September 21, 2021 • 44 mins
Take a deep breath in, hold it at the top and then let it all go. In this episode of Sweat The Details co-hosts Mon and Meg sit down with breathwork expert and founder of Peakflow, Lindsey Trubia. Lindsey talks about the life-altering experience that led her to discover the power of the breath and how anyone can find a breathwork technique that suits their needs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Breathing low, slow, and deep in and out through your
nose is the fastest way via the frenic nerve, which
wraps around the heart to tell your brain to calm
the heart down so you can actually control your heart beat,
your heart rate variability with the power of breath work.
It's life changing. This is what The Details a collaboration
(00:22):
with under Armour and I Heart Radio, a sports and
training podcasts made for women by women. I'm Meg Bogs.
I'm a powerlifter, author, body positivity advocate and mother. And
I'm Monica Jones. I'm a fitness coach, boxer, business owner
and u a athlete. Every episode, Meg and I will
talk to athletes, trainers, and experts and learn more about
how the body and mind work together in training and competition.
(00:45):
In this episode, we're breathing in and breathing out because
we're talking all about the importance of breath work and
how we can train our bodies to breathe more efficiently
and maybe even perform better because of it. Our guest
is Lindsay Trubia, founder of Peak Flow, a breathwork ecosystem
and training program. Lindsay was a former D one athlete
(01:06):
who found her passion for breath work after a scary
experience being thrown by a wave while surfing. After that,
Lindsay studied a number of techniques and sports, including yoga
and free diving, to better master her breath. Today, she
is a certified breathing practitioner in the whim Hoff, Oxygen
Advantage and Boutaco methods. Meg I am really excited to
learn more about Lindsay's journey into breath work and hopefully
(01:27):
learn a thing or two about how I can breathe
better myself. But before we get into our conversation with Lindsay,
I think we should break down what breathwork actually is.
Breath Work is something you may have encountered at the
end of a fitness class during the cool down. Maybe
your instructor guides you through a few moments of deep
and intentional breathing as you stretch. That right, there is
breathwork exactly. Breath Work is a practice of focusing on
(01:49):
consciously changing and working with the way that you breathe personally.
I never realized how important this was until I started powerlifting,
and suddenly I was having to actually think about the
way I breathe through each lift. Yes, I can only
imagine how much your diaphragm would affect that power. With boxing,
it's it's breathing out to make sure that we're not
holding in too much of our power as we're punching.
(02:11):
But we breathe out of our mouth and we usually
make a lot of noise, and those noises very But
it's really cool to see that breathing differently and even
in a way that's uncomfortable at first, can actually make
our performance better. Absolutely, and I'm excited to hear all
about what she has to say. Yeah, I'm so ready
for it. So should we go ahead and bring Lindsay on? Definitely?
(02:32):
Let's get to it all right. Folks were so excited
to have Lindsay Truvilla on the show today. She's the
founder of Peak Flow of breathwork coaching business. Welcome Lindsay,
Thanks Monica, happy to be here. We are so happy
to have you. So you're an experienced breathing coach. Could
you explain what your work is all about? Yeah, So
(02:53):
it's a great question. I get that asked a lot,
especially when us humans think that we already know how
to breathe. So the vision of Peak Flow is to
help all humans, whether you're an athlete, someone who's looking
to heal from the inside out, or a leader trying
to make a bigger impact and lead and inspire with heart,
be able to have breath work as a tool to
(03:15):
allow you to optimize your performance. I really want to
kind of backtrack a little bit um about kind of
how you got to learn more about breath work. And
I know that you were a college athlete. You know
you had a whole D one soccer journey, So can
you kind of explain to us a little bit about
what your relationship with breath work was like back then. Yeah,
(03:38):
my only tie to breath work when I was playing
Division one soccer was when my hands were on my
knees and I was panting, hoping for our next breath
so I could continue to play. I truly didn't even
know about breath work until I had a wave, specifically
a two wave hole down in Hawaii where I lived
at the time, and was chasing the next big wave,
(04:00):
just like I was chasing the next big wind, and
I was paddling one day or remember it vividly, and
I'm not that big of a wave surfer, but it
was big enough probably about seven ft and I was
paddling into it. And for those of you who surf
may relate, and those who don't maybe relate to something else.
