Eight AFC championships, five super   bowl victories, three league mvp awards, four super bowl mvp awards, and forty years old. The only man who could seemingly achieve such great success, and continue to do so at such an old age, is Tom Brady – quarterback for the New England Patriots.

After yet another successful playoff run for the Patriots as well as the release of the six part Facebook documentary Tom vs Time, nearly every American has a passionate opinion on Pats quarterback Tom Brady. Quite frankly, they either love him or they hate him. However, there is much more than just a good throwing arm to the “GOAT”, the greatest quarterback of all time.

As shown in his new documentary Tom vs Time, Brady follows a strict diet and workout plan. On the TB12 website, the plan is described as “Tom Brady’s holistic approach  to achieving sustained peak performance.” In other words, Brady is directly planning out his health decisions in order to be the best he can be, for as long as he can. Clearly, Brady is doing something right – he was recently named the oldest MVP in major sport history at forty years old.

On his website, Brady basically markets and sells his lifestyle through apps, clothing, guidebooks, workout gear, and nutritional items. The website offers a boxes of snacks for $50, protein bars for $40, granola for $40, and a nutrition manual that is sold out. The website even offers a weekly meal service partnered with Purple Carrot, a plant based meal delivery service. The program is described as “3 TB12-aligned meals that have been developed with the team at TB12 and which Tom Brady also eats every week.” The first subscription for three meals a week comes out to $78. The website essentially asks customers to buy into the lifestyle and health decisions of Brady.

Despite the success that Brady has achieved, many are not afraid to criticize and question his beliefs and methods. One of the main focuses of the program is pliability. This is shown in nearly every Tom vs Time episode as Brady is shown getting massages and work done by his trainer, Alex Guerrero. Guerrero’s methods differ from that of the Patriots’ medical staff, which has sparked controversy. Guerrero and Patriots coach Bill Belichick reportedly have had issues, leading to Guerrero being banned from a number of his rights as a Patriots trainer. As of now, Guerrero is only allowed to treat Brady exclusively in a private room. He is not allowed to travel on the team jet or stand on the sidelines with the other trainers. When asked if Guerrero’s position on the team would expand in upcoming seasons, Belichick responded, “No. He works at TB12. He works with some of our players…He’s not on our staff.”

Despite Belichick’s opinion on Guerrero’s methods, Brady refuses to stop working with his preferred trainer. Guerrero is even the godfather to Brady’s youngest son, Benjamin. His methods are considered “unconventional” and “untraditional”. Guerrero emphasizes the connection between mind and body, and promotes a strict nutrition plan that revolves around alkalinity and acidity in the body. Guerrero has Brady focusing more on body weight exercises and resistance bands rather than strictly weight training.

In support of Guerrero’s unconventional methods, Brady wrote on his website:

“All throughout my football career — from high school, through college, and now professionally — I’ve witnessed the impact of injuries on my friends and teammates. I’ve seen athletes get drawn into a system that too often prioritizes short-term solutions by treating symptoms instead of causes — resulting in more frequent injuries, impaired long-term performance, and even athletes’ inability to maintain an active lifestyle.

About 2 million high school athletes are injured annually, requiring more than 500,000 doctor visits. College athletes are similarly susceptible to injury — with 70% reporting playing through injury at least once — and over 1 million adult amateur athletes experience sport-related injury each year. It shouldn’t be that way, and I decided many years ago that it wouldn’t be that way for me.”

Whether his methods are truly beneficial or not, football fans have no problem sharing their opinion of him. Triton senior Steven Particelli even went to the lengths of describing Tom Brady as “the best player to ever touch a football field”. Senior May Ganzenmuller admitted to The Voice, “I love him and I would marry him in a second”. Particelli admitted that “(his program) is probably bs but he sees results, obviously”.

One thing is for sure – Tom Brady has some of the best football statistics of all time, and he has continued to thrive at age forty. The question now is how he will perform on the TB12 program in upcoming seasons for the New England Patriots.

https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/the-secrets-of-tom-bradys-personal-trainer-w479755/