in perspective, at 43 years old Mark Recci is the ancient mariner of hockey players, defying what nature declares as the life expectancy of a professional athlete on skates. Announcer Pierre McGuire got so excited he proclaimed,

“Hot Yoga has saved Mark Recchi’s career. I think every player in the league should have to do hot yoga.”

In the aftermath of Mark Recci & the Boston Bruins stunning the hockey world by defeating the heavily favored Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup, puckheads up in Canada are having recurring nightmares with a voice asking the same question over and over, What is “Hot Yoga” exactly?

How many members of the Boston Bruins are doing Hot Yoga? Well, I have no idea. But the simple truth is professional athletes are always seeking to get one leg up on their competitors by discovering more effective cross-training techniques. Guess Hot Yoga is working for Mark Recchi! When the legs and bodies of Vancouver Canucks players half his age were staggering, Mark Recchi kept skating and putting his body in harm’s way either scoring goals or setting up teammates to get the puck past Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. In the pressure-packed winner-take-all Game 7 Recchi got an assist in the 2nd goal scored by Brad Marchand in the Bruins 4 – 0 victory in Vancouver.

So if you are seeking a low impact cross-training regiment to build supple fluid functional strength, you might want to follow Mark Recchi’s lead. It seems to have done him alright. Right after skating around the Vancouver rink with Stanley Cup hoisted above his head, Recchi announced that he was retiring from the sport accomplishing what exceedingly few professional athletes do. He is riding out into the sunset as a world champion.

Now if only Shaquille O’Neal had stepped into the same Hot Yoga studio that Recchi did. Boston would be celebrating 2 world sports championships in 1 week.