MM#46--TB12 Secret Sauces

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. Now I know most Americans have begun to tune out the National Football League, I get it. And viewership is down dramatically over the last five to 10 years. Because unfortunately, the NFL has chose to introduce politics into sports. And that's never a good thing no matter which side you are on. But I had to share this one great nugget from one of its greatest players. And actually, it's going to pain me very much because this player has beat my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers in many AFC Championship games. 

During the last 20 years when we thought Steeler fans, we were well on our way to another Super Bowl. And that guy is Tom Brady. Yes, I know. I know. I can hear Steeler fans booing already, and I'm sure the hate text messages will soon be sent to my phone once this episode is published. But let's face it, Tom is pretty good. 

In fact, he might be the greatest of all time. If you don't know who Tom Brady is what rock you living under but a brief biography is he's the longtime New England Patriots quarterback and is now in his second season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And in case you were still living under that rock, and you didn't catch it last year, Tom Brady won his seventh incredible, his seven Super Bowl ring. And he did it with another team, not his old team, the New England Patriots. Imagine that though his seventh Super Bowl ring. There are franchises in the NFL that do not have seven rings as a franchise. And Tom personally has won seven. Dang. 

But more importantly, and this is what I want to share with you all. He did it he won his seven Super Bowl at the age of 43 years old. Incredible. So hard to believe that he won his seven Super Bowl in his 40s It's so incredible that I had to figure out what this guy was doing physically and mentally to get an age on to get an edge rather, on so many of his peers. And so all of this brings us to Tom Brady's book, which he released in 2017, the TB 12 method, how to achieve a lifetime of sustained peak performance. 

And as always, when covering our books here at the Mojo Academy, let's begin with a quote. Sometime during the 2004 season, one of my teammates Willie McGinnis saw me taking time off practice and took me aside. Willie had a certain aura and charisma about him. He was the quote godfather of the locker room. And he had always been like an older brother to me, seeing what was happening, and when he suggested I meet his body coach, who at the time was Alex Guerrero. Without that meeting, the TB 12 method would have never come into would have never come to exist. 

UNQUOTE, to what was happening to Tom, where he was in pain all the time. His throwing shoulder would always be in pain, he would have to go through extensive icing and pain relief procedures and protocols, just to be ready for the next football game. And this started happening in college and continued on to the pros. And he did it over and over again each and every week. That sounds incredibly exhausting to be in that much pain every week. Almost to the point of even debilitating. Let's go back to the book. Quote playing football was playing football for a living was like getting into a car crash every Sunday, a scheduled car crash and I began developing a whole new understanding of what I was putting my body through every week. In the amounts of trauma my body was experiencing. Unquote.

So without Willie McGinnis, introducing Tom to Alex Guerrero, the TB 12 method would have never come into existence. And so what is the TB 12 method? Well, it's a combination of strength training, nutrition, especially diet and hydration. Tom's mental approach to football and to life. His approaches to sleep and recovery and most interesting, at least to me, is this notion of muscle pliability. So you ask what is muscle playability? And that is a good question. Let's go back to the book. playability is the name Alex and I give the to the training regimen he and I do every day. Using his hands and elbows, Alex performs targeted, deep force muscle work to lengthen and soften every muscle of my body as I rhythmically contract, and relax that muscle. We almost always focus on my entire body unless an area takes up more of our time, unquote. 

So that's a fascinating peek into Tom's training regime. And he goes into deeper a lot of deeper conversation about in the science behind this muscle pliability, it's not only stretching, it is much more than stretching. And anyhow, it's it's, it's fascinating. He also has an interesting philosophy of drought around drinking water that I wanted to share. Let's go back to the book. Try not to drink too much water during a meal, as it can interfere with digestion. wait an hour or so after you're done eating before you drink water, since water washes away the body's natural enzymes, which break down your food, rule of thumb, drink more water before and after meals than during meals. Unquote. So that's pretty interesting. 
So in today's Mojo minute, let us be open to learning different approaches and philosophies about how to train feed our bodies and how to help our bodies recover well. And yes, even if you're a stubborn Steeler fan, even you can see the objective reality that Tom Brady is performing at the top top of his game. I know Tom's TB 12 methodology has opened up some eyes for me and opened up some eyes for some other folks that I respect in the training world. And I'm most interested in Brady's playability philosophy. 

So I'll be digging in and exploring more of that in the next weeks and months, as I recover from COVID and build back my strength and conditioning, but what about you? Perhaps the TB 12 method will inspire you to reevaluate some aspect of your physical exercise routine or how to unwind and recover well, after the weekend warrior events that we all love to participate in, no matter what you think of Tom Brady, whether the he's the goat the greatest of all time, or he is the worst of all time. We all have to agree that a guy who can perform at his elite level and a profession known for its brutal physical collisions, and who is performing at that elite level, well into his mid 40s has found some secret sauce as to aging. And finally, let me share with you a crazy statistic that I just came across to my research on this Mojo minute. 

So this past weekend, Brady threw five touchdown passes in the Buccaneers 48-25, one of the Atlanta Falcons. And so, per the Pro Football reference website and the USA Today where I saw this article, hat tip to the writer for this great investigative research, which is frankly super rare these days in journalism. And that's probably a topic we're sure to cover in the upcoming episodes is how bad journalism is these days. But this guy has done great research and I'll put a link in the show notes. So Brady, threw five touchdown passes this past weekend in the winner of the Falcons. He has thrown listen to this 154 touchdown passes in his 40s
Now, here's the interesting part. Let's go to the article. Brady's first NFL season was in 2000 when he was 23 and he became the Patriot starter in 2001 at the age of 24. 

Again including the postseason Brady threw 167 touchdown passes in his 20s. And so right around the middle of the 2021 season as long as he stays healthy, Brady is a slam dunk to throw more touchdown passes in his 40s than he did in his 20s. He's 13 touchdowns away from it. He already has nine touchdown passes on the season, the Buccaneers set an NFL record on Sunday with their ninth straight when scoring 30 or more points. The two previous teams that did so with eight straight games, that would be the 2007 and 2010 patriots led by the aforementioned Mr. Tom Brady. We know that some of the greatest young quarterbacks of today will choose to play in their 40s Given what we know about nutrition and conditioning, it's safe to say that some of them will perform very well but can you imagine? Can you imagine, say a Russell Wilson or Patrick mahomes or Aaron Rodgers throwing more touchdown passes in their 40s than they did in their 20s It truly boggles the mind. Holy smokes. Isn't that crazy? Truly, it does boggle my mind. So perhaps Mr. Brady's TB 12 method has something to do with it. just perhaps.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on