IRVING, Texas -- Perhaps the most important decision the Dallas Cowboys made during the season had nothing to do with what play to run on offense or defense. It had nothing to do with which player to sign or not sign.

Their most important decision may have been to hold Tony Romo out of Wednesday practices.

Romo did not skip a practice in the first two weeks of the regular season. He was sacked seven times in 73 dropbacks and hit an additional nine. He completed 63.6 percent of his passes and simply did not look comfortable.

At the time the decision was made, coach Jason Garrett said Romo was having "tightness" in his surgically repaired back.

But the decision wasn't made solely to help Romo's back. It was to help his legs, too. Because the focus of his offseason was rehabbing from the back surgery, Romo did not have the same leg strength. While he has continued to work on his core, glutes and hamstrings to help the back, he has done more weightlifting, including squats.

Romo's first pro coach, Bill Parcells, felt squats were incredibly important for a quarterback because the power comes from the legs. He would say that Vinny Testaverde, Romo's teammate in 2004, would be able to throw an NFL-quality pass until the quarterback was 50 because of his legs.

The results of not practicing Wednesdays were immediately spotted. Romo completed 78.3 percent of his passes in the Week 3 win at the St. Louis Rams. He threw two touchdown passes. He also had a 16-yard scramble for a first down.

"It's just trial and error and I think you figure out the way you feel and what you need to do," Romo said. "You're trying to fire that nerve. Back then it just wasn't reacting the way I wanted and you go through and you figure out how to do it so that you can be at your best on Sunday. In saying that, you've got to be able to do things to give yourself a chance to get a lot of work in during the week and we've got a good mix of that."

After opening the season with two touchdown passes and three interceptions in the first two games, Romo had 32 touchdown passes and six interceptions the rest of the way. He had a higher completion percentage in 10 of the final 13 games of the season than he had in the first two, and one of the three in which he didn't came on the quick turnaround on Thanksgiving.

The Cowboys wanted to limit Romo's consecutive days of work. In training camp he did not work more than two straight days. He sat out of two of their four preseason games.

"It's really no different than what you would do with any player coming off an injury," Garrett said. "What we found out and what he kind of expressed to us was, 'You know, I don't feel quite as good when I work three, four, five days in a row. It's better to work a couple and if we can work it out where I can take some time and then come back.' Typically, he felt better and he performed better. So it was really a case of us watching him, us getting his feedback over the course of training camp and preseason, just coming up with something we thought would work for him.

"Obviously it's a challenge not to have your starting quarterback work on your Wednesday practice. It's an important practice day."

So what does Romo do on a Wednesday?

He goes through the morning walk-through, then he heads to the weight room with strength and conditioning coach Mike Woicik while his teammates practice.

"It's strengthening your core, your glutes, and hamstrings and scrawny areas -- just strengthen areas around your back," Romo said. "On top of it is squatting stuff. There is a lot that goes into it. There is upper body. There are a lot of different things."

Typically, after his 90-minute session he will head to the practice field to go through the calls with passing game coordinator Scott Linehan as Brandon Weeden takes the snaps.

"We have done a great job," Romo said. "The training staff and the weight room staff, they have been fantastic this year."