💪 The everyday athlete newsletter #39

👋 Hey.

Welcome to issue #39 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.

Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week:

💨 CO2 tolerance

Here’s what happens when we breathe:

1. We breathe in oxygen
2. Our cells convert that oxygen to energy
3. The process creates carbon dioxide (CO2) as a by-product
4. CO2 builds up in the body
5. Which tells our brain we need to breathe
6. We exhale CO2 and inhale oxygen
7. The cycle repeats

(The process is known as gas exchange)

Okay.

So it’s not a need for oxygen, but a need to get rid of CO2 that triggers our breathing.

And the amount of CO2 build-up we can handle in the body is known as CO2 tolerance.

It’s different for everyone.

The cool thing is we can improve our ability to tolerate CO2.

Why?

Because improving our tolerance can have a heap of positive effects on both physical and mental performance. When we do, a few things happen:

1. 🧘 We start taking deeper, slower breaths (because the trigger to breathe – CO2 build-up – isn’t firing all the time)

This activates our parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system. Which calms us down, reduces anxiety and improves our mental clarity and focus.

It also improves our breathing efficiency. Which means more oxygen to our muscles and organs. We can run further. Think clearer.

2. ⛽️ More efficient gas exchange (oxygen to CO2)

More oxygen moves from the haemoglobin (protein in the blood that transports oxygen) to the cells. This is known as the Bohr effect. Which, again, means more oxygen to our muscles and organs.

3. 😌 We train our bodies to deal with stress

CO2 is like a stressor. The more we can handle, the better we get at handling real-life stressors. (Interestingly similar to how cold and heat exposure improves our stress response).

So, some pretty good stuff.

But if your CO2 tolerance is low, think the opposite (faster, shallower breathing; constantly in fight-or-flight; poor at managing stress; less oxygen to the muscles and organs). Not ideal for our performance.

So how do we improve our CO2 tolerance?

First, we need to figure out where we’re at.

The CO2 tolerance test (takes about 2 minutes):

1. 🌬 Take four deep breaths in and out through your nose
2. 🫁 Take one more inhale (fill your stomach and lungs to the max)
3. ⏱ Start a timer and breathe out slowly through your mouth for as long as you can

Sweet. So, now we know where we’re at:

• < 20 seconds = poor
• 20-40 seconds = average
• 40-60 seconds = good
• 60 seconds = great

Righto, how do we improve it?

Well, you can go into the mountains and do hypoxic (low oxygen environment) training... Or you can do some practical things, like:

1. 👃 Nose breathing (in your day-to-day and in training). More on that here from an earlier newsletter

2. 📦 Breathing exercises e.g. a few mins a day of box breathing (how-to) where the sides of the box are determined by your CO2 tolerance score:

▪️ < 20 seconds = 2-3 second box sides

▪️ 20-40 seconds = 4-5 second box sides

▪️ 40-60 seconds = 6-7 second box sides

▪️ 60 seconds = 8-12 second box sides

(Adjust as you need to so you can do it comfortably)

3. 🏃 Cardio training

Something to think about (particularly if your score’s on the lower end).

It’s such an accessible and powerful way to be better physically, mentally and at dealing with stress.

🎙 Podcast: Maro Itoje on the High-Performance Podcast

Maro Itoje is an English professional rugby player.

4 premierships with Saracens Rugby Club. 3 European Champions Cups for England. 3 Six Nations titles for England.

Weapon.

This podcast gives us an insight into what makes him tick.

With some great lessons into the mindsets that make him the human and player he is.

My favourite takeaways:

1. 🏆 His distinction between high performance and elite performance

High performance is competing against yourself. How good you can get.

Elite performance is competing against everyone else. Aiming to be the best.

Both are part of life. And both can be terrific motivators.

But the thing is, most of us are way more skewed towards an elite performance mentality.

So I’d argue (particularly as everyday athletes) we need to compete against ourselves more. Lean into our intrinsic motivators (enjoyment, purpose, curiosity). Be a racehorse.

2. ⏰ Early ownership

His parents supported him playing rugby. But he was responsible for his motivation.

Ian Thorpe has a similar story. His Dad said: “I’ll drive you to training, but I won’t wake you up. You have to wake me up.”

I couldn’t find it, but the hosts cited research saying this type of early ownership helps young athletes thrive in the long run.

An interesting overlap between 2 of the world’s best in their sports.

3. 😤 The secret sauce is always effort

As soon as you think it’s natural, you stop working hard.

You can listen here

🦵 Tib anterior: the often-forgotten workhorse

Your tibialis anterior muscles are stuck on the front of your shins.

If you pull your toes towards you (dorsiflex your foot), your tibialis anterior muscles are to thank.

And because they support our foot arches, weakness in these muscles can flatten the arches in our feet.

Which can cause:

• ⚖️ Poor balance
• 💥 Lack of power
• 🥵 Fatigue
• 😖 Pain

Plus the tibialis anterior also plays a big role in accelerating, decelerating and changing direction.

The thing is, the muscle is rarely trained.

So if your sport requires any of the above (or you want to develop your foot arches), it might be worth adding some tib raises to your training (in about 90 seconds a week).

1. Face away from a wall
2. Step your feet out a bit (closer = easier, further = harder)
3. Lift your toes off the ground

How-to here

No equipment needed. 25 reps. 3 times a week.

See if there’s any improvement after 4 weeks.

You can follow this Insta page for more content on this stuff.

That's it!

Have a great weekend 🤙

Matt

P.s.

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