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| photo: Amazon.com |
He starts off with “Ability allows athletes to achieve. Durability allows them to continue achieving. Pliability makes both possible.” Pliability is “targeted, deep force muscle work that lengthens and softens muscles at the same time those muscles are rhythmically contracted and relaxed.” This is the premise of Tom's training program but thankfully, he integrates nutrition and recovery and has a more holistic approach than just deep manual therapy.
Basic book outline:
Tom used to believe that he needed to improve physically being only the 199th pick in the NFL Draft in 2000 and never being the biggest, strongest, or fastest but always with a strong work ethic. He initially thought that the means to make these physical improvements was through strength and conditioning. Now, though, he believes the typical strength and conditioning cycle that most athletes participate in includes injury and extended periods of rehab ultimately limiting career duration in all major sports. The usual strength and conditioning approach is missing pliability training.
Looking more at pliability, Tom advocates for deep muscle work while he is contracting and relaxing his muscles. It’s a little like a deep tissue massage combined with an active pin-and-stretch technique or active release technique with the focus that it is not a passive treatment and has neurological benefits as well as the ability to facilitate blood flow. He also notes that these treatments can mostly be done using vibrating foam rollers or spheres which he has for sale- but you can't use a regular foam roller because the vibration stimulates the nervous system and this is important. He refers to this pliability training as “positive, intentional trauma that causes new learned behaviors.”
The book includes a fair amount of negative perspective towards weight training with more support for the use of resistance bands. The analogy he used is: “imagine your body is a pickup truck. It’s weighted down with 1000 pounds of bricks in the cargo bed. This is what weight lifting does to your muscles, ligaments, and joints. Now imagine your body is a pick up truck towing 1000 pounds of bricks behind it. There’s minimal weight on your structure. This the difference between load and resistance.” He thinks the use of bands can be structured more to mimic sport-specific actions and has several exercise photos in the book that you can use to get a workout program going. This summarizes Tom's workout routine and soft tissue work. Then he proceeds to discuss the other components he finds essential: hydration, supplementation primarily with electrolytes, nutrition - mostly a plant-based diet with occasional meats, positive mental attitude with brain training and rest/recovery components.
What I liked:
I’m a supporter of the use of manual therapy and generally I apply more deep tissue work than superficial. I also think this is frequently neglected by athletes- primarily because when reviewing my own current program I have minimal soft tissue work programmed in or even sufficient recovery time and self mobility work. If I’m likely to skip it myself, wouldn't professional athletes who may not buy into it even more likely to skip out?
Train your muscles for the activities you want them to do. A quarterback doesn’t need to be able to run a marathon. He does need to be able to quickly move and change directions and throw a football. There are some good exercises included that will help me grow as a physical therapist. I already love to use a pallof press in various positions but have never used a pallof squat before and know I will now.
He breaks down the different sources of water: tap, distilled/filtered, spring, mineral, carbonated, and purified and describes how they differ. ’ve been thinking that seltzer was making me dehydrated having considered the biochemistry of carbonation and the function of bicarbonate/carbonic acid in the cloud stream so it was nice to see that he agrees that it can be a dehydrating option since I haven’t done any research in that topic yet.
From a nutritional standpoint, the suggested diet somewhat overlaps with Deep Nutrition and Whole 30 principles which I already subscribe to. Interestingly the book suggests that you should avoid meals which combine protein (needs acidic digestion) and carbohydrate (needs alkaline digestion) which I have not seen before.
What I didn’t like:
N=1: Tom Brady. You say you have a training center focused on your principles. Bring on the data. From the perspective of evidence-based practice - there are no cited sources in this book and while I have learned and studied some of these ideas, there are numerous statements included that I would need references to review in order to buy in entirely. So far this is all anecdotal- of course you’re having better physical outcomes in football by taking better care of your body. People differ, though. The back of the book has a few pages of anonymous testimonials but that's not sufficient from an evidence- based perspective.
I have concerns over the risk of deep tissue work by untrained people with no discussion of the risk for blood clots or other potential complications such as issues with skin integrity or while already injured or who are diabetic. The book shows you the principles enough that I could actually complete a full pliability session and workout, but there are definitely going to be non-clinicians reading the book and I don't think there is adequate precaution or concern for potential reasons you would not use these methods.
The diet/nutrition could be considered pretty rigid. To be fair- so is the Whole 30. If he's targeting the general population, it will be interesting to see how many people get on board with it or just take small bits and pieces to make small improvements in health. For example, Tom goes as far as saying he eliminates night shades because despite the antioxidants, they can slightly increase his inflammation. He has every right to exclude so many foods- but he also has the funds and access to a food service that prepares meals for him which so many of us do not have available. He’s working on optimizing his body to be the all time greatest quarter back in the NFL- major difference in his physical demands compared to my own. If he thinks he gets a competitive edge from this program, I’m impressed he has sustained this lifestyle for so long. I don't know that I would need to be quite this extreme.
Ultimately- would I consider taking one of his courses to certify as a TB12 body coach to learn more and (hopefully) get some of the research that is essential to back the program? Sure I would. I like to learn. And I like manual therapy. And I think there are some great points to the program. I definitely don't hydrate sufficiently and I know my body feels best when it follows a somewhat similar nutrition plan. I disagree with the negative impact of weight lifting - but also think this varies between people and it makes me wonder if he could have had similar benefit with the addition of pliability along with typical strength and conditioning rather than the use of his resistance bands. Will I incorporate the techniques in my own programs? I absolutely think I might add more soft tissue work and self myofascial release or foam rolling with pin and stretch into my next training cycle to see how I respond and I added some of it to my workout the past few days and know that my soreness improved.
Disclaimer: I am not a New England Patriots Fan... but I am from New England and I certainly respect any professional athlete who can remain at their post for nearly 20 years. And I like to learn - so Tom Brady's book declaring new and innovative ways to improve longevity in sport - of course I'll check it out. Tom is a public figure - if his methods can help someone prevent or recover from injury, I'm a supporter, and I want to know how he does it..
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