When you're on the wave and you're flowing with the
(04:20):
ocean's energy of the Earth's energy, nothing else matters, and
you find what I would call peak flow. And in
terms of this harnessing this present moment. And as I
was going down the wave, my board unfortunately fell and
the barrel came over me, and I was held down
on the water for I felt like two minutes, probably
only thirty seconds to be to be realistic. And as
(04:42):
I'm coming up to take my breath, another wave pounds
me down to the bottom of the fore gosh, So
if you can imagine this washing machine, not knowing which
direction is up or down. I started to think of
my mom and dad and my brothers and literally said
good by to them under the water, and in that
(05:03):
moment of surrender, rather than fighting the waves, trying to
fight the energy of trying to come up to shore.
The second of that surrender, I remember it vividly, and
sorry if I get emotionally here, it gets me every time.
The ocean just literally brought me up to the surface
and I just gasp the biggest breath, ironically that I've
ever taken, and paddling back and panic, no lifeguards around,
(05:28):
back to the beach, sitting there on the beach, just
crying for the first time. A lot of times I
stuffed my emotions down as an athlete, I always used
the soccer feel it to kind of looking back, step
away from my issues, step away from whatever it is
that I didn't want to confront and emotions I wanted
to stuff down. Everything came out on that beach, like
what's my why, what's my purpose? And I didn't know
(05:50):
at the time, but naturally I went to go back
in the water, and I was like, well, the best
way to do this is to learn how to hold
my breath longer. And so there I was end up
for free diving, signed up for big waves surfing, which
of course not only allows you to learn how to
hold your breath longer, but of course trains your mind.
And as I was going through these courses, I would
(06:13):
just feel these emotional releases as we were doing the breathwork,
almost back to that goose bump moment I call it,
when you're just free from the mind and your body
is just completely dancing to the same rhythm as your mind,
your heart, and your soul. And I got up from
the breath work and there's other students in the class
and like, I'm definitely the only one having these emotional
releases and feeling all these fields. And then I get
(06:36):
up and kild you. Not every single person in the
room had tears or smiles, And it was so quiet
that you could hear a pin drop, And in that moment,
I was like, there's something here. It's organic, it's free
when you know how to do it, and I wanted
to dive in deeper and that's where my breath work
journey started. Wow, that is incredible. That was beautiful. Yeah,
(07:02):
I I'm still like trying to recover from the moment
that you've shared under the water. I can't imagine what
that must have felt like. And that had to have
been a very monumental moment for you. Was that kind
of the moment for you or was it a mixture
of things? That moment is definitely the pinnacle of it all,
(07:22):
and I think there's to two pillars to that. The
first was reflecting is the power and surrendering. So when
you allow your body your mind to quote unquote be
like water and not resists and flow with what comes
at you and to adjust and to pivot and to shift.
There's so much power in that. And then secondly, yes,
(07:43):
I didn't have my breath, and in that moment a panic,
whether someone cuts me off in traffic, whether I'm about
to do a presentation, whether someone just gets me off
my flow, like that moment of panic, the breath is
usually not there. In using the breath as your remote
control to your nervous system, when you know how to
use it, is the power of life a remote control.
(08:03):
I love that I'm writing that down. Yes, even the
way you're speaking right now really brings me so much calm. Yeah,
I've been, you know, working on mindfully breathing. It started
with kind of using an app to try and get
myself to fall asleep easier, and that right there is
(08:25):
incredibly important. But then it became so much about other
things that I do in life that require more patients
and you know, a little bit more mental calmness. So, Lindy,
can you tell us why the way we breathe is important? So,
James Ester, I don't know if you both have read
this book, but Breathe. It's a beautiful book, and he
has this one quote that sticks out to me, and
(08:46):
it's adults are breathing wrong. And literally, if you think
about our body as a car and you need gas
to fuel the car, our breath is literally what brings
in oxygen to allow our lungs for the gas exchange
to happen, for our muscles to get oxygenated, or organs
to get oxygenated, and of course allowing that CEO to
(09:07):
to build to where you have this beautiful synchronicity with
the optimal amount of oxygen and CEO two. And when
that happens and you're truly using the diaphragmatic breathing and
using the most important respiratory muscle in your body, which
is your diaphragm, it's life changing. And it's been the
root cause to what I've seen with a lot of
(09:28):
individuals that I work with, to a lot of illness,
a lot of anxiety, and it's truly game changing, sounds
so fulfilling just in general, and that is so cool.
