The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance

by Tom Brady

This is why stretching is an activity that would actually benefit from pre- and post-pliability training. Doing pliability before and after stretching, as you would with any sports activity, can help minimize the amount of muscle tissue microtearing and muscle scarring that could result in injury. You don’t get points for sticking your foot behind your neck! Think of pliability as the pre- and post-routine to any physical activity or sport, up to and including yoga.

Remember always that our brains and bodies learn through trauma. The nerves in our muscles are in constant communication with our spinal cord, which is the seat of our nervous system. The spinal cord and brain take in and process the information that comes from our muscles—and send that information right back out again to those muscles. This ongoing cycle of exchange keeps our pliable muscles firing evenly, at 100 percent.

The quadratus lumborum is situated in the lower part of your back on either side of your spine, within the abdominal cavity.

The advantage of self-pliability is that you can lengthen and soften at least some of your muscles, anywhere you are, both pre- and post-workout. The obvious disadvantage is that self-pliability limits the parts of the body you can reach. It can also be tiring! Still, if you’re committed to it, unassisted self-pliability is a great thing to be able to do—but you need to start slowly, staying relaxed in your upper body as you stroke through the muscle.

We’re also excited to be launching a new training and certification program that we’ll be rolling out soon to create a network of world-class TB12-certified body coaches across the country.

I use coconut oil,

Fact is, you’ll get better at anything in life in which you invest time and energy, whether it’s lifting weights, jumping rope, scuba diving, or running marathons.

Imagine your body is a pickup truck. It’s weighed down with a thousand pounds of bricks in its cargo bed. This is what weight lifting does to your muscles, ligaments, and joints. Now imagine your body as a pickup truck that’s towing a thousand pounds of bricks behind it. There’s minimal weight on your structure. This difference, between load and resistance, is the difference between what weights and bands do to our bodies.

Drink at least one-half of your body weight in ounces of water every day. That’s the minimum. Ideally, you’ll drink more than that, and with added electrolytes, too.

Also, it’s not enough to drink one-half of your body weight or more in ounces of water on Monday, thinking your body will be properly hydrated one or two days later. Reaching a baseline of proper hydration takes at least fourteen days.

Remember that the only way our brains and bodies store positive and intentional trauma is via nervous-system stimulation during a pliability session. When we contract and relax our muscles as they’re being lengthened and softened, we’re reeducating our brains to train those muscles to stay long, soft, and primed.

Even when you use tap water for steaming vegetables, it’s better to filter it first.

water we lose. Even nonathletes are vulnerable to dehydration. Dry lips, dry skin, dry eyes, headaches, nosebleeds, and waking up in the middle of the night with a dry throat are all symptoms of dehydration.

I’ve always noticed that the more hydrated I am, the less likely I am to get sunburns!

may sound counterintuitive, but in my belief, negative ions have the greatest benefit on our physical and mental health. They increase our bodies’ alkalinity and serotonin levels and accelerate healing and recovery, while amplifying our levels of pliability.

Rule of thumb: Drink more water before and after meals than during meals.

keto

The commercial food industry is in the business of marketing and selling chemicals.

Besides injury, inflammation results from the foods we eat, inadequate hydration, high stress levels, and negative attitudes, among other things.

But just as important to creating a healthy inner environment are our thoughts, emotions, and attitudes. Are they positive or negative?

Does it matter whether you eat and drink well if your thoughts are angry or you go around feeling like a victim?

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.

For me, it’s always about what I can do better in the future. That journey is never-ending. In many ways I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied.

right on

consider mental toughness a learned behavior.

those challenges in the first place. In so many ways, the worst experiences I’ve had in my life have been my best experiences, because I learned the most—and learning turns everything into a positive.

Each day when I wake up, I can choose what I want my outlook to be.

realize I’m an active participant in my decision to feel as healthy as possible at all times.

you need to work hard at the things that are within your control: your work ethic, how you treat your body, and your attitude.

Especially your attitude. Things happen sometimes that I don’t welcome or want, but I make the choice to remain positive. That is something within my control. I don’t like to focus on negatives or to make excuses. I am never a victim. I gain nothing if I get angry or frustrated. You can make life a lot harder for yourself by focusing on negative things in your path or making excuses for why things didn’t go your way. Or, you can refuse to take things personally, let them go, learn from them, and become the best version of yourself. It’s a choice. It’s actually your choice.

Wisdom, someone said, is about knowing the difference between the things you can control and the things you can’t.

In all my years playing football with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, he and I have almost always believed we could do better.

Spending sixty seconds doing something you love is better than spending no time at all.

The third way to train the brain is by doing daily brain exercises that improve speed, focus, and mental agility. Train yourself to learn something new every day. Your body needs to stay pliable—but it’s important to keep your mind pliable, too.

My general discipline and pattern is to sleep from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

My wife doesn’t even allow cell phones near the bed when we sleep.

Mental toughness is a learned behavior. Focus on learning from experiences that don’t work out. Often they become positive events.

Choose to remain positive. It’s within your control.

Take time to recenter yourself every day, whether it’s through meditation or just by doing something you love—mindless or mindful restorative rest.

Get the appropriate cognitive rest by sticking to a regular bedtime and getting at least eight hours of sleep every night.

The habits and behaviors you adopt right now will determine whether you’ll face a headwind or a tailwind in the years and decades to come.

I’m aware some people may respond cynically or skeptically. But to anyone who says, “Why should I do what he says?” my response is: Please don’t take my word for it. Try it. See for yourself.

Hold yourself—not your doctor or your coach—accountable.

When you incorporate pliability into your strength and conditioning regimen, along with hydration, nutrition, supplementation, rest, and recovery, I promise you’ll be on your way to living the best, healthiest, most productive, most durable life possible.

I do not believe we are entirely victims of fate or destiny in our approach to peak performance. We have a ch...

1. Incorporate pliability as the missing leg of your strength and conditioning regimen. Balance your inner environment to absorb and disperse the forces in your life. 2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Drink at least one-half of your body weight in ounces of water with electrolytes every day, and more if you can. Optimal pliability cannot be achieved without proper hydration. 3. Reduce or eliminate your intake of caffeine, soda, and alcohol. All three can be dehydrating. If you drink coffee, soda, or alcohol, rebalance your hydration by drinking two glasses of water with electrolytes for every one of these beverages you consume. 4. Focus on eating real food, preferably organic and mostly plant based. 5. Eat some daily percentage of your vegetables raw—that is, uncooked. 6. Shop and eat locally as much as possible. Most supermarket foods have traveled long distances and been frozen and thawed before reaching the shelves. 7. Try to limit and possibly eliminate foods that cause chronic inflammation, including fast foods, processed foods, and the five W’s: white bread, white pasta, white potatoes, white milk, and excess white salt. 8. Supplement your dietary regimen by taking at minimum a multivitamin and a B complex. 9. Supplement with protein powder or a protein bar to help your body rebuild and rejuvenate, especially after workouts—and snack when hungry throughout the day. 10. Take time to recenter yourself every day, whether it’s through meditation or just by doing something yo...