Professor

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...06-666986.html

Full steam ahead for McNabb

By REUBEN FRANK
phillyBurbs.com

PHILADELPHIA — A year ago right around now, Donovan McNabb first tweaked himself lifting weights. That slight strain eventually grew into a pull that eventually morphed into a sports hernia that finally became the torn groin that ended his season.

That injury and its dramatic affects have had a huge impact on McNabb.

His offseason training regimen isn't the same anymore.

“Actually, I'm doing more now,” McNabb said. “I'm not going to pull back just because I got hurt last year. Hopefully, I'll avoid that happening again, but I'm not going to pull back on lifting. I have to prepare myself to be in the best shape I can be going into training camp and into the season.”

McNabb will head back to Arizona after this current minicamp ends a week from tomorrow before returning to the East Coast in mid-July to get ready for training camp, which opens on July 20 at Lehigh.

“I'm continuing to work on flexibility and a lot of core training and working in the weight room,” he said.

Is that the smartest thing? Considering everything he's just been through?

“It's like telling a little kid in a candy store you can't take any candy,” he said. “I'm a competitor. When we're walking to the cafeteria, I'm not going to slow down — I'm going to try to beat you.

“You've got to feel comfortable in your body if you want to be the guy with his shirt of by the pool.”

McNabb, who endured a nightmarish season in 2005, appears healthy again. He seems to making all the throws he needs to make in minicamp, he's lost a lot of weight, he seems fit, he's moving around well.

But this is all with shorts and helmets. The real stuff doesn't start until pads go on and everybody is full speed at Lehigh.

“I'd like to say I'm 100 percent, but you never know until you put the pads on,” McNabb said. “I feel like I'm getting stronger and improving my flexibility.”

McNabb put off surgery all year before finally hitting rock bottom in the Nov. 14 loss to the Cowboys at the Linc. That was the Roy Williams game, McNabb's third straight loss, a nationally televised disaster, his final appearance of the season before surgery two weeks later.

By that point, McNabb was a shell of his usual self, unable to move, unable to throw across his body, unable to put the ball anywhere near where he wanted.

“The Dallas game, that's where everything kind of exploded,” he said after yesterday's minicamp practice at the NovaCare Complex. “Maybe the best thing for me would have been to have the surgery sooner, but I still thought I could help the team out.”

Once he returns home to Arizona, McNabb's workouts will again be supervised by his private trainers, the same guys who were overseeing his lifting and conditioning schedule when McNabb initially got hurt last summer.

But McNabb insists there's nothing to worry about.

“We went into it thinking, "Push it till it starts to bother you a little, and then back off,'” he said. “But so far we haven't gotten to that point. They're always asking me, "You OK? You want to back off?' But I just want to push it.

“I had enough rest where I think everything has healed and now we can build muscle around the scar tissue. Really, I don't think this is going to be a problem.”