The TB12 Method
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
WHAT I USED TO BELIEVE
CHAPTER 2
WHAT I NOW BELIEVE
CHAPTER 3
12 PRINCIPLES OF TB12
CHAPTER 4
PLIABILITY: A DEEPER DIVE
CHAPTER 5
TRAINING AND METHODS
CHAPTER 6
WORKOUTS
12 UPPER-BODY EXERCISES
1. SINGLE-ARM CHEST PRESS WITH VARIED LEG POSITIONS
2. SINGLE-ARM ROW WITH VARIED LEG POSITIONS
3. ALTERNATING ARM PUNCHES
4. ALTERNATING ROWS
5. STANDING LATERAL EXTENSION
6. CROSS-BODY STEP AND PRESS
7. CROSS-BODY PULL
8. BAND CORE ROTATION
9. BAND-RESISTED PUSH-UP
10. BAND FRONT RAISE
11. BAND PULL-APARTS
12. FRONT-FACING CORE ANGEL
12 CORE STABILITY EXERCISES
1. PALLOF SQUAT
2. PALLOF CORE SHUFFLE
3. CORE ANGEL
4. OVERHEAD CORE SHUFFLE
5. OVERHEAD ARM FLUTTERS
6. PLANK WITH A ROW
7. X PLANK
8. LATERAL RESISTED BIRD DOG
9. SINGLE LEG BALANCE WITH HALO
10. HIGH TO LOW/LOW TO HIGH ROTATION
11. FOUR-WAY OVERHEAD RESISTED FOOT FIRE
12. RESISTED WALKING PLANK
12 LOWER-BODY EXERCISES
1. SQUAT
2. LATERAL RESISTED SQUAT
3. GLUTEUS MEDIUS SIDE PLANK
4. FORWARD LUNGE WITH HIGH HOLD
5. FOUR-WAY BAND RUNNING IN PLACE
6. RESISTED SHUFFLE
7. HEIDEN HOP
8. SINGLE-LEG CLOCK JUMPS
9. SQUAT JUMP
10. SQUAT TO PRESS
11. HIP THRUSTERS
12. BAND DEAD LIFT
CHAPTER 7
HYDRATION
CHAPTER 8
NUTRITION
RECIPES
SEASONAL SALAD WITH SAVORY VINAIGRETTE
POTATO AND BROCCOLI FRITTATA
FRESH VEGGIE LASAGNA
GREEN RISOTTO WITH LEMON CREAM
CHICKEN BURGERS WITH RADISHES
ROAST CHICKEN WITH PUMPKIN AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS
SALMON BURGER WITH AVOCADO SALAD
PASTA WITH CREAMY SAUCE
BRADY BOWL
GREEN JUICE
SMOOTHIES
AVOCADO ICE CREAM
CHAPTER 9
BRAIN TRAINING, REST, AND RECOVERY
CHAPTER 10
CONCLUSION
TESTIMONIALS
FAQ
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INDEX
I dedicate this book to all the people who have loved me, supported me, and helped me achieve my dreams—my incredible family; my loving wife and beautiful children; my lifelong friends; my Serra High School, University of Michigan, and New England Patriots teammates; my encouraging coaches; and the loyal mentors who have played a part in who I am and what I believe in. Thank you. I love you all.
INTRODUCTION
JUST BEFORE THE START OF the Patriots’ 2016 championship season, I went to a field near my house to throw the football with one of my dearest friends, my body coach and the cofounder of the TB12 Method Alex Guerrero, and a former teammate. It was a brisk, late summer afternoon—perfect New England football weather. As I was running through my typical football training regimen, I knew one thing for sure: I’d never thrown the ball as well as I did that day—not when the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2001, or in 2004, 2005, or 2014—not ever, in fact, in my life. It was one of those days. I was “in the zone.” I was throwing the ball better than I ever had, and I remember being really excited about the opportunity to play and to show all the things I’d been working on in the off-season.
