Bill Romanowski | Romo

Just got back from a long weekend in Boise, Idaho at the BodyBuilding.com convention.  What an event!  Tons of people, tons of products, and even a “Mr. Puny-verse” contest for the skinny guys - gotta hit the gym!

Two of our awesome Nutrition53 reps, Lisa and Erika, were at the show with me and they got to talk to alot of our customers and some football fans.  We took hundreds of photos and will have them uploaded on this site soon, so if you were at the show and are looking for your picture, please check back this week! 

My birthday was last week, and my good friend Lenny sent me this picture as a “present.” Thanks Lenny.  Everyone in the Nutrition53 office got a good laugh at this picture of me as an early teenager playing hoops.  I am not sure what I was thinking in terms of my training attire, but luckily now my wife Julie helps me avoid similar wardwrobe disasters. 

Anyway, my point in sharing this funny picture with you is to express that everyone has a starting point, wherever that might be.  And the route from point A to point B is simple: you figure out where you want to go, you determine your strategy to get there, and then you execute with hard work and determination.

So when you get done laughing at this picture, just remember that we all start somewhere.  And it’s where we end up that’s important.

“Dear Romo, I hope that this message finds you.  First, I am a huge fan who has nothing but respect for you.  I read your book and loved it.  I am captain of the wrestling team at my high school, wrestling is an extremely strenuous sport and I was hoping you could give me some advice on how best to approach the pain and inflammation.  I read about DMSO in your book but a prescription is necessary to purchase that, if there were any other products, exercises, or other great little tricks you know of I would love to hear about them.  Thank you so much for all of the information.”

-Chris

First of all, Chris, thank you very much for your comment and question here on this site.  It’s awesome to hear from a young athlete who is taking care of his body and striving to be better.  I can tell you have the right attitude to reach your goals, both in sports and other avenues of life.

On to tackling the issues of pain and inflammation.  There are many tricks and some strategies will have various levels of effectiveness for each person.  Since Chris is a young, high-school aged athlete, I want to stress a pain and inflammation management strategy that is simple yet very effective on minor injuries.  It’s easy to remember since it’s an acronym: R.I.C.E.  That stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  Here’s more details on how you can maximize your recovery and minimize your pain and inflammation by following these simple guidelines:

Rest- Your body actually makes fitness and strength gains AFTER your workout, when your body rests, recovers, and repairs from the damage inflicted during a hard workout.  For developing athletes, make sure you give yourself at least one full day of rest and recovery from your training or competition per week so that you can actually gain the benefits of your hard work.  Also, be sure to get some good nutrition with a mix of healthy carbohydrates for energy, lean protein for building muscle, and heart conscious fats to stay balanced - healthy oils are an important part of complete nutrition as well.  Let your body rest immediately after your work and be sure to always get a good night of sleep. This will also prevent over-training injuries and help keep your energy levels up, which is equally important as being strong.  If you are injured or sick, give your body the rest it needs to repair itself so you can get back to training in top form as opposed to training through injuries and never reaching 100%.

Ice- If you have any injuries or pain during or after a workout, it is important to ice the injured area.  It’s best to apply ice with thin towel between you and the ice pack to protect your skin.  Apply ice for 15 minutes, then remove ice for 15 minutes, and re-apply ice.  This helps to reduce inflammation in the injured area and also stimulate circulation and repair.

Compression- Reduce pain and inflammation by gently wrapping an injury with an sports bandage or using a compression brace, if applicable.  Your coach or sports trainer may help you apply the sports bandage and also gauge the tightness for you.  The sports bandage should be tight enough to offer support and reduce inflammation, while still allowing sufficient circulation to the injured area. 

Elevation- Elevate injured areas (or even taxed muscle groups) above your heart to reduce inflammation.  I have found this greatly reduces the pain in my legs after a hard day of lifting with my legs or a track workout.  You can elevate while you ice or compress as well.  Elevation is extremely important if you have any noticeable swelling.

R.I.C.E. is a simple strategy that anyone can do at home or in a modest training facility.  However, I can’t over-stress its effectiveness at reducing pain and inflammation, and also preventing injuries.  If you have a specific pain or injury that persists despite the R.I.C.E. strategy, be sure to communicate with your coach and talk to a doctor.  Minor injuries can develop into larger problems if they are not addressed early on. 