When you have athletes come to you for guidance and
breath work, what do they usually prompt you with when
they say they want help. So typically what I see
(09:49):
is I want to optimize performance. I've heard about this
thing about breath work, and I don't know what the
heck that means. But when I get to the root
of it, a lot of it is helping that individual
with competitive anxiety. That's uh. I think the route to
a lot of again, subconscious patterns, subconscious reactions. Of what
we don't think about is you're always trying to compete.
(10:10):
And when you're trying to compete, and in my world,
I say, you're you're doing rather than being. I feel
like for me, when I'm about to compete, you said
competitive anxiety. And before I was competing, I was excited
in the anxiety of it. I failed my first two attempts,
and I had done that weight so many times, and
I look back at the videos and I look back
(10:30):
at how I was training, and I really wasn't breathing.
So let's talk about athletic performance because now I'm curious
about this because I could use all the help with
this right now. But how can breathing properly contribute to
our athletic performance? Right? So, math breathing, especially chronic mouth breathing,
is so detrimental to our performance. And nasal breathing is
(10:56):
just so important for multitude of reasons. But to summarize
it up, when you're nasal breathing in and out, especially
at night. I'll sure we'll get to this, but taping
your mouth at night is a huge takeaway that is
game changing. And the way you breathe off the field
is the way you breathe on the field. When your
nose breathing, you're cultivating this positive core pressure and your
(11:19):
thoracic cage, which allows a huge prevention and injury in
terms of a c L surgeries. I have been there,
done that, and I would not wish that on anyone. Also,
when your nasal breathing harnesses a higher CEO two tolerance
inside your body, so people ask me what the heck
does that mean? Why does that matter? And to break
it down pretty simply is if you look at CEO
(11:42):
two as the divorce agent between an oxygen molecule being
inhale through the nose, comes down to the lungs and
then eventually in the aviolis, which are small sacks in
the lungs, the oxygen molecule binds to a hemoglobin and
that hemoglobin takes the oxygen molecules into the need of where,
whether it's the muscle or the organs, where that gas
(12:04):
exchange needs to happen. The divorce agent for that oxygen
molecule to come off of the hemoglobin is the prevalence
of c O two in your body. The higher prevalence
of c U two have in your body, the more efficient,
the more effective that offloading process is. And the CEO
two comes in in the hemoglobin and comes out in
the expiration or the exhale. So if your mouth breathing
(12:27):
you have a really low CEO two tolerance, which means
that oxygen is really rarely leaving the hemoglobin and actually
being exhaled out of your mouth. Also, the nasal passages
and the nasal breathing allows you to stimulate your diaphragm,
which is that really important breathing muscle that I mentioned earlier,
and the mouth breathing does not stimulate the diaphragm at all.
(12:48):
And if you want to turn on your arrest and
digest or what we call your parasympathetic nervous system, breathing low, slow,
and deep in and out through your nose is the
fastest way via the frenic nerve, of which wraps around
the heart to tell your brain to calm the heart down,
so you can actually control your heart beat, your heart
rate variability with the power of breath work. And I
(13:09):
could go on a lot longer, but kick it back
to you. Yeah, science, we love it, We really do.
I love hearing you talk about it. There's such a
passion that ignites when you talk about the difference, and
I can see that you're really living and embodying that
controlled and and truly present breathing, which is incredible. You
(13:34):
have athletes that come to you for different needs. This
can be runners who power through short and powerful sprints
to soccer players who are literally running for around ninety
minutes at a time NonStop. What would you say are
the differences between the kind of breathing needed for a short,
intense exercise versus long matches like soccer or you know,
(13:55):
longer endurance sports. Yeah, so great question. I think what
I would call the life's style breathing in terms of
taping the mouth, doing breath holds, static and dynamic off
the pitch or off the court or off the track,
looks very similar. So you're always trying to optimize or
bring your CEO two tolerance ideally up to about a seven.