I also remember thinking, My ability to sustain my peak performance over the past ten years is almost unbelievable to me. But I suppose that’s what peak performance really means—continuing to get better year after year—or at least that’s what it means to me. In my belief, it would not be possible without an ongoing commitment to the very different holistic wellness and training program that Alex and I began developing over a decade ago. We call it the TB12 Method. At its core, the TB12 Method focuses on developing and maintaining something that many people have probably never heard of: muscle pliability. Over the past few years we have designed the principles of the TB12 Method—principles that have created far more sustained peak performance than anything I’ve ever read, studied, experienced, or trained against, and that have also given me the confidence and the capability to reach for higher and higher levels of achievement as each year passes. Every year we seek to improve—and I would love for you to do the same.
Nearly eighteen seasons of playing professional football have shown me that sustained peak performance isn’t about luck. It’s about hard work, dedication, discipline, and the support of my great team. You can’t do it alone. I am beyond blessed. I turned forty years old this past August, and not only do I feel as healthy as I ever have but, more to the point, I’m proud to still be playing at the highest level and standard for my game. My ability to sustain my peak performance over the last ten years came from rethinking how to train, and, specifically, how to train with pliability. I now realize that this is something that can help not only elite athletes but anyone and everyone who’s willing to commit to living a life of wellness and vitality—casual athletes, weekend warriors, yoga practitioners, marathon runners, anyone. In this book, I’ll be sharing the principles that have allowed me to sustain peak performance and showing you how to apply them to your own daily life. I also believe the TB12 Method can inspire a movement that radically reforms the way we train and helps us live a more natural, holistic, healthy lifestyle while lowering our risk of injury, increasing our vitality, and taking our performance to the next level. As such, I’m writing this book in the hope that my experiences and discoveries can resonate with everyone and allow them to achieve beyond what they can even envision for themselves. As far as pliability is concerned, an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.
What is pliability? I’ll go into it in more detail later in this book, but for now, and briefly, Alex and I define pliability training as targeted, deep-force muscle work that lengthens and softens muscles at the same time those muscles are rhythmically contracted and relaxed. This happens in sessions that take place both before and after any sport or activity—in my case, football. Regular pliability training, coupled with the right holistic routine to maintain that pliability, conditions our brains and bodies—and therefore our muscles—to maintain this same lengthened, softened, primed state as they carry out whatever activity we’re asking them to do, from carrying a baby to lifting luggage to climbing stairs to getting out of a chair to playing pro sports.
But pliability is also bigger than that. To me, and within the TB12 Method, pliability is the missing leg of the traditional strength and conditioning model of aerobic activity and lifting weights. Of course, it goes without saying that we all need strength and conditioning—enough strength to do the job we need to
do, including the acts of daily living, and enough endurance to do it over a desired time frame. But by incorporating pliability training into your workout regimen, you’ll be able to sustain your own peak performance in ways that minimize the risk of injury. If an injury happens, pliability training will put you on a faster road to recovery. We’ll discuss specific methods of practicing pliability in a later chapter.
For many years, friends, family members, and teammates asked the same question: Why was I spending so much time practicing alternative methods to conventional training that focused on pliability?
So why this book, and why now? Well, most people don’t realize it, but the typical training and lifestyle regimens come up short. For so many athletes, it looks like this: Work out. Compete hard. Get injured. Visit the doctor. Do physical therapy. Possible surgery. Back to rehab. Compete hard again. Get injured again. Back to the doctor. More rehab. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. That’s the vicious cycle of sports training, which takes place far too often, is talked about all too little, and has been around since before I was in high school. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We all need to become active participants in our own health. With this book, I want to establish a new model of training for sustaining peak performance and optimal living over the long term. The TB12 Method is both a regimen and a way of life that has allowed me to play football at a high level over the course of my career, and also to live a vital, energetic life off the field.
