ASHBURN Christian Wilkins Jersey , Va. (AP) — Sunglasses shield your eyes from the infrared lights that give oxygen to your body’s cells. Ugg boots, rubber gloves and shorts are the only protection from freezing temperatures as cold as minus 200 degrees. Then comes the sensory deprivation of floating pitch black in 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt while meditation music plays.And that’s just at work. At home is a custom-made mattress designed to get just the right amount of sleep.Massage tables, zero gravity chairs, a laser-therapy table that looks like a tanning bed, a cryotherapy chamber and giant float pods make up the Washington Redskins‘ state-of-the-art rest and recovery room.Combined with advanced mattress and pillow technology, it’s all part of Washington’s pursuit of better injury prevention and recovery after no NFL team put more players on season-ending injured reserve over the past two years combined.“It’s more like restoration,” head athletic trainer Larry Hess told The Associated Press during a recent visit to the recovery room. “There’s things in here that are setting their body up to perform better in the weight room, to perform better in their meetings mentally. Mental preparedness. That’s where our advantage is.”Professional and college sports teams are always looking for the next edge, and the Redskins hope they’re on the right track by zeroing in on rest and relaxation as a way to keep players healthier and more focused. The idea came from Hess and owner Dan Snyder visiting English Premier League soccer clubs and discovering after nutrition and player tracking, they considered sleep the next great frontier.Hess and player recovery director Hutch Call struck up a partnership early last season with Bedgear , which works closely with cutting edge owner Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks and provides Redskins players, coaches and staff with mattresses, pillows, sheets and blankets optimized for their needs. Call said focus gleaned from the right amount of sleep could be the difference between a receiver catching a ball and bringing it down and getting it knocked out of his hands http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-michael-deiter-jersey , plus there are more practical elements.“Our bodies go through a restoration process while we sleep, doing important things like balancing hormones related to tissue growth, stress control, appetite and weight management,” MIT research scientist and Bedgear sleep scientist and biometrics expert Lorenzo Turicchia said. “When a person does not get the right amount of sleep, their bodies will not be able to adequately repair damaged tissues, thus prolonging the healing time.”Redskins players have required plenty of healing. The team led the league with 27 players on injured reserve last season and put 19 players on in 2017 .Late in the 2017 season, since-released safety D.J. Swearinger criticized some teammates for not taking care of their bodies well enough to limit preventable injuries, which contributed to missing the playoffs.“You’re not supposed to wait till something happens to you to get treatment,” Swearinger said at the time. “You’re supposed to do stuff to prevent injuries, and I don’t think as a group we did that as much as other teams I’ve been on. … Some injuries are freak injuries.”Another injury happened Monday when linebacker Reuben Foster stepped on an offensive lineman’s foot and went down wrong on his left leg. Foster had to be carted off in another hard-luck injury for Washington that’s hard to prevent.“When you have broken bones, (torn) ACLs, things like that, you’re going to have those type of injuries,” Hess said.Hess said the team reduced soft-tissue injuries — such as sprains Garrett Bradbury Jersey , strains, tendinitis and damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments — by more than 50 percent last season. He hopes that progress will continue now that players have a full offseason to take advantage of the recovery room at the practice facility.After a typical Sunday game, massage therapists and a chiropractor are available for players on Monday and then again Friday. The recovery room is always open and sometimes is the location of meetings to help a player relax and not hunch over a desk while watching film.The three-step restoration process starts with a minimum of 12 minutes inside a photobiomodulation bed that resembles a tanning booth and uses three types of infrared light to help repair cells all over the body. Hess said it’s good for recovery and studies have shown it improves strength on lifts in the weight room.The next step is three finger-tingling minutes inside the cryotherapy chamber, where it feels difficult to breathe because the extreme cold tricks the body into rushing blood to major organs to survive. It’s different than getting in a cold tub full of ice or putting an ice bag on because the seconds and minutes after cryotheraphy come with an endorphin release capable of waking up a groggy player.“Your core body temperature shoots up because of the fight-or-flight,” Call said. “You just had everything (go) to your major organs. Now it’s just shooting back out in your bloodstream.”The coup de grace is up to an hour latched inside one of three Superior float tanks designed to take away all the senses and that can actually make players fall asleep. Hess said it’s supposed to replicate the weightless feeling of a baby in a womb, and it feels similar to floating in the Dead Sea.