What Tom Brady Can Teach Us About Fitness, Focus, Resilience, and Getting Your Mind In the Right Place.
Wellness, focus, fitness, and sports psychology is the topic for today. The American football player Tom Brady is arguably the greatest of all time. Brady has already won six Super Bowls (more than any other player), including one a year ago. At 43 years old, he continues to play at a remarkably high level, cruising along in the National Football League’s playoffs. In 2019, he offered that he could play until he is 46 or 47 years old.
Listen to what Brady’s trainer, Alex Guerrero, told Boston radio station WEEI-FM (93.7) in 2019:
“Every year, he just adds another year,” Guerrero said. “He goes in, and he’s like, ‘Guys, I feel so good still. I think I am going to go until 45.’ I am like, ‘OK.’ Now he’s like, ‘Alex, I think I can go like 46 or 47.’”
Tom Brady takes a holistic approach to wellness and focus. Today, I want to explore how you and I might benefit from his functional strength and conditioning principles. We’ll look at his innovative recovery approaches, as well as his commitment to preventing and addressing injuries.
First, a caveat: Not all of Brady’s pronouncements in the health and wellness arena ring right to me. In his fitness book The TB12 Method, he talks about optimizing his body to “disperse” the sacks’ shock. He does not eat nightshade vegetables (such as tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers) to prevent sunburn through hydration following outdoor workouts. He remains one of the greatest athletes on the planet at the (by NFL standards) ancient age of 43. I am interested in his views on health and wellness.
Wellness and Focus: Strength training
I am committed to maintaining muscle mass, even as I recognize that it is a time-consuming process that gets more challenging with each passing year. In March, I will turn 58 years old. Here’s me, last year on the Big Island of Hawaii (sporting a bit of fat on the sides of my abdomen, alas).
For some men, testosterone levels remain high throughout their lives. However, most of will see declines beginning around age 40. The drop is gradual, typically on the order of approximately one percent per year. While I did not realize this initially, I certainly do now. It is more challenging to maintain muscle today.
Oh, I know muscle maintenance is going to get worse, with the average man’s testosterone production at age 70 about 30 percent below its peak. Over 75 percent of us will have testosterone levels that remain within the normal range. Fortunately, testosterone levels are not associated with the mortality rate of men.
So is muscle building a “young person’s game?” I remember that after hitting my mid-40s that I entered a time that working out too hard in the weight room put me at risk of injury. But this did not mean that I had to get rid of my commitment to strength maintenance, and wellness and focus.
YOU CAN BUILD MUSCLE MASS as an older individual if you think differently. Many activities can help you to maintain (or even increase) muscle strength. Examples include:
- weight training
- weight-bearing calisthenics
- resistance training
Please recognize that the development of muscle strength and endurance is progressive. To make significant progress requires gradual increases in resistance over time. Before we move to what type of muscle focused exercise we folks over 40 should be thinking about, we begin with some caveats.
As our body ages, our support structures (including our muscles, tendons, and surrounding tissues) tend to lose elasticity. We become more rigid, which can contribute to a decrease in strength and a slower recovery process. I know this, as my muscles and joints ache if I overload with heavy weight training.
My muscles are smaller than they were five or ten years ago. I have diminishing strength and stamina. Here’s my approach to dealing with muscle breakdown, one I share with Tom: First, I make sure I get adequate amounts of protein, leaning on fish, poultry, and the occasional lean red meat. I use small amounts of protein supplementation, in the form of bars or powder in water. Second, I do some strength training.
Given my age and goals, I no longer lift heavy weights in the gym. Brady suggests the use of resistance bands. I also incorporate relatively light dumbbells into my workouts. For those over 40, resistance bands allow training with an extensive and fluid range of motion. We can improve our stability, functional strength, and mobility. The bonus? You won’t overtax your joints and muscles. Because resistance bands have varying levels of tensile strength, you can increasingly challenge yourself.
We older folks may derive the most health benefits from strength training, given our propensity to develop loss of muscle and bone and insulin resistance. Focus on exercises that you can safely perform, and pay particular attention to other variables (including sleep, nutrition, and rest). As we age, we need relatively more frequent exposure to heavy loading to maintain our strength gains. Brady approach to wellness and focus includes:
- Core
- Biceps and triceps
- Chest
- Upper back and shoulders
- Legs
Wellness and Focus: Nutrition
Tom Brady also gives great attention to his diet. While he has some odd practices, he has a mostly vegan diet and favors organic ingredients. This approach can reduce inflammation in the body. Let’s unpack that observation.
Maintaining caloric balance over time is essential to maintaining a healthy weight. Overeat, and you become overweight, the leading dietary factor associated with poor health outcomes. Among the diseases linked to weight are cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and more.
Brady’s meals are composed of about 80 percent plant-based foods and 20 percent animal-based foods. During the warmer months in New England, the plant-based proportion may reach up to 90 or 95 percent.
I have to share this anecdote with you. While Tom’s diet is mostly plant-based, Brady has never eaten a strawberry. For a long time, nobody understood why. We learned the reason in a 2018 episode of the television show The Colbert Report. Tom Brady’s eating habits are stringent, but he doesn’t consume strawberries for a more mundane reason. Tom does not like the smell of strawberries.
Tom Brady does not overeat meat, believing in balance. To him, this translates into limiting meat to a small proportion of his meals. He offers, “I subscribe to balance.”
Wellness and focus: A day in the life of Tom Brady
6:00 am
Brady awakens and begins fueling up with electrolytes, nutrients, and fluid. He immediately drinks 20 ounces of water with electrolytes. Then follows a high-calorie, high-fat, high-protein smoothie. The drink typically includes bananas, blueberries, seeds, and nuts. The recipe is here, at his for-profit website: https://tb12sports.com/blog/tom-bradys-favorite-smoothie.
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