Over the years, like many athletes, I’ve read a lot of books about sports, health, wellness, and longevity. Most offer conflicting information, and to my mind, a lot of them come up short. Put simply, they’re confusing—even I get confused. That’s why I want to write a new athlete’s bible for anyone committed to a lifetime of peak performance, whether you’re a professional, an amateur, or a man or a woman of any age who wants to stay healthy and vital. My hope is that The TB12 Method will revolutionize the age-old sports and conditioning model that statistics tell us over and over again is incomplete. With this book, I’m on a mission to inspire coaches, parents, trainers, athletes, and anyone who wants to lead a healthier lifestyle to consider how pliability training, and a commitment to a holistic and disciplined lifestyle, will lead to a more enjoyable life that allows them to achieve any goal they set for themselves.
Nothing would give me more joy than to pass on what I’ve learned during my life and career—whether it’s the importance of pliability training, the exercises you should do to reduce the chance of injury, the best ways to work out, what proper hydration means, what foods you should eat, what supplements you should take, how to recover and rest, or what kinds of brain exercises can ramp up your performance. There’s a famous quote: “Youth is wasted on the young.” It’s true, too. We grow up believing that our physical prime is in our mid-to-late twenties, and our mental peak is somewhere between the ages of thirty and fifty. One of the goals of the TB12 Method is to combine our physical peak with our mental peak, while extending both of them for as long as possible. Ultimately, our stated purpose at TB12 is sustained peak performance, which is something I want as many people as possible to experience in their own lives.
We’re all born with natural pliability, and we have more pliability than strength, at least when we’re young—meaning that our muscles are naturally longer and softer than they are dense. Our natural pliability allows us to play hard and recover quickly. (Usually, a good night’s rest is all it takes when we’re young.) Many of us begin focusing on strength and conditioning when we’re in our teens in order to play sports. We stay on this path for the rest of our lives, not understanding that as time goes on and we continue to work on strength and conditioning alone, our bodies become tighter, stiffer, and unbalanced—both through strength training and the acts of daily living—which leads to compensation, which leads to overload, therefore making us more and more susceptible to injury.
Today, I look back and think, Thank God I did it differently. Thank God I had the courage to step outside the conventional wisdom. Thank God I followed what my heart, mind, and body were always telling me—that the things we were working on would allow me to do things that I always wanted to accomplish in my sport.
What actually happens when an injury occurs? An injury takes place when one of our muscles, ligaments, tendons, or bones is unable to absorb or disperse the amount of force placed on it. Put simply, when any of these body parts comes up against more force, or stress, than it can handle, an injury happens. Are injuries avoidable? Certainly not all of them, but many of them are. I recently read a comment given by a professional soccer coach after a game in which one of his players got injured. “Injuries happen,” he said. “They’re part of a player’s life, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” I don’t completely agree. What if, instead of accepting injury as inevitable and a part of what it means to play sports, trainers and coaches began incorporating pliability training into the traditional strength and conditioning system, educating bodies to absorb and disperse the forces placed upon them? With pliability acting as a form of the body’s defense system against external forces, I believe many of those “inevitable” injuries could be avoided.
Exercise, working out, and engaging in physical activity are all parts of a joyful life. The principles of the TB12 Method are ones I’ve always wanted to share with other athletes who, like myself, may not be “natural” athletes but who have the same drive, desire, and work ethic that I do.
The principles of the TB12 Method are ones I’ve always wanted to share with other athletes who, like me, may not be “natural” athletes—many people forget I was a sixth-round draft pick!—but who have the same drive, desire, and work ethic that I do, and who are tired of putting all their energy into methods that are likely to disable them in the end. I’ve seen this firsthand over the past twenty-five years, watching one athlete after another get hurt and rehab, rehab, rehab. Exercise, working out, and engaging in physical activity are all parts of a joyful life, and I’m positive that if athletes follow the TB12 Method, they will perform significantly better over a much longer period of time. The bottom line is that the conditioning and endurance training that clients practice at TB12 help create the energy and vitality they need to perform the acts of daily living in an optimal way.
