Visit to TB12 Boston

If you are not familiar with TB12, it's a system created by Tom Brady the quarterback from the New England Patriots. More specifically, per the TB12 website: "Whether you're a professional athlete or simply want to stay active, TB12 is centered around a holistic philosophy for health and wellness by using workouts and nutrition to help you do what you love, longer." And the TB12 Method is on one case described as : "A comprehensive approach for achieving superior performance and longevity through deep-force muscle pliability work, functional movements, and proper nutrition and hydration."

As a former tackle football player, biohacker and fan of all things Patriots I have been intrigued about this program or quite long time. But up until recently the only center was down in Foxboro, MA which is a bit of a haul for me. However, when the center opened in Boston it became too good to resist.

The center is modern, bright, clean and friendly to walk in's looking to learn more. The foyer has a juice bar stocked with a few of Tom's favorite drinks, items to review and purchase, and a patch of turf to try out a couple products. If you are there for an actual session you head downstairs to meet up with your body coach or class. Also slick, clean and modern the underground area was likened to a high end hotel with all the fixin's and elegant afterthoughts specifically in the women's changing room.

My appointment was for 90 minute session with Randy, a body coach. We discussed injuries and concerns from the sheets I had filled out previously before arriving. Then actually got to work doing some real life pliability in one of the treatment rooms right off the main turf area. This was my first time with pliability and I was excited to experience it first hand. We worked specifically on my right shoulder that's been a problem for me going back to last August, over a year ago. Most likely rotator cuff damage, that never healed. Right away the tender spots became painfully obvious as Randy worked on the muscles and tendons surrounding the shoulder.

Throughout the session we also discussed hydration and nutrition. After our first bout with pliability we headed to the turf field and did some core and glut activation with bands, and then he showed me some other band exercises as well. Ran some sprints on the cool treadmill that has no motor but speeds up when your foot hits the front. From there we did some brief and simple shortened wide receiver routes and then hit the vibrating sphere. Got a simple and informative lesson on how to use it and when. A great tool that I have since purchased and use daily on my shoulder, the sphere gets in to places the regular flat vibrating roller simply cannot reach. Highly recommended for the serious foam roller looking to take their rolling to the next level.

After the sphere lesson it was back to the treatment room for another round of pliability as the post workout closing routine that is an important component to the TB12 Method. More work on those tender spots and wrapped up with a brief review of the session and got any of my questions answered that I had missed.

Overall a fun, informative and enlightening session. My biggest takeaway was how often with soft tissue injuries the surrounding muscles will get tight and aggravated trying to protect the injury. And that pliability is focussing not on the actual injury, but all the surrounding muscles and tendons to take the pressure off the injured area. As well as the brain body connection and retraining the brain's circuitry before and after working out so the muscle is functioning optimally and the brain learns exactly what that means.

Obviously that was only one session so the shoulder issues still persist. However there are also self-pliability and partner-pliability exercises that can be done at home. Tom's book goes in to great detail on that as well as other exercises and using the rollers.

I would definitely recommend the TB12 Performance Center for those looking to learn more about pliability, increased performance, functionality, nutrition and hydration.

Following the session I picked up a couple goodies from the entrance. I really like the Electrolytes and how simple it is to do a quick squeeze in your water bottle vs messing with powders. The Curry Cashews were really tasty as well, wouldn't mind a bigger bag. :)