Five is great. Below five is typically when we see
(14:17):
this um discontinuity in the metabolic needs of the body,
which is more panic disorder patients, etcetera. But to get
back to your question of how they vary, is when
you're looking at someone who's in a short sprint, there's
actually a lot of evidence when you're about to set
up for the track and that guns about to go,
you actually exhale slowly and then you hold the breath
(14:40):
as you sprint and you run your a hundred meter
or whatever meter that you're running. And of course you
can think of sprinting and holding the breath. Wow, that
sounds really hard and really painful. And yes, and that's
part of the beauty of hypoventilation training is you're teaching
your body how to breathe less, but knowing that breathe less,
that air hunger, is actually optimizing the biochemistry exchange is
(15:03):
happening in your body to help you perform and beat
your competitor. In terms of someone who's playing soccer, how
do you integrate strategic breathwork during warm up to allow
that chemistry to start to build, to have that CEO
two tolerance to start to build. And how do you
breathe as you're running, So as a soccer player, instead
of breathing through my mouth the whole ninety minutes, I
(15:25):
definitely would have been nasal breathing. And of course, if
you get to the point where your your breath is
super jagged, you can take it in through the mouth
if you have to, But the goal would be to
breathe in and out through your nose the entire practice
or the entire game. And then also the game changing
moments I call them when you're whether you're shooting first
free throw, taking a penalty kick, how can you use
(15:46):
that long exhale through the nose to turn on your
rest and digest your parasympathetic visualize then kick. It's so interesting.
I really want to try some of the stuff. I'm like,
I'm ready to do some exercises. Let's talk about your
actual program, your business peak flow. Can you tell us
a little bit about how this whole project began. I
(16:07):
just want to learn more about it. If you can
just share with our listeners about how you got started.
What's it all about? What you offer anything that you
want to share about people. Yeah. So joining the corporate world,
I was actually very much involved in health policy, health insurance,
pharma industries of the world, and honestly, it kind of
(16:28):
eight inside of me because I had this bigger yearning
for health and healing at the route and so being
in this industry and also being an athlete and then
starting to learn breathwork modalities for different demographics, I was
just seeing almost a limitation in all of these methods.
I find them so linear, and a lot of patients
come to me and say, hey, I just read wim
(16:49):
Hoff's book, but I have a past and panic disorders,
and as a practitioner, we should know that that individual
should definitely not be doing a practice that is going
to insinuate physical symptoms that exactly mirror the onset of
a panic attack. So there's a strategic, beautiful synchronicity with
(17:10):
peak flow where we call it the peak flow breathwork ecosystem.
So we have an ecosystem where any human that comes
into peak flow based on your goals, whether it's health related,
sport related, or leadership related. Those are our three niches.
You can have a specific six week integration program customized
(17:31):
to you, and also harnessing the power of community. So
if there's other individuals who have for example, asthma, who
are in the ecosystem, who are in the community, we
connect that community together so you have this beautiful human
connection which we all know, I think is a little
struggle these days with everything going on, but at Peak
(17:52):
Flow we're here to bring that back. And then also
in terms of not just the health example, but so
you're an athlete and you have a goal to opten
eyes performance and you want to connect with other athletes
around the world who are on a similar journey with you,
cultivating that community within our memberships. And then lastly c suite,
so any CEO, CEOs, etcetera who want to lead and
(18:13):
inspire with impact and use these tools to optimize themselves
so they can better influence the world and the teams
that they're overseeing, allowing them to come in and really
harness the breath and the community there. And then lastly
I would add, we have what we call the peak
flow elements, which are sleep, hydration, nutrition, rests, etcetera. Gratitude
(18:36):
list goes on, but they're all foundational elements of how
you find your peak flow and we integrate those into
our programs and challenges, so again you turn a new
exercise into a new habit at the end of our memberships. Wow,
sign me up ready. I feel like there's just so
much that we could continue talking about, but I want
(18:59):
to get to some actionable stuff because this is all
very new to me too. Are these breathwork exercises for everyone? Yes?
