by Tom Brady
The ACL tear was the most intense injury I’d suffered, and is still the only one that’s kept me from playing a game. Up until then, I’d played my whole life without getting seriously hurt. For the first time in my life, I found out I could get badly injured. But through that process, I began to ask questions, like What can I do to prevent something like this from happening again? From working with Alex, and realizing I wasn’t a victim of my injuries and that I was a very active participant in my own health and wellness, I understood there were some injuries I couldn’t avoid. I also understood that the choices I made off the field would help determine whether or not I got hurt, or stayed hurt, as well as the degrees and severities of injuries. In the months during and after my ACL injury and recovery, I began looking at all the lifestyle choices I was making that could affect the way I got injured, and how I could recover. If incorporating pliability was so important, what were some of the other things I could do to extend my peak performance and help me recover faster? I couldn’t do everything as described in this book at once. I went forward line by line, precept by precept. I’m hoping you do the same.
For as long as I could remember, like most athletes, I ate and drank whatever was in front of me—pizza, beer, soda, whatever. Now I began exploring the role of hydration. Pliability and hydration go hand in hand, and one can’t really exist without the other. What does proper hydration mean? How does hydration affect muscles? How does hydration help keep muscles soft—looking and feeling like pieces of tenderloin instead of beef jerky—and what should my nutrition look like to allow my muscles to maintain that optimal look and feel? Once I began understanding that the things I put inside my body had a direct effect on my performance on and off the field, I took a long look at my diet and the nutritional choices I was making or not making. Hydration and nutrition are the foundation of healthy muscles, and if your muscles aren’t healthy, it’s that much harder to attain optimal pliability. Ignore either or both, and it will take you longer. Again, not sustainable. Knowing that almost every NFL player took some sort of supplement to support or increase muscle strength, I also got interested in vitamins and supplements.
As time went on, and with the goal of continuing to reduce inflammation in my body, Alex and I also began exploring the role of bioenergetic apparel and sleepwear. In January 2017, after spending two years researching the best materials, TB12 launched our first bioceramic recovery wear. To me, tech-enabled apparel and sleepwear isn’t all that different from virtual reality, meaning that what seemed far-fetched a few years ago will soon become part of the mainstream, contributing to how we do both prehab and rehab. I’m happy to say TB12 is at the forefront of this movement.
As I’ve said, pliability and the TB12 Method aren’t a replacement for strength training and conditioning. But I’ve come to believe that strength and conditioning at the expense of pliability is a sure recipe for injury. By incorporating pliability into their daily regimens, athletes at any level will find they have a much higher probability of preventing injury and extending their careers almost indefinitely—not to mention bettering their performance. Not least, by limiting their risk of injury, pliability increases their ability to practice. In the NFL there are one hundred practices per season. I take part in almost all of them—let’s say ninety. The average would be seventy. If practice makes perfect, this means I have a 20 percent advantage to improve through practice, and more opportunities to get ahead of the competition.
Strengthening and conditioning work—I’m not saying they don’t—but it wasn’t until I started working with Alex that I began thinking about the subject in a new way. As I thought about creating a regimen that would lower the risk of injury over the long term and ensure sustained peak performance, I knew pliability was the missing leg that needed to be incorporated at every level.
Sometimes I like to think about how amazing the quality of NFL football would be if players managed to avoid injury and stay healthy not just for two years or five years but for twelve years, fifteen years, or, in my case, seventeen years and counting. In pro football, health equals productivity equals durability. If you’re a wide receiver who makes 7 catches a game but who plays only eight games because of an injury, that works out to 56 catches a year—and that’s a below-average stat. But if you play sixteen games, averaging the same amount of catches, making 112 in total, that turns your season into a Pro Bowl year. The difference? Productivity and durability. If you’re playing in the NFL, you’ve already shown the world how good you are. The question now becomes, how often can your body get out there on the field to prove it? Only by incorporating pliability into your workout can you reach a place where both your brain and body are working toward the goals you’ve set for yourself. What are your goals? How do you define success in your life? Only you can answer that! I’m positive the TB12 Method can support you along the way.
