How to best use the TB12 Method – Tom Brady’s workout program

Hello, New England Patriot fans. I am sure you were all thrilled to see your hero, Tom Brady, pen a book dedicated to how he stays fit. I’ll give him that he is a five-time Super Bowl Champion, four-time Super Bowl MVP, and 40 years old.

That is some amazing longevity and achievement, so in the interest of my readers but with some hesitation, I decided to delve into his book. As I said in the email introduction, I have read that it is better to study the masses and their successes rather than the outliers.

Let me first say that writing is not his gift. I had to resort to skimming the book, because it isn’t written terribly well. However, he has faced adversity and pain as have all of us, and I am always interested in how he dealt and eventually overcame it.

Page 19 got my attention: He writes that he’d “accepted pain and soreness as a part of the job of playing sports. Playing football for a living was like getting into a car crash every Sunday- a scheduled car crash.”

Boy, that sounds like fun. 🙁

Let’s quickly sum the TB12 Method up:

“…my Method for sustained Peak Performance focuses on Pliability, Hydration, Nutrition, and Supplementation. The goal is to strengthen through workouts and lengthen and soften through pliability sessions, which exercise my muscles but prevent any added inflammation in my body.” (Pg. 270)

What exactly does he mean by “Pliability”?

Here is a summation from the Q & A index in the back of the book, pg. 293:

“Pliability refers to the state of muscles that stay long, soft, and primed through the acts of daily living and activity- in contrast to muscles that are tight, dense, and stiff, and less able to adapt to the stresses placed on them… a certified TB12 body coach…applies manual deep-force pressure to muscles as they functionally contract and relax through movement. A key principle at TB12 is integrating pliability treatments both before and after workouts or activities. Muscle pliability optimizes oxygen-rich blood circulation while substantially decreasing microtearing and scarring, thereby reducing the risk of injury and accelerating recovery from injury when and if it happens.”

TB12 is into the vibrating roller and sphere if you don’t have a body coach handy, and if you’re an avid Just Muscles fan, you’ll know that I extolled the virtues of vibration training in a video blog not long ago. https://youtu.be/nlw5bi4qaF8

You too can be part of the fun

By visiting the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxborough, MA.

What’s it like? Well, a USA Today journalist went on a day-long visit, and came to this conclusion:

“My ultimate takeaway was to try to focus on a sort of middle ground: Of course loosening up your muscles and finding ways to use them all together in a balanced manner would help you be a peak performer. Eating better, sleeping better, drinking more water, and reducing inflammation would do the same. And there’s no reason to abandon other more traditional workouts like weight lifting and cardio, but incorporating The Method seems like a good way to improve both.

The problem is that’s all shrouded in mystery, funky recipes, expensive equipment and scientific question marks. It’ll take a while before what’s based in actual science and what’s just myth is edited by its users or even its guru. Maybe there will be parts that will end up in the mainstream world of exercise.”

Another journalist from Sports Illustrated spent 2 weeks at the Center

He was a convert at the end of the two weeks:
“I’m a walking advertisement for TB12, which is a little awkward given my status as a journalist. But it’s working. I extol the virtues of electrolytes to strangers, tell friends about the diet and add “brain exercises” to my to-do list every morning. I progress to the second level with the vibrating fitness roller. I even consider buying some recovery-pajamas . . . but decide against it.”

(He’s referring to the fact that Tom Brady likes to sleep from 9pm to 6am, and wear specially created TB12 Under Armour far-infrared bioceramic infused recovery/sleepwear nearly 24 hours a day
(not cheap- $99 on Amazon).) Under Armour Men’s Ultra Comfort Athlete Recovery Sleepwear Pants

He also does plasticity brain training during Pliability sessions to reeducate the mind-body connection. (There are several brain games on his app to accomplish this.)

In short, if it was your job to keep your body in prime condition because you needed it at peak performance to execute your job, then it sounds like TB12- although controversial -is a good way to go.

The core of the program centers around the Pliability, and at home that can simply begin to be accomplished through the vibration sphere and roller. Try contracting and relaxing the muscle as you move it in multiple directions on the sphere and roller…to get it soft and lengthened, not just stretched. That gives it what they call at TB12 “100 percent muscle pump function” to both the brain and muscle.

Play with it. I am going to! Let me know what you think in the comments below!