Great question depends on what exercise you're going to ask
me to do, but the answer is no. Not all
breath works are for everyone. The one that I will
walk you through is for everyone. Highly recommend it works
for any individual. But in terms of the breath holding,
(19:22):
I call it breathing plus where you're actually putting yourself
in this hyperventilagid state, consciously igniting your stress response and
then becoming more at ease. Those are the types of
breath works where we have to be a little bit
more cautious and making sure that individual number one knows
the science behind it, understands the symptoms, and can be
carried along and on their journey and this path where
(19:45):
they feel like they're being met where they're at and
then can succeed and eventually doing all the exercises. That's
how you know you're a true present professional is when
you don't just give the one size fits all. Everybody
is different and you've out of no where they are
getting started where they currently are, their history, and then
help them create a path from there. And that's so
(20:07):
supportive and really awesome to hear. Thank you. Let's say
someone comes up to you and says, Okay, I'm not
breathing well, I get out of breath really easily, and
I want to make a change. What would you say
would be the first step that person should take to
improve their breathing The nose nose, So always go back
to the nose. So if you catch yourself mouth breathing,
(20:28):
the first step is becoming aware. So awareness and my
mouth breathing, okay, let's shift to the nose. And also
understanding that every inhale that we take energizes the body,
and every exhale that we take allows the body and
the mind to relax, so sympathetic alert inhale, parasympathetic rest exhale,
(20:50):
So our body has this evolutionary, beautiful way of balance
rightly end and the yang. So when you're in a situation,
so you wake up and you want wake up and
you don't have time to go get coffee, or maybe
you're not a coffee drinker, and knowing that scale is okay.
If the inhale allows me to become more alert and
(21:11):
the exhale allows me to become more RESTful. Let's take
a breath pattern where my inhales are longer than my
exhales and continuing that until you have this new heightened
sense of alertness. And the same is true for the opposite.
Say you're going to bed and ideally in and out
through the nose, if you're able to breathe through the
nose and having that long, slow, extended exhale, because again,
(21:33):
that allows you to turn on your parasympathetic, your rest
and digest system. Linda, can you take us through one
of these exercises totally, Monica, Let's do this. I really
really want to try star breathing. Let's do this. I'm ready, okay,
So let's go ahead and close the eyes if you're
comfortable with that. And I just want you to gently
sway in your seat left and right, just visualizing your
(21:56):
torso your heart melting towards the earth, relax of shoulders,
and if you're not already moving the air in and
out through the nose. Let's go ahead and shift and
notice on your gentle inhales, not changing the breath at all,
just yet, the warmer air coming in through the nose
and the warmer air coming out through the nose. And
(22:17):
now on the next inhale, may be noticing the air
is a little colder, and on the exhale, noticing the
air's a little warmer. Good. Continue at your own rhythm,
and as you continue to breathe, let's take your bottom
right hand and place it on your belly button, and
then take your left hand and place it on your chest.
And now I want you to follow just my breath
(22:39):
here as I count. But at the bottom of the inhale,
I want you to focus on pushing your belly into
your bottom hand. So here we go. Inhale through the
nose and gently push your belly button into your hand
and exhale as you relax the body, exhaling through the nose. Good,
continue inhale, gently push into your hand and exhale slowly
(23:04):
through the nose. Good that's at account here. So inhaling
belly for four three two one and exhaling for four
three two one. Again one more round inhaling, slow the
break down for three two one, and exhaling for four
(23:28):
three two one. Now keeping the eyes closed if they're already,
you can gently take the hands and place them on
your side of your ribs. So we're gonna do the
same exercise we just did, focusing on the belly first
at the bottom of the inhale, and once the belly fills,
I want you to focus on your ribs, going left
and right and almost breathing into your hands. Here we
(23:51):
go inhale through the nose, billy comes out, ribs go
left and right, and then exhale as you relax the
whole body. Good inhale belly first, ribs, left, in rice
and excel. Relax one more inhale, belly, ribs and come down.
(24:19):
The hands come down. I can remain closed one more
target area. Right hand again on the belly, left hand
on the chest. So like we just did, we're going
to do the same thing, but add the chest at
the top of the inhale. So here we go inhale.