I also want to emphasize that the TB12 Method isn’t just for athletes who work in elite environments like the NFL, the NHL, the NBA, and MLB, and who stress and break down their bodies the most. To my mind, everyone can benefit from greater pliability and a balanced body that allows more oxygen-rich blood circulation and increased vitality. The amount of pliability that will benefit you the most depends on the intensity of your activity, and the type of sport or activity you engage in. Swimming, for example, is different from playing baseball, which is different from cycling. Obviously, playing football as I do, my body needs to absorb a lot of force every week. As I go into my eighteenth season, I now do pliability training four days a week, and among strength, conditioning, and pliability, I spend roughly one-half of my time on pliability training. Many athletes spend no time on pliability—in fact, many athletes don’t know what pliability is!—and others might spend only a few minutes. A person who works behind a desk and isn’t stressing his or her body every day needs a different level of pliability—say, once a week—whereas a high school athlete who works out for two hours a few times a week needs higher levels. A simple way to think about it is that strength training, playing sports, and working out create denser muscles. And the denser the muscles are, the more pliability they need.
It can be hard for younger athletes to wrap their heads around the concept of pliability, because they have natural pliability. They recover quickly, and don’t want to waste their time preventing an injury that hasn’t happened yet. Many of them aren’t thinking ahead to pain, soreness, or worse in the future. As I said, younger bodies are naturally pliable, which is why in high school and college, young athletes need more strength than they do pliability. As athletes
hit their twenties, their strength increases as their pliability decreases. As their pliability goes down, their injuries go up. And as their injuries go up, their careers get cut short. Ability allows athletes to achieve. Durability allows them to continue achieving. And pliability makes both possible. This is why coaches and parents need to take the lead by incorporating pliability training as early as possible in the lives of younger athletes. If I’d begun pliability training when I was fifteen or sixteen years old, I wouldn’t have had to endure so many years of unnecessary pain, as so many athletes do.
If you want proof that pliability, and the TB12 Method, works, I’m it. I was the kid, as you’ll learn in the pages ahead, who was the sixth-round NFL draft pick, 199th overall, the athlete who was told he never had the right body for football. No one believed I’d play even one year in college, or one year in the pros. But I just finished my seventeenth season, the Patriots won the Super Bowl, and not a lot of players have ever started at quarterback in the NFL at the age of forty. If you want a great case study for how the TB12 Method can transform someone—including the thousands of men and women whose lives have been changed at the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxborough, Massachusetts—it’s standing right in front of you. I’m excited for you to start your own journey.
CHAPTER 1
WHAT I USED TO BELIEVE
I’VE LOVED SPORTS, AND BEEN extremely competitive at them, my whole life. I may have picked up my first football at age five, but the path that got me to where I am today was never really straight or easy.
I was born and grew up in San Mateo, California, in the Bay Area, the youngest of four children and the only boy. Everyone always called me Tommy. We were a hardworking, sports-centric family with parents who put their kids before anything else. When I was young, my dad was self-employed and on the road a lot, building up his insurance business. He was out the door by seven in the morning and gone till six at night. My mom was in charge of the house, washing our clothes, cooking our meals, always keeping the domestic side of the family going. My dad was tired when he got home from work, but he never let that get in the way of our time together. He’d still be in his dress shirt when he drove me to the baseball field or the driving range, where the two of us would hit, or field ground balls, or practice throwing as the day grew dark. I loved those times with my dad, and on the drives back home, I remember that good feeling of I’m hitting the baseball better or I think I may be fielding better. (I still feel that way today, for example with my throwing mechanics; I’m still always improving and learning.) My parents were just as involved in my sisters’ lives and sports. My dad would coach their teams sometimes, with my mom serving as the team mom, getting pizza and sodas for all the players.