We love talking to high-performing athletes who are already at the top of their game. This week we interviewed Jon Weeks about his life as an NFL long snapper for Houston Texans and what it takes on a daily basis for his successful career.
Jon has been a professional athlete for over ten years. His success can be attributed to building strong relationships with other athletes and staying healthy, off-the-field habits that he's developed over the years!
Listen to the full interview here.
Q: What measures do you take to sustain a long and successful career?
Jon Weeks: Yeah. So when I first got into the league, I was blessed with great teammates, guys that had a ton of knowledge that I was surrounded by. So what I did as a rookie was I just ate up all their knowledge. I would talk to future Hall of Famers like Andre Johnson and Shane Lechler. We had great tight ends, Owen Daniels, James Casey, and Joel Dreesen. Amazing running back, Arian Foster. And I would just pick these guys' brains and see what they did to sustain and be such elite athletes at the highest level.
And I would listen, take in all the knowledge, and then one thing they always told is.
"Hey, everything that I do might not work for you, so you find what works best for you, and if you find something that works, continue to do it."
So that's kind of what I did. I tried different things throughout my career, and I'd say probably about my third or fourth year in, I found a regimen and a routine that I found worked best for me, kept me the healthiest, and feeling the best when I had to perform on Sundays, and it's still a routine that I keep to this day.
Q: What are some staple parts of your routine that haven't changed?
Jon Weeks: So there's one big thing, and I thank this guy as many times as I can thank him, there's a doctor here in Houston. He goes by Dr. Casey Ho, and he has a family... He might get mad at me for saying this because he always says it's not, but acupuncture, chiropractor, but it's kind of family-taught acupuncture. And it's something that those guys introduced me to him, I got with him, and it's something that I can't go without for more than two weeks. I don't know what he does. What he does to me is special because it keeps me feeling great all the time. So I'm very thankful for him.
And then there's always the basics. After hard practice, there's deep tissue massage and cryotherapy. Something I swear by is contrasting the hot and the cold tubs when I can. That's something that works for me that I found is very effective. Maybe not for others, but something I do enjoy. So probably seeing Dr. Ho on a weekly to biweekly basis and the cryotherapy pools with the contrast and the hot and the cold tub are something that I have to do weekly, my routine.
Q: What Does #CultivateGreat Mean to You, and How Do You Apply It in Your Daily Life?
Jon Weeks: Cultivate great. Basically, cultivate growing, right? So in this business, you always have to find ways to grow, to be able to produce, to keep staying on the field. As amazing as the NFL is, at the end of the day, it is a business, so at times, if you're staying stagnant, if you keep doing what you did previously, although you might have been successful, you're not growing, so some teams might start looking in other directions. So basically, what I do is I try to go back, and I try to look at the season that I had just played. Regardless of how good or how bad, I try to have a very honest opinion, and then I try to grow and see where I can get better for the next year so that Houston has an interest in bringing me back.
I try not to get too stagnant. I try to see how my position is evolving, and I try to grow and keep producing at a high level because as long as I'm producing at a high level, I think I can play this game as long as I want to play it. When I feel like I've gotten comfortable and where I just don't see like I need to improve anymore, I think that'll be the day someone catches me, and unfortunately, I might not be able to play anymore.
Listen to the full conversation here.
Bottom Line
Are you interested in learning more about Jon's athletic career? Listen to the full interview with Jon Weeks and Reina Iizuka on our YouTube Channel.
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