Durability also makes for a better game. I have game log after game log of information stored up in my head, based on years of problem solving and pattern recognition. As a quarterback, my ability to adapt to change is crucial. The game never stops evolving, so why should I? By this point in my career, I’ve seen virtually every situation and scenario that exists. I’ve always had great coaches and mentors, but experience has trained me, too, and the answers to multiple scenarios that come to me on the field show up quickly. The ability to couple experience with a healthy body creates better players, better performances, and a much better game. During a game last season against the Buffalo Bills, with four minutes left in the first quarter, I stepped up into the pocket, got past a defensive lineman, and threw the ball to Danny Amendola, our wide receiver, who was running to the right front pylon, for a touchdown. It was your basic pitch-and-catch. But before I even threw the ball, my brain cut to the moment I had made the same play four years earlier when we played the New York Jets. I knew what I was going to do because I’d done it before. The difference maker, again, is durability. That’s what seventeen years of sustaining peak performance feels like for me, physically and mentally, and I love it.
Over the years, there’s been a misperception in the media that the TB12 Method has to be done one particular way, and that unless you reach a secret Ninja Level, you won’t see the benefits. That’s not true. The TB12 Method can benefit men and women of any age and any level of fitness or performance or ability. At the TB12 Sports Therapy Center, our body coaches see a wide range of people who are drawn both to the holistic and attitudinal components of what we do. Our mission is to create comprehensive, customized programs for clients that reflect their goals and biomechanics. A lot of athletes come to us because conventional methods haven’t worked for them. Some come to train, others are more focused on performance, and still others are trying to recover from injuries. We see professional athletes, elite amateurs (including high school athletes), college students who want to make the team or have their eyes on the pros, weekend warriors, and men and women from eight to eighty who just want to unlock their own sustained peak performance, whatever that may be, and increase their vitality through all stages of their lives. What we try to create in our clients is genuine change and new patterns of behavior that go beyond simply showing up at the gym a few days a week. Even if you take away only four or five things from this book, whether it’s how to improve your diet, or work out smarter, or the half dozen supplements everyone should take, I guarantee you’ll start to see huge differences in your life.
Me and Alex working at the TB12 Sports Therapy Center, 2017.
At the same time—contrary to what the media thinks—I won’t always turn down a cheeseburger or an ice cream cone. I just won’t have one every night, and I won’t have ten of them, either. Last year, my wife and I went to Italy, a country that presents a lot of temptation. Yes, I brought along my electrolytes, as well as my protein, nutritional supplements, and TB12 Snacks—I had to be ready to play football two weeks later—but in Italy I definitely ate some things that were not TB12-compliant! My brain and body needed that do
wntime. Too much of a bad thing is bad for you, but too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing, either.
A lot of athletes come to us because conventional methods haven’t worked for them. What we try to create in our clients is genuine change and new patterns of behavior.
Personally, as I’ve said before, we all have different goals. I want to play until my mid-forties, and I realize that requires a focused, disciplined approach. I’ve always been motivated to target and improve on my deficiencies, and I still am. Coach Belichick says, “You pay the price in advance,” and a teammate of mine liked to say that “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” The reason I got a chance to play pro football in the first place back in 2001 was that one of my teammates got hurt. I never want to see someone else do my job—which is one reason why I need to stay healthy. Other players are always asking me about the “one thing” they should do to improve their performance. Well, there isn’t any “one thing.” Sustained peak performance isn’t about changing one or two habits in your life. It is your life. It requires commitment. It requires discipline. It requires openness. My career as an NFL quarterback and my life aren’t two separate things. Every hour of every day in my life revolves around my job. That includes what I eat, what I drink, when I plan my vacations, my travel destinations, and the training equipment I bring along with me. As a pro quarterback, I train about four hours per day—and I’m committed to making every hour of every day count.