Gently guide the belly towards your hand, ribs, left and rights, chest, lips,
(24:41):
and exhale as you relax the entire Lilly good. Two
more rounds inhale, belly, ribs, chest and exhale relax. One
more inhale belly, ribs, just and exhale relax. As you
(25:03):
melts into the seat, let the hands come down, and
when you're ready, no rash, you can gently open the
eyes and I'd love to hear how you feel. I
feel fantastic. I know, I don't think I've ever inhaled
that much. Normally I have a hard time with inhaling
because I just run out and I'm like, you can't
get anything at the end. But when you broke it
down like that, I was actually taking the whole time.
(25:24):
I never thought of it that way. I'm like, if
you watch a newborn baby born, you can actually see
on the inherenthale their bellies rise, then the exhale they fall.
So it really is like the natural way to breathe. Wow,
And you wonder what causes that. You know, you want
to have abs, especially as an athlete trying to have
(25:45):
these you know abs, and a lot of times, honestly,
I find the students that I work with the most
who have this inflexibility or unflexibility in the rib cage.
Are athletes constant compression. Yeah, And the other key thing
is when you bring the belly out, that ignites the
diaphragm to come down, which allows the lungs that sit
(26:05):
on top of your diaphragm. Here, when the diaphragm comes down,
your lungs fully expand. And then on the exhale, the
heart gets massaged as a diaphragm comes up and pushes
the CEO two out. They call the diaphragm the second heart. Interesting,
that makes sense. Wow, that is so incredible. So that
(26:26):
type of breath work, I would always tell students, it's
great for you to come to a state of calm
and if you want to take it to the next
level using that calm to alert scale that I mentioned earlier,
shorter inhales, longer exhales, so we usually say four to
six second count and harnessing the power of a long,
slow exhale is the key to optimizing your CEO too
(26:48):
tolerance and then if you wanted to take it next level,
breath holding after exhales is what we do a lot
with athletes. When we just tried a nasal breathing exercise
and saw its power, it was incredible. Do you have
any advice for chronic mouth breathers who want to improve
their nasal breathing? Yeah, practice, practice, practice, but also knowing
(27:10):
and trusting that your CEU two tolerance can change, and
the way to change that is to start nose breathing.
And when I say CEO too tolerance, it's really important
to understand there's a lot of times this misconception around
I need more oxygen to breathe. The actual urge to
breathe is the build up of c O two in
the body. So when someone has a panic attack or
(27:34):
an asthma attack, their body is offloading all of the
CEO two which causes this hyperventilation out of the mouth.
That's literally the biological response of your body telling you
to stop breathing because you need to allow that CEO
two to build up. Why. Because c O two is
a vase of die lator, which allows your throat to expand,
(27:55):
allows your blood vessels to expand. When we have patients
who have asthma attacks, say, can you do many breath
holds instead of taking your in hailer, which as we know,
is over a three billion dollar market. Yes. Yeah, So
let's talk about the different methods. I know there's three
that I can kind of list right now. You're a
(28:16):
practitioner for all of them. We got whim Hoff oxygen advantage,
and this is the one I struggle with Boutako. Yes, perfect,
Oh okay, So I know that you kind of focus
on all of those. Can you explain what the differences are?
Is there one of these methods that you would say
is best for athletic performance? Yeah. I was just on
(28:37):
site with an n C double A team talking to
coaches about this, and I think it's actually a mixture.
And this is why I love the Breathwork ecosystem because
our approach to supporting athletes is both the mental health
and the physical health. And I think a lot of
times the physical health. We saw Simone a couple of
weeks ago, what happened there and that moment gaming goose
(28:59):
bumps for like day because proud of her. That could
be a whole another conversation, but I think a lot
of athletes got goose bumps SAT day. And for mental health, again,
depending on where you are at with your health and
the moment, I really think whim Hoff for what we
call breathing plus because you're over breathing is really great
(29:20):
for the intention of resetting yourself, resetting your nervousnesstem pressing pause. UM.
