Apart from Super Bowl victories, a recurring ankle injury has accompanied Patrick Mahomes in the last two years. Despite the struggle, Mahomes has shown no signs of slowing down thanks to his incredible pain tolerance levels.
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However, according to his trainer Bobby Stroupe, the Chiefs QB’s secret isn’t just his endurance—it’s a carefully curated approach to preventing injury aggravation, enhancing recovery, and building resilience.
Stroupe recently sat down for a chat with fitness wearable giant, WHOOP’s CEO, Will Ahmed, where the fitness coach dropped the science behind Mahomes’ injury-free record despite persistent ankle pain.
While Stroupe admitted that his job is made easier by Mahomes’ high pain tolerance, the other half of his work involves thoroughly assessing the pain, training every athletic attribute [strength, endurance, flexibility, etc.], and conducting pregame checks to ensure Mahomes knows what movements his body can handle in game conditions.
Simply put, Mahomes optimizes his physical strengths while understanding his weaknesses and how to avoid aggravating them.
“Well, he’s got a high pain tolerance, but we like to be realistic about it… First, it’s to evaluate what this is, then we’re going to train every athletic attribute that we have available, and then, we’re going to make sure that before the game, we’re going to have metrics that prove what we can and can’t do. So he’s going to know what car he’s racing with.”
A pivotal part of this process is the specific communication between Stroupe and Mahomes. For instance, after analyzing the QB’s body metrics, the trainer informs the Chiefs star about his pocket plays—whether he should fight for extra yards or go down.
Stroupe said that honest, game-specific information like this is a gold mine for Mahomes, who is intelligent enough to adjust his plays based on his physical limitations.
“I’d rather just tell him, ‘Hey, this is going to hurt really bad and I want you to know that if you do this in the game for about 15 minutes, you’re going to have extreme pain but you’re also going to be okay… the more information, the better for someone as intelligent as Patrick as he can take that information and subconsciously, he’s going to solve problems with those limiting factors.”
Arguably the biggest example of Patrick Mahomes’ workload management system came in the final moments of Super Bowl LVII against the Eagles. For those who don’t remember, the Chiefs QB played cautiously throughout the matchup, wary of his ankle injury (sustained in the Divisional Round against the Jaguars).
But when push came to shove in the final quarter, Mahomes shook off any hesitation and ran at full speed on what became a game-winning drive. According to Stroupe, the QB knew that if he ran to his left, his body would resist—so he made the most of it. And boy, did Mahomes make it count, as the drive proved pivotal in the Chiefs’ 38-35 victory over the Eagles.
“If you go back and look in that game, there are times in the first quarter where he escaped right, just to let the Eagles know, ‘Hey, I will run but we talked about like if you ever run left or even at an angle to the left, it better be to win it because it’s gonna hurt. And if you go back and watch that last run of 25 yards that kind of sealed it… It was to the left.”
Like Jayden Daniels’ VR training, Patrick Mahomes’ detailed recovery and training strategy proves that players today need to break the traditional training mold to stand out. Here’s hoping more athletes adopt Mahomes’ workload management approach. After all, nothing sucks more than missing a game due to injury.