I’ve written this book in hopes of educating and inspiring a very different lifestyle for maximizing performance and increasing vitality. My goal is to help all of you discover what sustained peak performance means to you.
Resistance-band core work.
CHAPTER 3
12 PRINCIPLES OF TB12
THE TB12 METHOD ISN’T JUST a training regimen—I see it as a holistic lifestyle. It’s built upon truths and principles that underpin what we do every day at the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxborough. But before diving in deeper, I want to summarize these principles, since they make up the foundation of what we at TB12 believe is the optimal approach to exercise, training, and living a life of vitality. Any one of these principles can be taken alone, of course. But also understand that their effect is cumulative, so the more you can incorporate, the better your results will be. We don’t view the body as an assortment of parts. It’s a connected system that functions as a whole, and you should treat it that way. By practicing and living all twelve of these principles, you’ll begin to see great benefits.
Band-resisted push-up.
12 PRINCIPLES OF TB12
1. PLIABILITY IS THE MISSING LEG OF PERFORMANCE TRAINING—AND THE MOST UNDERUTILIZED AND LEAST UNDERSTOOD. Everything begins with pliability, the daily lengthening and softening of muscles before and after physical activity. Without pliable muscles, you can’t achieve long-term health. Every athlete needs to find a balance between strength, conditioning, and pliability. The balance will change based on what your age, sports, needs, and goals are.
2. HOLISTIC AND INTEGRATIVE TRAINING. Nothing works in isolation. Everything we do at TB12 is interdependent, and we believe that a holistic approach works better than a divided one. The body is one system. Treat it well. It is the only one you have.
3. BALANCE AND MODERATION IN ALL THINGS. We subscribe to the precept of balance and moderation in all things. Too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing. Too many bad things are just plain bad.
4. CONDITIONING FOR ENDURANCE AND VITALITY. Conditioning is about having the energy, endurance, and vitality to perform the activities you love in a healthy, pain-free way. Good health is about how you feel. We’ve been educated around how we look. But feeling better—that’s the key.
5. NO-LOAD STRENGTH TRAINING. Muscles aren’t for strength or for show. Their function is to protect your bone structure and to support the acts of daily living. You should train to develop the optimal strength to do the job your body needs to do, while limiting the load—especially the overload—you put on your joints. Make your muscles work every day, and load them appropriately for what you’re asking of them in your daily life.
6. PROMOTE ANTI-INFLAMMATORY RESPONSES IN THE BODY. Anything that reduces inflammation in our bodies, including hydration and nutrition, maximizes pliability and accelerates recovery. Try to avoid self-inflammation—whether it’s in your mind, body, or spirit.
7. PROMOTE OXYGEN-RICH BLOOD FLOW. The blood that flows to your brain is the same blood that flows to your feet—and everywhere in between. The more ways you can foster the circulation of oxygen-rich blood and 100 percent muscle pump function—full contraction and relaxation—in every part of your body, the better. Oxygen-rich blood rejuvenates and regenerates, leading to optimal health.
8. PROPER HYDRATION. Drinking enough water every day, preferably with electrolytes, is essential for muscle pliability and optimal health.
9. HEALTHY NUTRITION. No training or exercise program is effective unless complemented by proper nutrition. You can’t train or recover well when you deprive your body and muscles of the right nutrients. What you put in your body is often what you will get out of your body.
10. SUPPLEMENTATION. Healthy nutrition is amplified by the right vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, based on your current diet, age, and activity levels.
11. BRAIN EXERCISES. Neuroplasticity is all about generating and regenerating neural connections—which happens only when we train our brains the same way we do our muscles.
12. BRAIN REST, RECENTERING, AND RECOVERY. The body and the brain need recentering, rest, and recovery via sleep, meditation (or other balancing techniques that encourage the right mind-set), and recovery innovations such as tech-enabled sleepwear.
