HJNO Jan/Feb 2022

TRANSFORMATION 16 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   overall wellness play a much more substan- tial role in the choices I make. Editor You seem to have had an awakening. How does one go from 300 pounds to 210? What does losing that much weight feel like, and were you and are you now at optimal health? Fontenot I would say that my awaken- ing was no flash of bright light, nor did it involve a burning bush speaking to me ... but an awakening I did have, of the educa- tional variety, and it evolved over years of my experience and the wisdom from some masters that taught me along the way. First off, in my journey down from 300 pounds playing weight, I must admit that I had to manufacture the body that I fielded every Sunday. If I had let my body do what it naturally wanted to, I probably would’ve weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 pounds. So, in losing the first 25 to 30 pounds, it literally required no effort on my part. Just by virtue of the fact that I no longer trained as I did early in my career, I was afforded some assistance with a some- what speedy return to a more natural physi- cal state. I remember walking into the gym (at 38 years old) for the first time after I retired (2005) and realized that it was the first time (maybe in my entire life) that I was in com- plete control of what workout I was going to do! So, naturally, I performed all of the lifting that I felt strong in and made me feel better about myself — ego-boosting lifts is what I refer to them as. Over time, I incorporated more cardio into my workouts, and it was all interval training-based, as that’s what I was trained to do. It didn’t matter if I was doing elliptical, treadmill or sprint work, everything worked around a 40-second rest period (mirroring the NFL play clock) between reps. As I grew older, my weight kept natu- rally dropping, and I remember settling in at about 240 pounds. At that point, I decided to do more distance training on the treadmill and worked up to running 5 miles per day, which melted away more weight. I remem- ber bottoming out at around 218 pounds and thought, I don’t recognize the guy in the mirror … nor did many former teammates! When I coached for the Green Bay Packers and we were playing the NewOrleans Saints at Lambeau field, I was on the field during pregame warmups and purposely came to stand behind Deuce McAllister. He looked at me and greeted me with a kind, “Hey, Coach,” as soon as he heard my voice; he did a complete double take, and I gave him a big hug. He couldn’t believe my transforma- tion at that time. My weight has fluctuated consistently between then (2006) and now quite a bit. There were yearly segments of intense training, followed by intense burn- out — in which case I would take years off from working out. In 2019, Coach Winston Moss of the XFL Wildcats, who I was coaching with, wanted his staff to watch a movie entitled “The Game Changers.” From that day for- ward, the trajectory of my journey to opti- mal health changed forever! The premise of the movie was essentially a study on vegan diets and athletes. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of information through academic study and science. Since then, I have read peer reviewed scientific studies on my own, I have listened to podcasts fea- turing bio mechanics, fitness, neurobiology, nutrition and plenty more to gather all of the information I can digest. I can tell you that today, my body physically feels as good as it ever has, my weight is pretty steady between 212 to 215 pounds. Many of the old aches and pains that I had at 300 pounds no lon- ger plague me. I am still able to work out to my satisfaction, play golf, walk my dog and move furniture ... with the help of a friend or two! Editor You have been gifted in your 16- year NFL playing career to not be injury prone. Why do you think that is? Fontenot Well, allowme to shed a little light on your first thought with simply stating one fact: in my 16-year playing career, I missed a total of 12 games due to anACL reconstruc- tion in 1998. That’s not to say that I wasn’t injured at other times in my career, I cer- tainly was. In 1990, which was my second year in the NFL, I sustained an 80% torn pectoral muscle for which I didn’t miss any games, because I chose to wear a shoulder harness to enable me to play through the injury. It was incredibly painful and very risky in terms of exposing myself to further injury, thus I would never recommend that anyone do the same as I did! Now, why was it that I was able to maintain good health through most of the other 242 games? After my first season with the Chicago Bears, one of my teammates, Keith Van Horne, shared with me that he was work- ing out in the offseason with the Chicago Bulls strength and conditioning coaches at that time, Al Vermeil and Erik Helland. I was intrigued with the idea, so I began working with Al and Erik after my rookie season. Their approach to training was markedly different from anything I had ever been exposed to. They talked about things like active stretching, functional strength train- ing, core strength, strengthening stabilizer muscles, low-impact conditioning and active recovery. I firmly believe that I was able to stay as healthy as I did for as long as I did due to these basic principles. With regard to functional strength train- ing, we focused on technique and not as much on the amount of weight being lifted ... at first, anyway. They wanted to ensure that I could train safely, not exposing myself to possible injury in the weight room. Many of our lifts were Olympic lifts, which typ- ically involved lifting heavier weights but with fewer reps, which, if not performed correctly, would have most certainly exposed me to unnecessary injuries. They had extended warmup protocols, which were referred to as “dynamic warmup” (I affectionately referred to them as dynamic conditioning!) in which, before every work- out, I would spend anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes warming up to execute my work- outs. The same amount of time was spent in active recovery, which involved stretching