Chris, good luck in with your wrestling season!

Romo here.  I want to tell you about a time in my football career when I had to stretch myself far beyond my limits to reach my own personal goals and the goals of a Denver Bronco.  It’s a story about looking within and then going the extra step to make your goals happen.

In an AFC Championship game between the Broncos and the NY Jets, Vinny Testaverdi of the Jets threw a screen pass away from me to Curtis Martin.  I reacted to the screen and started flying towards him.  With the game close and running at full speed, I launched my body into him like a human missile.  I hit him so hard that he did a 360 spin, and went down to the ground.  I did a 180 spin, and came down as well, reeling and dizzy.

Not only did I hurt him, but I also hurt myself.  I needed help off the ground and I wobbled to the sideline, out of the game and right during crunch time.  I went to the bench and sat in John Elway’s lap!  I didn’t even know where I was for a few plays.  As I was recuperating from the impact, I realized that this game was on the line and the outcome would determine if we went to the Super Bowl or not that season.  This game determined if I would reach my goals, or not.

Despite my self-inflicted physical state at the time, I had to get back into the game.  Team doctors came over and asked me easy questions regarding the game and my birthday to test my mental state, but those silly questions were hard for me to answer.  My only response was “I’m fine, stop asking me these stupid questions.”

Medical professionals would call it foolish, but the warrior in me had to be out on the battlefield to help my team get to the Super Bowl.  Winning the Super Bowl.  Whatever it took, I would do it. 

When you have goals and adversity, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there.  That day, it meant playing even when I was injured, even when it wasn’t the smartest thing for my health.  It meant sacrificing whatever was demanded for the success of the team.  We won the game and went on to win Super Bowl XXXII that year, and I knew I had made the right decision.

When you make the decision to sacrifice whatever it takes to help carry your team, it means stretching yourself beyond your limits.  There are days when you feel you have done everything you can, given everything you have.  On those days, you have to breathe and stretch yourself even more, beyond where you have gone and go one step further.  That’s how you reach your goals.

No matter what you are doing, it always takes hard work to get the results you want.

Last week I got to spend some extra time with my son because my wife Julie and our daughter were out of town skiing. He is really into La Crosse right now and it appears he is just starting to understand the relationship of hard work and results. You work hard, you get results. For me, it’s exciting to watch his eyes opening up to this relationship and when we train together, I can tell he is putting in the effort it takes to get where he wants to go with the sport.

I have to remind him that everyone at the top puts in their fair share of time and hard work. NFL players, movie stars, artists, business owners . . . it all takes time, energy, and attention to detail. And at my own business at Nutrition53, I have to remind myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day (check out the N53 Team above unloading the truck). My football career wasn’t built in a day - it was 20 years of hard work on the field and in the weight room, and it also took the support of my family and friends. Small steps everyday ends in big results over time, no matter what game you are playing.

When you look at your goal and the road you need to travel to get there, I want you to remember that Rome wasn’t built in day. Anything worth accomplishing doesn’t just happen in a day. It takes time, it takes committment everyday - and eventually you will get where you want to be.

Romo here.  Today I am going to tell you something very important I learned during my first college football practice.  It’s a lesson about keeping your head up, and your eyes on the goal.  I learned that early in my football career, on a day when I was scared and intimated, yet determined to success.

It was 1984, I was 18 years old, and it was my first practice at Boston College.  Butterflies in my stomach, the unknown, me against the world, me against giants, being scared, but knowing I gotta go anyways to accomplish my goals. 

I had to prove to myself as well as to Boston College that they made the right decision in giving me the scholarship I had dreamed of as a kid.  When I took the field, the first drill we did is what’s called an “Oklahoma Drill.”  Imagine me at 220 lbs against 280-lb guard Steve Trapillo.  I took him on.  I shedded the block and put my head down into running back Ken Bell with full force.  Coach Jack McNell ran over to me, yelling in my face, saying, “Good job kid - but if you don’t keep your head up you are going to break your neck.”

Sometimes they seem like giants, sometimes it’s overwhelming, sometimes it’s scary, but it’s being scared and doing it anyway that makes things happen.  That’s what make you overcome obstacles.  Being who and what you are to the best of your abilities and going for it at full force.  And to be at full force, you have got to take care of yourself.  You have to take care of your nutrition, your focus, your body, and your fitness.

