Not everyone can be Tom Brady, what with the multiple Super Bowl rings, the dimpled chin, the fashion ads, and the supermodel wife.
But the new book by the New England Patriots’ star quarterback offers 295 pages’ worth of advice on how to become, well, Tom Bradyish.
The “TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Performance,” is out September 19 from Simon & Schuster, but we got an early copy.
Why Brady is still going strong at the age of 40 is a question worth asking. What Fountain of Youth is he drinking from anyway?
Brady, in the introduction to the glossy hardcover book (with a sticker price of $29.99), admits that even he is sometimes amazed at himself, citing a moment just before the start of the Patriots’ 2016 championship season.
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Chucking a football around with Alex Guerrero, his body coach and cofounder of the TB12 Method, Brady says, “I was ‘in the zone.’ I was throwing the ball better than I ever had, and I remember being really excited about the opportunity to play and to show off all the things I’d been working on in the off-season.”
“I also remember thinking, My ability to sustain my peak performance over the past ten years is almost unbelievable to me,” Brady says.
The answer, Brady says, is his commitment to the TB12 Method, which goes beyond a training regimen to a holistic lifestyle, including recommendations for “balance and moderation in all things,” a healthy diet, and a three-part brain training and fitness program.
While Patriots fans might be over the moon, it’s not clear how the book — full of earnest, sometimes guru-like, exhortations and pictures of a wholesome, muscly Brady — will be received among fans of other NFL teams whose hopes have been repeatedly dashed by Brady et al, sometimes amid controversy.
Brady says in the book that he feels it’s his duty to ignore the naysayers and spread the wisdom.
At the core of the program, he said, is a focus on developing and maintaining “something that many people have probably never heard of: muscle pliability.”
Brady says pliability is achieved through “targeted, deep-force muscle work.” He says it’s akin to a “deep, rigorous massage but much more focused and in my case using complex techniques based on an understanding of the biomechanics” of being a quarterback and living daily life.
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The book offers ways you can do your own pliability exercises, either by yourself or with a partner, using “vibrating foam rollers and vibrating foam spheres.”
Brady, who calls himself “beyond blessed,” says he believes his program can help not only elite athletes but “anyone and everyone who’s willing to commit to a life of wellness and vitality.”
“In many ways, I feel it’s my responsibility — and even my calling — to bring attention to what I’ve learned for the purpose of helping others. I’m aware some people may respond cynically or skeptically,” he says. “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.”
“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,” he says.
“The answer is in your hands,” he says. “Our goal isn’t just better training, it’s better living. Let’s change ourselves — and the world — for the better.”
Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com.