I use it a lot, especially if I'm in a
social event and i feel like I'm just dragging and
not in an optimal state. I will go do breathing
plus and come back completely re energized. Same thing if
you're in a recovery or so you just had two
(29:41):
games and the Monday's the rest day, utilizing that day
for breathing plus. And then in terms of lifestyle, breathing
for athletes absolutely oxygen advantage. That is so cool. It
is incredible to know how deep you can dive into
the world of breathwork based on what your person the
needs are. How did that come to be? Yeah, it
(30:03):
all started in India. I took an eight day retreats
actually just before COVID had happened, and it was this
retreat that was completely in silence. You couldn't look at
your phone, you couldn't even look people in the eye.
And we did what we called Shodar shin Krea, which
(30:24):
was made in Bangalore, and in that space we would
wake up, do yoga, do breathwork, and the breath work
looks very different from any of the methods that we
have mentioned. It's about a fifty minute practice takes time
and dedication, and then we would meditate after and the
amount of healing that happened in that room and it
was so fascinating because all of us became so so
(30:46):
close without saying a word to each other. So what
I wanted to cultivate was a method that worked best
for me and my body, and of course not saying
that's going to work best for everyone, but it is
about a four i minute practice that intertwines some of
the crea that I learned there along with sound healing.
So one of my really good friends will teach on
(31:08):
a regular basis here in Ansonita's, California to get back
to the community for free. And it looks very much
like the l T method. Wow, the way that you
speak about human connection and healing all of these things,
just I just feel like I'm having like so many
epiphanies right now. It's this is this is a lot
for me. Um. What is the breathing exercise that is
(31:31):
like your go to or your favorite or the one
that you always find yourself doing the most often? Yeah, Um,
I think the most powerful one is the Sharshan crea
that I learned in India. The only thing is like
the time, right, So I have sometime being so busy,
like do I have the time? And the answers yes,
I get to make the time. So when I make
(31:53):
the time, it's truly game changing. If I need a
faster like I don't have enough time, I'll do like
the reading plus whim Hoff method. I still take my
mouth and then I can next to my partner and
we wake up with mouth tape bond. It's a beautiful thing.
And still doing the breath holding and oxygen advantage exercises myself.
I do that because it's really important for me to
(32:14):
teach in this authentic manner where it has moved me,
and I think students in the community can feel that
because that's our goal too, is to move people. Yes,
such a deep connection. The mouth thing I've tried at
one time at under Armer actually, and that was very difficult.
I was surprised at how much more difficult it made
(32:34):
things for me, and that that was my AHA moment
back then, when I was like I am I guess
I'm a mouth breather and I've been trying to work
on it ever since, so I'm excited. Well, and I
think what you just said is really important because it's
really easy for us when we're not good at something
to to walk away from it. And I would encourage
you to lean into that, and when you understand the
science and the benefits, then it cultivates this. Okay, I'm
(32:58):
gonna do this, and the mindset component of right, it's
like I will or I do. I love that. Yes, UM.
So for any of our listeners that really want to
just see what this is about, do you have any
extra resources that our listeners can tap into, um to
learn more about conscious breathing. Yeah, if you go to
(33:18):
the peak flow dot com, we have quite a few
clinical studies up there for anyone who's still not fully
enrolled in the science. And also, honestly, YouTube has a
lot of great practitioners on there. I think everyone, every
teacher brings a different style and energy, and I encourage
you to look some up and see what's best for you.
But in terms of the peak flow dot Com joined
(33:39):
the newsletter, We're going to be launching a new platform
here at the end of the month, and I've personally
hit a ceiling with I was trying to help as
many people as possible, and my days were just so
so slam. So I'm happy to say that we've hired
a whole team and we're looking to expand and help
as many humans as possible. Oh yes, we are going
(34:00):
to breathe y'all. I'm so excited about this. Thank you
so much, Lindsay. This has been thank you enlightening and
comforting and just inspiring. You really really have brought us
to a better place in just a short amount of time.
