In this episode of The Undercurrent Podcast, Saquon Barkley describes starting with the Neubie 4-5 months after his ACL surgery and how it immediately helped him activate his dormant VMO (one of the primary quad muscles). He goes on to share how he continued to use it during the rest of his rehab process, plus how he has made it a part of his routine for activating his muscles before practices and games and dealing with the little issues that come up during training camp and the NFL season.
Garrett: Welcome to a very special episode of the undercurrent podcast we recorded this one on site with Saquon Barkley of the new york giants and in this episode, we are talking with Saquon about his experience recovering from season-ending knee surgery he had an ACL and meniscus injury in week two of the NFL season last year and has been working like heck to get back get his body ready for this season and we’ve been very blessed to be able to work with him and support him we started working with him part of the way through his rehabilitation journey here and he was very gracious in sitting down with us talking about his experience using the newbie during his rehabilitation process and we also have some footage on our other channels so you can see the workout that we did together here in new york and without further delay here is an excerpt from my conversation with Saquon Barkley.
Garrett: So let’s uh let’s kind of walk through this here when you tour your ACL week two of last season and had meniscus damage also had surgery what was uh what was your recovery like those first few months after surgery?
Saquon Barkley: well with the meniscus tear I really wasn’t able to do too much just restrict it based on the doctor’s instructions because with the meniscus tear so um you know a lot of people tore their ACL last year a lot of people that I know and you know like their rehab and my rehab was like totally different um completely different so for the first couple months I was restricted but whatever I was limited to do I just try to attack it full speed um and those critical months and beginning try to set myself up for better um when I’m able to get back on the field.
Garrett: Awesome awesome and then at what point along that recovery journey at what point did you first use the Neubie?
Saquon: I started using the Neubie probably around four or five months ago um I used the Neubie before before I ever got hurt I mean my pt we use it we use a mapping mode to see where some signals on my body that I needed to go attack and we would work on that but you know I kind of reached out to you guys because obviously my rehab you know I had amazing rehabbing process and we have a team um from you know the giants from excels from elite ortho so many people involved that helped me uh to this point but I just wanted to find something that’ll take me over that edge and help push me through that in around four to five months when I knew i was able my limitations gonna kind of be lifted uh slowly but shortly uh that’s when i started using Neubie.
Garrett: Awesome and what was your experience like the first time you added in the Neubie? How’d it feel? What’d it do for you?
Saquon: Yeah well i called it my little cheat code. Um it’s just it’s a thing that helps you get activated and something that I wish that they didn’t take me to get hurt to realize but just you know as being a professional and taking care of your body made you realize that obviously, it’s important to put the right stuff in your body to do stretching but activation is really key and you know I thought I was doing all the right things to prevent myself from injury before but now that I know my little cheat code can help me get me going a lot quicker a lot faster than prior something I’m definitely going to have to use into my routine not only with my work ethic and workouts offseason and end season but prior to games and pregame and get my bike activated the best I can to go out there and play to my best capability.
Garrett: When you use it um like you’re talking about activating you know before or before intense practice or before a game how do you how does it make you feel?
Saquon: Um well it helped me in the beginning because like I said i was very limited and when you’re not able to go past 60 degrees and you know it’s only so much you can really do for your quad you lose a lot of muscle had a lot of atrophy and um you know literally the day after I started using the Neubie I saw my VMO wake up again um. I knew it was there but just needed a little more activation to have it wake up and to be able to use my muscles properly again so that was kind of like the beginning phases and now it’s to you know safe I gotta we’ve got a big practice coming up or a big session a throwing session it’s something I would throw on and put on while I’m stretching while I’m pre-rehabbing getting myself ready for the football game or football practice and I’ll use that so I can go out there activate myself not only to perform at a high level but to know to keep me safe and you know to build confidence in my leg again.
Garrett: Awesome awesome anything else about your experience that stands out anything else top of mind?
Saquon: Biggest thing for me that i would take from Neubie uh you know me and evan kind of argued about it a little bit the the methods that you can do and the procedure that you can do to actually help with your ligaments and what you’re tending you know sometimes athletes you know we got to feel something so we can go go go but you could put it on your knee and have the currency crossways and really help benefit you with healing also so that’s something that you know I gotta I see that helps a lot um and you know like I said being an athlete you wanna feel like that is actually working but it’s just this little currency that’s going through your body but when i go to sleep I’ll do it before i go to bed and I’ll wake up I can feel complete difference awesome and now that you’ve been back through a more intense weekly preparation routine getting in practice getting contact again has it impacted at all your recovery day over day over day as you start to accumulate any of that fatigue um yes it’s definitely I would say the biggest way just like how you will see when you see the video is the mapping and seeing where I need to go attack because every week is something different especially when you come off injury a major injury like like my knee your body overcompensate a lot and you know those are things you want to prevent from future injuries at the same time but seeing that using that process and using that method to go seek and destroy and get myself prepared so that I know I can go out there and put myself in the best position to play safely healthy and to play my best capability.
Garrett: That’s awesome thank you for sharing that and you as you go through you know if you if you have when you have some hits in practice and as you get fatigued during the week you notice that the spots shift and you gotta kind of work new areas or new things pop up.
Saquon: Yeah definitely knows the spots uh shift um it definitely I wouldn’t say it’s it’s a fun process um you know it definitely shocks your body but it’s for good reason and it’s showing you what you need to work on and showing you when you attack
Garrett: Absolutely and I appreciate and just want to acknowledge the work that you’ve put in because it is it’s you got to push yourself through discomfort and really really invest in order to get that return on the back end and you’re doing it so I want to acknowledge that and say thank you for the work you’ve put in and thank you for sharing your story you know with everyone who’s listening to this as well.
