Offseason athletes - from weekend warriors to GOATs - focus their training plans primarily on staying in shape and minimizing the risk of injury.
Some areas often require extra attention as your hamstrings are one of those muscle groups. During the regular season, you read the latest injury report almost every week and discover that a top running back or receiver or other positional player has cut their season short due to a hamstring strain or torn. Because of this, the NFL recently announced it would invest $ 4 million to fund research into Achilles tendon injuries.
Alex Guerrero can understand the NFL's concern. Guerrero, co-founder of TB12, is best known as the body coach of seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady. From the start of their relationship, the two have focused on doing everything possible to extend the future Hall of Famer's career, including paying special attention to the hamstrings. The results speak for themselves. While it used to be rare for an NFL player to move on at the age of 40, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal caller recently celebrated his 44th birthday in preparation for his 21st NFL season.
He credits Guerrero for helping him stay practically injured. And Guerrero says keeping him on the field takes a lot of muscle work to keep muscles supple.
“Supple muscles are long, resilient and move freely so that they can absorb and release forces. In other words, to fully contract and relax under stress, repetitively and without injury, ”explained Guerrero.
He, Brady, and the TB12 team suggest that focusing on weight training alone could be costly for any athlete.
“In an attempt to gain strength and power exclusively through traditional weightlifting, we shorten the muscles under stress. Then we step into a field, square, or the ice and ask the same tissue not only to fully contract, but also to repeatedly fully elongate under load and do so in an explosive manner. This is exactly where the biggest mistake is. "