“It’s an amazing experience,” Hess said. “Our goal is to get them to that pre-sleep state to shut their body down. It will lower their heart rate. The temperature of the water replicates your body temperature. Really we’re taking all sensation out.”A player showers and puts on lotion to keep the salt from damaging skin, and then a lot of times it’s off to bed to rest up for the next grueling day. Quarterback Colt McCoy has been big on giving feedback on bedding technology because he and his wife sleep at different temperatures.“The mattress and pillows are comfortable and cool,” McCoy said Monday. “I don’t sweat at night thanks to their technology. I get a full night’s rest and feel recharged every morning.”Bedgear is also working to develop ankle pillows to help athletes elevate their feet after the stress of a game or practice.“It’s a problem that a lot of the players have when they’re on their feet for hours during a game and they’re getting sort of this compression and swelling in their lower limbs,” Bedgear vice president of strategy Shana Rocheleau said. “They just kind of hodgepodge things together today to put their feet up and try to get the blood flowing.”Coach Jay Gruden said players choose how much of the recovery techniques they want to get involved with, and that varies throughout the roster. He has tried out the recovery room devices himself, thinks they’re pretty cool and most importantly believes they’ll make a difference on the injury front.“Give these guys just another way to help them recover,” Gruden said. “The players, even if it gives them a mental state of mind where http://www.vikingsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-irv-smith-jr.-jersey , ‘Hey, I feel pretty good,’ then let’s give them every avenue to feel that way.” The best formula for success against the New England Patriots is to keep Tom Brady on the sideline and harass him when he’s on the field.
That’s not a news flash. But the good news for Eagles fans and everyone rooting against Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl is that Philadelphia has the ingredients to do it.
The Eagles (15-3) have a multidimensional, ball-control offense capable of chewing the clock and forcing No. 12 to be a spectator.
Jay Ajayi, former Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount and Corey Clement led the NFL’s third-best rushing offense and the Eagles were first in time of possession.
”You have to stay patient and diligent there,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. ”That’s something we’ve been able to do all season long. It’s something we stay committed to.”
This isn’t an old-school, ground-and-pound offense, either.
The Eagles have a versatile passing attack with several receivers who create matchup problems. Carson Wentz threw for 3,296 yards and 33 touchdown passes before he tore his ACL in Week 14 and Nick Foles has eight TD passes, including playoffs.
Foles proved in the NFC championship game he can make quick-strike plays with three passes of 40-plus yards against the league’s top-ranked defense. Two of those were TD tosses of 53 yards to Alshon Jeffery and 41 yards to Torrey Smith.
Pro Bowl tight end Zach Ertz and slot receiver Nelson Agholor are other options. Tight end Trey Burton, who also lines up at fullback in certain short-yardage situations, had five TD catches this season.
”You can’t just stop one guy,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. ”You can’t go out there and say, `if we just limit Jeffery or if we just limit Ertz that won’t matter.’ They have a lot of different guys out there that can beat you.”
Foles has been adept at making the right calls on run-pass option plays Alexander Mattison Jersey , making it even more difficult for defenses facing Philadelphia.
”It’s hard because you have to defend every inch of the field,” McCourty said. ”Each guy has to do their job on the play. We can’t have guys doing things that don’t fit the defense.”
On the opposite side of the ball, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has an aggressive unit. Nobody runs on Philadelphia’s defense. It was No. 1 against the run and didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher until Ezekiel Elliott had 103 in Week 17 against backups and third-stringers.
The Patriots (15-3) rely mainly on Brady’s arm, even though Dion Lewis had 896 yards rushing and James White was a Super Bowl hero last year. But Brady can’t throw if he doesn’t have time and the Eagles have a dominant front four led by Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham.
The line often generates enough pressure that Schwartz doesn’t have to blitz much and there’s enough depth with Chris Long, Vinny Curry, Tim Jernigan and Beau Allen that guys stay fresh in the fourth quarter.
Safety Malcolm Jenkins is a physical presence in the secondary and cornerbacks Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills are solid cover guys.
”They have a great defense,” Brady said. ”It’s as good any we’ve faced all year. They have a great scheme that mixes in well with their coverages.”
If the game comes down to a field goal, rookie kicker Jake Elliott has a strong leg. He kicked a 61-yarder at the end of regulation to beat the Giants in Week 3 and is 6 of 7 from beyond 50 yards.
The Eagles shouldn’t be tight and they’re not intimidated by the Patriots. They’re a loose, relaxed group that has embraced their underdog role throughout the playoffs and overcame injuries to several key players.
”Greatest quarterback of all time, but that doesn’t mean that he’s unbeatable,” Jenkins said of Brady. ”We’re not worried. We match up well.”