Optimal Breathing 101

Foreign. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to the Optimal Living 101 Masterclass Series. Today I'm thrilled to be chatting About Optimal Breathing 101, how to optimize your breathing for calm, focused energy. As always, we have 10 big ideas. Let's take a quick look and then we'll jump in. Our first big idea, oxygen, or O2 equals cell fuel. It's literally the number one source of our energy period, which is why we have a whole class on it. We've got to optimize our breathing such that we can get oxygen into our cells. You can live for weeks without food, you can, you can live for days without water, but you can only live for minutes without oxygen. Yet we rarely think about how to optimize something that is arguably the most fundamental, fundamental. We'll talk about that in some more detail. The second big idea is O2 plus CO2, oxygen plus carbon dioxide. Now, the paradox here is that we actually want to focus more on carbon dioxide than oxygen for the very simple reason that, as Patrick McGown says, the presence of carbon dioxide, and I quote now, loosens the bonds between hemoglobin and oxygen within red blood cells. And that's what allows the oxygen to get out and into your tissues and organs. He talks about the fact that we got to think about not just the quality of the air we breathe, but the quantity. Just like you can overeat, you can over breathe. And most people, particularly if you breathe through your mouth, are over breathing and they're not getting the amount of oxygen they need to optimize their well being. The third big idea is rule number one of how to breathe. That rule is breathe through your nose all day, every day. We'll talk about something called the magic spot, which is how you arrive at proper breathing through your nose. But know that your nose filters and humidifies and conditions the air and calms you at the same time. Whereas when you breathe through your mouth, you get the opposite effects. You're getting stressed out. Fight or flight? The only time our ancient ancestors breathed through their mouth was at the peak of their physical exertion. Yet now we're doing that all day, every day. It's stimulating our sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the, the fight or flight stress response. We need to stop doing that. Breathe through our nose. The fourth big idea is rule number two. You breathe in through your nose, down into your belly. You've heard of diaphragmatic breathing. That is your number one unappreciated muscle in your body, your diaphragm we're going to talk about how to put that muscle to work. Do some resistance training on your diaphragm via resistance breathing. I'll share a technique I use every single morning since I studied. Patrick McGowan, the oxygen advantage, his great book. I think it was maybe two years ago now or something. Every single morning, the first half of my meditation, I do this breathing technique that I'm going to share. Big idea number five is rule number three. Exhale. We've got our breathing in through the nose, down into our belly. Exhale and then exhale fully. Finish strong. Exhale slightly longer than you inhale. That science says is the fastest way to relax. And it's also the fastest way to help detox your body. Did you know that 70% of your detoxification comes through your breath? Your sweat and your elimination only accounts for 30%. Your breath is 70% of your detoxing. You want to detox, learn how to breathe. And a big part of that is to exhale longer. We'll talk about that and we'll practice that. The sixth big idea. When do you do this? All day, every day. Nose, belly, exhale. We're going to talk about three different ways to get good at doing this more consistently. One, your sleep. I'm going to introduce you to another little hack that I use which is simultaneously one of the most powerful and goofy things I do. I put a piece of tape over my mouth that I'll tell you about. The second thing, to make sure I sleep with my mouth closed. The second thing we're going to talk about is training your breathing technique, as we just mentioned briefly, via that morning ritual that I do and also during your workouts. I exclusively breathe through my nose during all workouts, including high intensity interval training workouts these days. The third thing we're going to talk about in terms of getting it on all day, every day is taking breathing breaks. Micro moments of mindfulness is one way to think about it. Then our seventh big idea is your count. Your breathing count. Again, science says there's something called a resonant rate or coherent breathing patterns. This rate, which is between three and a half and five breaths per minute, which you will notice is quite slow. Right. Three and a half to five breaths per minute is what research shows to be the optimal range for your breathing. It does extraordinary things. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the rate that I target and we're going to help you identify your ideal optimal count, your resonant rate, your Coherent breathing count. And then the eighth big idea is your Vegas getaway. Not Vegas V E G A S, but Vegas V A G U US. Your vagus getaway. That's your 10th cranial nerve. It's known as the Wanderer because it connects your mind, your heart and your gut. One nerve does that, your vagal nerve. And we want to get that toned up. We'll talk about how that's a ticket to self mastery and creates this sense of calm energy, gets you out of that stress response into a relaxation response. The ninth big idea are the four S's. We've got Superman, Spartans, sports and screams. We'll talk about Superman versus Clark Kent. What do you think is the primary difference between those two? We'll talk about ancient Spartans and modern Spartans. A pretty cool story about how the ancient Spartan warriors trained their young warriors. We'll talk about sports and how what I think is the number one untapped competitive potential competitive advantage. Hint Breathing. Right. You take two athletes, equally matched, but one trains his breathing or her breathing, the other one doesn't. The one who trains their breathing will outperform the other one every single time. We'll talk about that a little bit more and talk about some athletes who have their mouths gaping open and how much more they could increase their performance if they close their lips, breathe through their nose. We'll also talk about screams, the detrimental effects of not breathing when you're looking at a screen. And then finally, our 10th big idea is Perfect Perfect Breathing. The name of another book that's fantastic. In the subject, 1 + 2 + 3/times 3, we're going to look at three different facets of how to breathe optimally, some would say perfectly. That is a quick look at how to optimize your breathing for calm, focused energy. Now, ready to dive in.