The Secret of Longevity James Harrison Shared With Tom Brady Before Joining the Patriots
What did the 39 year old James Harrison and 40 year old Tom Brady have in common prior to Harrison joining the patriots? Rigorous regimens of self care, both with acupuncture and bodywork number one on the list. Both are well documented to spend absurd amounts of time and money treating their bodies like the multimillion dollar machines that they are. Why are these athletes able to play at such high levels at 40? Acupuncture (as well as nutrition) is crucial because it not only treats their outward symptoms (i.e. muscle/joint/bone injuries and aches), but also the functioning of the internal organs and fluids that govern our internal health energy levels. As Shaolin Monk Shifu Yan Lei writes about in his blog, if you only train the external muscles, your body will start to break down in the 20’s, maybe 30’s, but those who train their internal strength as well will be able to maintain their peak strength and stamina well into their 40’s and 50’s. You can read our interview with him here.
Not many people realize that Tom Brady’s guru, James Guerrero, started off as an acupuncturist and only later came into sports training by happenstance. You think someone who went to years of school studying Chinese Medicine, a school of thought that values prevention over cure and has over 10 different reasons why your body could be making the “inflammation” that his diet program is said to reduce, is coming up with his ideas by examining pages of western physiology? He may talk the talk of western medicine in order to sell his products and communicate his message, but i would bet good money that the original ideas come from his first career path in Eastern Medicine. One of the reasons why this globe reporter is so impressed with his approach is not because he is a movement expert —he doesn’t have a background as a coach. Guerrero is successful because he is one of the few people that is even examining relationships between diet, movement and healing. He’s taking dots and connecting them for athletes like Tom Brady, which is why he is revered by the future Hall of Fame athlete.
Harrison spends over a hundred thousand dollars per year on acupuncture. Why? In his words “because it works”. He feels, like Tom Brady, that it’s helped him stay at the top for as long as he has been. Which, looking at his body of work, says a lot. The NFL is brutal, with the average career spanning about three seasons. Skip to 1:21 to watch Harrison getting a form of acupuncture that looks to be dry needling — and no, getting that many needles is not a normal (or even desirable) treatment, but I suppose if you’re working on someone paying you a six figure salary per year, you do what he asks.
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