Below and in the chapters ahead, I’ll go into each of these twelve principles in more detail. They form the foundation of performance, productivity and durability.
PLIABILITY IS THE MISSING LEG OF PERFORMANCE TRAINING—AND THE MOST UNDERUTILIZED AND LEAST UNDERSTOOD
Most athletes grow up learning to lift weights and run wind sprints in order to accomplish their athletic goals in their off-season training. It’s simply part of their coaches’ and trainers’ belief system. And it works, too—to a degree. But I believe the traditional strength and conditioning model also leads to countless injuries, rehabs, and careers cut short. Consider that the average career in the NFL is 3.3 years, the average in pro baseball is 5.6 years, in the NHL it’s 5.5 years, and in the NBA it’s 4.8 years. Even outside elite athletics, our bodies begin a general decline beginning in our mid to late twenties. But by incorporating pliability into your strength and conditioning regimen, it doesn’t have to be that way. Of course, you’ll still get older, but with pliability you’re less likely to age poorly, or in a compromised state. My goal is to teach people to maintain a prime physical state for as long as they can commit to the core TB12 principles I mentioned on the previous page.
Bottom line: you can’t sustain peak performance solely through strength and conditioning. You can perform well, often great, for a short period of time, but you won’t be able to sustain it. Ask yourself what it might mean to not get hurt, or not be in pain, or at least to begin creating a stronger, more effective “body immune system” to counteract pain and injury. Nobody plans for a two-year career, after all! That’s where pliability plays a major role. By rhythmically contracting and relaxing your muscles in a lengthened, softened state through pliability sessions, you make connections between the brain and the body, which is known as neural priming. Why is that important? Because the body begins to associate muscle function and movement with long, soft, primed muscle contractions. One of the critical keys is doing pliability treatments both before and after your full workout or physical activity. (Think of pliability as the new “warm-up” and “cool-down.”) This is the essence of the brain–muscle connection—creating the right neural priming, muscle memory, and conditioning that enable your muscles to work in ways that lower the risk of in
jury during physical activity.
Contrast this to an athlete who does daily weight lifting with no pliability. The only way he can absorb force is by making his muscles tight, dense, and stiff. Those muscles can’t disperse force appropriately for two reasons. First, they’re already contracted, which means they don’t have the ability to absorb any excess stress; and second, they’re working alone, rather than as part of a whole muscle group that’s integrated into a system of muscle groups. What will happen when an athlete with tight, dense, stiff muscles goes out onto the field and tries to make a tackle, or runs and makes a sharp cut? If these functions overload a muscle, bone, tendon, or ligament, he will get injured. In fact, I believe his muscles, which aren’t pliable, are more likely to be overloaded through negative trauma—meaning trauma that’s unintended and beyond his control—and injuries. Later he’ll blame the injury on “weak muscles.” He may think he didn’t work out long enough. But I believe that’s wrong. By continuing to lift weights, he’s telling his brain—and therefore his body—that his muscles should remain tight, dense, and stiff. Unfortunately, tight, dense, and stiff is the enemy of pliability and will increase his risk of injury even more.
As I said, the goal of pliability is to reeducate your brain–body connection, which continually sends messages to your muscles to stay long, soft, and primed, no matter how you’re asking your body to perform. When an athlete needs to contract and relax his muscles, they’re ready to fire appropriately as they do the jobs he’s asking them to do. As an NFL quarterback, I can’t predict when I’ll sustain trauma from a hit or a tackle. But I’ve trained my muscles to stay pliable as I stand in the pocket. The moment another player’s helmet makes contact with my body, my muscles are pliable enough to absorb what’s happening instantly. My brain is thinking only Lengthen and soften and disperse before my body absorbs and disperses the impact evenly and I hit the ground. In this way, it is difficult for any one part of my body to get overloaded, as many muscles are acting to support the forces placed on it. That’s the key.