Super Bowl MVP Says This Has Kept Him Playing
Hey my friend! Happy Friday!
As you probably know, this past Sunday my hometown football team won the Super Bowl. It was the Kansas City Chiefs second championship in a row and their 3rd in 5 seasons. People are already calling them a dynasty.
Much of the success they’ve had can be attributed to the incredible play of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is only 28 years old, but he has already won 3 Super Bowls and 3 Super Bowl MVP awards. He is the youngest player in the history of the four major sports to do that. Pretty amazing.
As is the case with any high-level athlete, Mahomes’ success has been due to a combination of natural talent (which he has ALOT of) AND proper training. Natural talent gives him innate abilities and training helps him maximize those abilities.
In his case (and in the case of other athletes), his training has also helped him recover much faster from injuries and in some cases- avoid them all together. This was the subject of a recent article written about him.
In the game just before the Super Bowl, Mahomes was tackled in a way that would cause many QB’s to have a serious knee injury. But, according to Mahomes, his training was critical to him avoiding getting hurt.
You can read about that here- Chiefs QB Says That Workouts With His Trainer Helped Him Avoid Injury in AFC Championship Game
This is something I preach constantly to my clients- if you want to stay orthopedically healthy…you MUST train the muscles (and the motions) you will need for YOUR specific lifestyle.
For instance, if you play tennis, golf or some other sport- you need to train certain muscles and positions that relate to that sport.
Similarly, if you need (or want) to climb stairs, take walks, do housework, garden, pick up kids or grandkids, or do anything else physical- you need to train the muscles and motions relevant to those things.
Now of course, you probably don’t need to worry too much about having a severe acute injury like Patrick Mahomes, but this same principle holds true for preventing (or recovering from) problems that gradually get worse over time and cause more chronic pain.
So, all that being said, I’d encourage you to follow the lead of athletes and train for the movements and activities that you will encounter in life…so you can avoid pain and injury. Maybe we should call that being a “Lifelete.”
Happy training,
Chris