tom
brady

tom’s day.

• On waking
  A lot of water, first thing

  “Drinking a bunch of water is one of the first things I do when I wake up.”

  nutrition
• Morning
  A swim in his own pool

  swimming is now a staple: “This one of the best workouts for me. Kind of full body.” He’s about 215 lb, against 225 in his last season, and is trying “to get a little more muscle.”

  fitness
• Morning
  4×100, 4×25 fast, 2×200

  one morning’s posted swim: 4×100 freestyle, 4×25 fast with 25 easy in between, then 2×200 freestyle.

  fitness
• After the swim
  A four-round circuit

  20 weighted step-ups, 20 push-ups against a heavy resistance band, 10 box jumps. Repeat four times.

  fitness
• Home gym
  Every muscle, every day

  his gym, a few steps from the pool, has “one type of equipment for every muscle group”: chest, back, hamstring, quad. He hooks bands under the bench to change the resistance curve, goes from bench press to a pull, then outside for “all the rotational functional stuff.”

  fitness

• Most days
  Rarely a day off

  “I’m pretty OCD with my workouts, and I do a lot of it. I do a lot of swimming and still throw the football a little bit.”

  fitness
• Every session
  Resistance, then pliability

  two kinds of work: resistance training that stays “always a little bit hard,” and pliability work that takes muscles from “tight, dense and stiff” to “long, unrestricted and supple.”

  recovery
• All day
  An ounce of water per pound

  “Today, I still drink an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight each day.” A water bottle is always somewhere nearby.

  nutrition
• Meals
  Whole foods, low sugar

  minimally processed whole foods with plenty of fruit and vegetables, 0.5–1 g of protein per pound of bodyweight, healthy fats and about 30–35 g of fibre. Sugar and white rice, potatoes and pasta are what he keeps down.

  nutrition

• Before bed
  Dark, cool, screens off an hour before

  his sleep rules: roughly the same bedtime, a wind-down routine, no caffeine, alcohol or big meals late, no screens for at least an hour, and a dark room at 65–68°F. He aims for 7–8 hours, “ideally 9.”

  sleep

• Once a week
  A weekly review

  “Every week, I sit down to reflect on the events of the week before, extract their lessons, and gameplan how to apply those lessons toward greatness and growth.”

  focus
• After a heavy stretch
  Time to decompress

  after a run of big commitments he takes a beat on purpose. Decompressing is “re-engaging with other parts of life, the parts that fill your tank.”

  focus