As early as 2014, questions were asked about how long the then 37-year-old Tom Brady could still play professional football – and the quarterback was not happy. “If I suck, I’ll retire,” he said. “[But] I don’t intend to suck for long. “
Almost seven years later, Tom Brady will try to break his own record for being the oldest QB ever to win a Super Bowl on Sunday night when his Tampa Bay Buccaneers battle reigning champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, at the Bucs house lawn .
Suffice it to say that Brady is unique, a phenomenon that is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon in a sport where longevity is rare. Because of that, he signed a two-year $ 50 million deal with Tampa last March, which makes it likely that he will still be playing at 45.
Simply put, Brady is obsessed – a man with a plan and the determination (and the money) to carry it out, as John Burns, CEO of Brady’s TB12 health and wellness organization, explains.
“Tom’s continued success over the past 20+ years is testament to his incredible drive and careful approach to everything he does.” Burns said. “It is this attitude that enables him to move on.”
When Brady won the first of his six Super Bowls in 2002, George W. Bush was President, Justin Timberlake was still a member of NSYNC, and Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs MVP quarterback, was 6 years old.
But almost two decades later, Brady is still there, doing what he can do better than pretty much anyone else – at a remarkable 43 years old.
That’s how he does it.
daily routine
- 5:30 in the morning: Wake up drinking electrolyte water and a smoothie
- 7 o’clock in the morning: Breakfast with the family
- 8 am – 10:30 am: Go to the gym to strengthen and condition yourself
- 10 am: Beach time
- 11 clock: Check the game footage
- Noon: Having lunch
- 3 pm-5pm: Team training or off-season surfing and training
- 5-6pm: Post-workout suppleness session
- 6pm: Family dinner
- 8 pm: Flexibility training for muscle regeneration
- 19:30 o’clock: Family time including reading for children
- 8:30 p.m .: Turn off the lights and sleep
fitness
It has been said that coach Alex Guerrero knows Tom Brady’s body better than the QB’s wife, Gisele Bündchen. In addition to being his business partner in the health and wellness brand TB12 – including a chain of fitness centers due to expand in the US – Guerrero has been named his “Body Engineer” by Brady.
He managed the athlete’s training schedule months and even years in advance. An average day starts early with a “deep force” massage before training with Guerrero. It only takes four minutes but targets 20 muscle groups for around 20 seconds each. It helps prepare Brady’s body for an intense workout, starting with 40 minutes of resistance bands, to make the muscles more supple, soft, and resilient.
As the quarterback has aged, he is training less with weights, which could leave him prone to torn muscles. Now it’s all about planks, lunges, and squats, followed by more flexibility exercises such as B. Crunches with a vibrating roller under his back.
This is followed by another massage, this time with an emphasis on flushing out the lactic acid that builds up during exercise to improve muscle recovery time.
During the NFL season, he will train with teammates in the afternoon. Out of season he could surf. There is also another session to improve muscle recovery before bed.
diet
First thing: A smoothie. His favorite is blueberries and banana, hemp and chia seeds, walnuts, almond butter, and hemp milk. He will also start drinking electrolyte water.
Breakfast: Eggs and avocado is a pretty typical meal.
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Having lunch: Brady will dig into a salad or other plant-based meal, like the TB12 recipe for quinoa and chickpea pilaf.
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Snack: Hummus, guacamole or nuts.
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Dinner: His family dinner, which is served around 6 p.m., often consists of a lean protein like fish or chicken and an alkalizing vegetable like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower or sweet potato to help balance his body’s pH. Drinking bone broth for dinner is also cool.
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While it can’t be denied that Brady’s spartan diet played an important role in extending his playing career, some of his former New England Patriots teammates found it obsessive and unsavory – or, as it was put, “that birdseed”.
Caffeine is off the table. So is white flour, white sugar, dairy products and anything with gluten. He avoids vegetables – tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, mushrooms – that can cause inflammation. Everything has to be organic. Brady tries to drink “a few hundred ounces” of water every day, which is usually fortified with electrolytes. (He sells these along with various nutritional supplements through his TB12 website.)
Allen Campbell was Brady’s personal cook from 2013 to 2016, helping him create the TB12 Nutrition Manual published in 2017. He told The Post that this time of year our focus was on dark, leafy vegetables, some of which were grass-fed animal protein, as well as legumes and whole grains. “
But Brady isn’t going to eat that until the Super Bowl. His meals on game day are even easier: a smoothie and a sandwich with almond butter and jelly.
It’s all a long way from his rookie season in 2000; Brady admitted that his pregame snack used to be nachos, while his standard lunch was ham and cheese subs with onion rings and a big orange soda.
Is he ever cheating on his diet now?
“When I crave bacon, I have a piece,” he told Men’s Health last year. Same goes for pizza. “What has changed as I’ve gotten older is now, if I want pizza, I want the best pizza,” added Brady. “I don’t eat a piece that tastes like shit and then ask myself, ‘Why don’t I eat pizza?'”
“Tom often speaks of his love for a good burger and dark chocolate,” Campbell told the Post. Specifically, the QB has said it’s into Unreal Chocolate, a brand of vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar candy.
Brady adheres to an 80/20 diet (vegetable / animal protein). Even his favorite plant-based ice cream is made from avocado with a little cocoa to make it taste like chocolate.
understanding
In addition to working with a life coach in the past, Brady practices transcendental meditation and seeks to become what Guerrero described as “emotionally stable and spiritually nourished”.
He’s also had neuroscans so he could better understand how his brain processes information and develop strategies to improve it.
Brady trains his brain with apps like BrainHQ. Although the app was designed to help people with brain conditions like cognitive damage or memory loss, Brady used it to sharpen his responses – by working his way through two dozen or more brain games every day.
“Tom put it this way,” said Henry Mahncke, CEO of the app’s developer, Posit Science. “If he gets that [ball], he remembers the game, then he has to scan the field, locate the receivers, find out which are on their routes and which are open, and make the pass. All in about three seconds. “
sleep
Brady loves to sleep. Before his first Super Bowl in 2002, he even took a nap in the locker room to be woken up just 12 minutes before the Patriots were scheduled to go out.
Nowadays he goes to the hay at 8:30 a.m. and wakes up at 5:30 a.m. But everything has to be right. From sleeping on a mattress with a layer of diamond memory foam, to setting the bedroom thermostat to 60 to 65 degrees, to turning off all digital distractions at least 30 minutes before retirement, Brady is as obsessed with sleep as he is. everything else in his life.
And then there is his magical pajamas: nightwear with bio-ceramics from Under Armor to increase energy, promote regeneration and improve performance. And you can sleep like Tom too, though a full set will make you nearly $ 200.
