👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #84 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4 min read):
👃 Breathe slow
Why are we told to slow our breathing in sports and exercise?
Don’t we want more oxygen coming in?
Turns out, there’s actually two reasons why slowing our breathing improves our performance...
1. 💥 Nervous system
Fast breathing activates our sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system.
This is normal and natural when we exercise. We need a certain amount of sympathetic drive to have the energy and mental sharpness to perform.
But too much and we get over aroused. This can kill our ability to focus, make good decisions, and control our excitement.
Slowing our breathing helps balance our nervous system. So we're better at making the right decisions under pressure in a game, executing on skills under fatigue or staying in control of our race strategy.
2. 🩸 The Bohr Effect
The more we breathe, the more carbon dioxide we get rid of.
Good, right? CO2 is a waste product isn’t it? Not quite…
See, oxygen gets transported around the body by a protein in our red blood cells called haemoglobin. It carries oxygen to our brain and organs, to our working muscles and tissues.
But for oxygen to be offloaded at these sites, carbon dioxide has to be present.
Without it, oxygen can’t unbind from haemoglobin. And our organs and tissues don’t get the oxygen they need.
We can think of haemoglobin as a train and oxygen as the passengers.
The passengers (oxygen) get on the train (haemoglobin) at the first stop (lungs).
The train (haemoglobin) then takes the passengers (oxygen) to all the different stops (organs and tissues) in the body.
But the doors of the train don’t open by themselves at each stop. We need carbon dioxide there to open them for us.
So when we over-breathe and lower our carbon dioxide levels, we’re limiting how much oxygen gets absorbed by our working muscles and organs.
Decreased performance.
The easiest way to slow our breathing while we’re working is by breathing through our noses for as long as possible.
A classic 1996 study put a group of professional cyclists on bikes. Over several minutes, the resistance was gradually increased and the test got harder and harder.
The first time they were instructed to breathe through their mouths only. The second time through their noses only.
The results? Just by switching from mouth to nose, they saw
- 💨 Breathing rates were lower (slower breathing—one subject went from 47 to 14 breaths/min)
- ❤️ Lower heart rates
- 😥 Lower perceived effort (felt easier)
So to slow our breathing during activity, breathe through the nose as long as possible (there are nose dilators that can make it easier).
To slow our breathing during rest/breaks in play, use the downshift method from newsletter #72.
To train slower breathing, try Amelia Boone’s breathing ladders from newsletter #40.
It'll mean we're sharper mentally. And so we've got more oxygen getting delivered where it's needed most.
Slow you're breathing. Accelerate your performance.
🎥 Video: 10% skill, 90% balls
Some insane downhill biking footage to spark up your Friday.
Sound on.
Watch here.
🚶 6 graphs that might convince you to walk more
A study of over 6,000 people looked at the relationship between daily steps and health outcomes.
The summary: 8,200 steps a day seems to be the magic number for avoiding chronic disease.
I've found implementing an ABC rule is a great way to hit step goals.
🟢 A. On your good days = 12,000 steps
🟡 B. Average days (most) = 10,000 steps
🔴 C. Bad days = 8,000 steps
If you’re not strapped up to a watch... get a cheap pedometer, use your phone, or analog it (10 mins is roughly 1,000 steps) and start tracking this stuff.
Training alone isn’t enough for living better, longer.
✌️
👋 Wanna solve your biggest health/performance struggle in 20 mins? Get your very own health and performance game plan (it's free). 5-star feedback so far. Learn more here.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
📬 Did someone forward this to you? I send an email like this every week. Join free here.
💬 Enjoyed this one or have anything interesting to share? Hit reply and let me know. It's motivating. I reply to every message.
👇 If these emails aren't for you anymore you can unsubscribe below. No stress, they're not for everyone.
Want more? Check out the Everday Athlete Toolbox
The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service and is not a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information given in this email is general in nature, written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
0 comments