I am not an 18-year-old college freshman now, and while I still make mistakes, they aren’t the same as the ones then.  I still go after my goals with tenacity, but with a little more smarts.  I want you to go after your goals with the same tenacity as I did in football.  And when you are going after your goals, never put your head down.  Because you’ve got to know where you are going.  You’ve got to be ables to see up the field.  Never put your head down, no matter how scared you are - it’s the only way you can keep your eyes on your goal.

Photo credit to my good friend and photographer Glen Schmelter

Henry, Sean Penn, and Dalton on the set of the Harvey Milk film, starring Penn.

I met Sean Penn about four years ago when I was doing a movie in New Orleans called “Shooting Gallery.”  Saw him sitting at the bar at my hotel and I decided to introduce myself because I had always been a fan.  Sean doesn’t know much about football but he had heard my name and watched some games.

We just kind of talked and connected when we met.  He invited me out that night with him, and although I had a dinner meeting with someone, we ended up meeting up for dessert.  Around 11 o’clock, we connected and we stayed up until about 5 am in the morning, just talking about life - real stuff.  A very intense person and I realized that he was a very loyal friend to the people he cares about.  That was one of the reasons I was drawn to him as a friend.

We stayed in touch over the last four years and I got a call from his assistant about a month and a half ago that he was filming the Harvey Milk movie in San Francisco and he would like me to come by the set.  Somehow schedules got crossed and by the time I planned to stop by the set, it ended up being the last day of filming.  To see Sean in his trade and the intensity and the realness he brings to the part - I think the film is just going to blow people away.

My son Dalton and his friend Henry are really into film; they both are taking a film class at their high school and just love it.  Julie and I brought Dalton and Henry by the set and we had a chance to make a “once in a lifetime” experience for those two boys.  Sean couldn’t have been more gracious and respectful, introducing us to all the different cast members and AD’s.  There were a lot of football fans - 49ers, Raiders fans, Bronco’s fans.  In general, it was just a really memorable day for me and my family.

For Julie and me, one of the best things about the day was being able to take our son and his friend and make a memory that will last through their lifetimes.  One thing I know as a parent is that you have to take advtantage of every chance you get to build those memories with your children. 

Romo, Sean Penn, and Julie Romanowski in the set trailer while filming in San Francisco recently.

Romo here.  I want to tell you the story behind how I harnessed my passion for sports and how I learned to recognize the powerful tools of practice, repetition, and persistence.  It all began with a gift I received for my tenth birthday.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of extra money.  But for my tenth birthday, my mom and dad got me a full-sized basketball hoop that we could set up in our driveway - I was thrilled.  My dad went to the junkyard and found an old, rusty, 20 foot light post.  We bolted a hoop right onto that old light post and I added a fresh coat of white paint.  Since the light post was almost 20 feet tall, my older brother dug a ten-foot hole in the ground just so the hoop would be exactly 10 feet tall.  We secured the light post to the hoop, poured cement, and added outdoor lights.  Finally my court was complete.  From that day forward when I would watch the Boston Celtics play on TV, I’d run out to shoot hoops during every commercial break, pretending I was Larry Bird.

The more I practiced, the more hoops I made; it was my first positive feedback I got from sports.  Every time I would practice under my outdoor lights, I would make more and more shots.  The excitement fueled me for the next time I was going to go out and shoot more.  We didn’t have video games and those sorts of distractions when I was growing up, so night after night I would go out and shoot hoops, day or night, rain or shine, snow and ice.  It was a big deal for me to have a hoop, especially one with lights.  I loved the positive reinforcement of what I was doing.  I could see, hear, and feel the improvement.  Nothing was going to stop me from shooting hoops and stop the rush that athleticism gave me.  This is how I found my passion for sports and how I started to recognize how practice, repetition, and persistence paid off.  That’s how it started for me.  Out on the basketball court, shooting one basket after another. 

I want you to figure out what it is that really gets you going - your passion.  And then I want you to understand all the components of your passion and your success.  To do this you need to ask yourself a lotof questions about your fears, your goals, and your actions.  Basically, what are your excuses for not doing what it is you want to achieve?  Turn those excuses into opportunities to improve yourself. 

When you ask yourself those questions, when you fuel your body right, and when you really find your passion, nothing can stop you from being successful.