Under armours, what the details will be back after a
short break. Welcome back to what the Details. So let's
(34:30):
do a little shake out, shall we, meg, Yes, let's
do it. Okay, I feel really good. But we're gonna
go ahead and play a game. Before we start this game,
actually want to acknowledge that it's called breathing. Breathe out,
so we're gonna lighten the mood. We're gonna ask you
about your lifestyle preferences. Okay, so you would respond breathe
into what you like and breathe out to what you
(34:52):
don't like. That makes sense, and we're gonna kind of
like rapid fire it perfect, all right, All right, meg
kick us Okay, morning yoga practice, breathe in work hours,
breathe out surfing, breathe in deep breathing exercises before sleeping,
(35:15):
breathe in chronic mouth breathing, breathe out meditation apps. I'm
curious about this answer. Breathe in out Okay, I like it.
I like it. It's an in between. It sounds like
on the meditation apps. So do you have a favorite
or why is there a mix? Well, truthfully, I think
(35:38):
there's power and letting go of the technology and allowing
yourself to be so with that, I love listening to
YouTube videos of the guru in India that taught me
for meditation. Other than that, I don't listen to apps. Okay,
good to know, Good to know. That makes sense. Yes,
I love it and that's the game. Linds, thank you
(36:00):
so much. This is so fun. You're welcome. Thank you
so much for having me. It's a blast, of course.
Can you share where all of our listeners can find you? Yeah?
So you can find us on Instagram, at peak flow,
underscore and also at www. The peak flow dot com.
Perfect awesome, Lindsay, thank you so much for joining us today.
(36:22):
This was such a great conversation and hopefully we'll chat
soon again. Sounds good. Thank you ladies. Breathe through the
nose always Wow, So thank you again to Lindsay. That
was such an inspiring and informative conversation. Mon, What was
(36:44):
something that you took away because my notes are like
a mile off. Yeah, I'm trying to read my chicken scratch.
It's like the whole thing. I'm like, all of it.
Wrap it up in a package because that was gold. Yeah,
number one, the nose no os like, just bring everything
back to the nose and back to the power that
(37:05):
we hold with our breathing to calm us or to
energize us, like inhaling is energizing and exhaling is relaxing.
Putting that together with intention, I feel like it's going
to literally transform everything I do in my day to day.
So powerful and so valuable. Yeah, I feel like when
(37:25):
she mentioned the competition anxiety, I related to that so
much because of that one competition I had that just
kind of left me feeling defeated, and it was my
anxiety that's what took over. I couldn't control my breath.
I mean, I feel like breath is something that we
think is just so natural and that it's so easy
to control. It shouldn't be something that's difficult. But I
(37:46):
have a very hard time controlling my breath, especially when
I'm doing like grueling exercises. It's like I lose complete control.
So I feel like I'm actually going to take away
a lot of this stuff and try it. And she
mentioned something she said, the power of surrendering. When she
said that, I got chills. I got serious chills because
(38:07):
she was like, the power of surrendering and you can
use your breath as your remote control to life. And
I don't know something about that, just it hit me,
and it made me just so much more aware. I'm
I'm blown away, to be honest with you, right now.
I really didn't think that talking about breathing was gonna
have me feeling like I should go run through a wall.
But right now, I'm there, I'm there, I'm with you.
(38:29):
We're going through the wall together. We are breathing, and
we are running through this wall and we are conquering.
I'm so excited. Oh my goodness. Well, I think that
our listeners are going to have quite a bit of
information to take with them as they head into these
next couple of months facing breathing and living and the
(38:49):
power of surrendering. Absolutely, I'm making it definitely my goal
to get into some more breathwork. And on that topic,
let's talk about these goals. Let's do it. Let's get
into where we are with our goal check in. So
for everyone that is listening in, for those of you
who are usually listening in, or those of you who
(39:09):
might be listening for the first time, this is the
portion where Meg and I like to talk about what
our goals are and how we can help each other,
how we can continue to support one another reach those goals. So, Meg,
what you've got going on over there? What's your goal
right now? Well? I talked about my dead lift goal,
which is still a goal, still working hard for it. Um.
(39:30):
But I actually introduced something new to my training last week,
and it was Olympic lifts. I've been so inspired by
the Olympics. My coach has been telling me it's time.
You've been powerlifting now for three years, it's time to
move on to some weightlifts, you know, and just let's
give it a shot. So I learned the clean and jerk.
(39:50):
It was terrifying for me because it's a whole new
world when you're throwing that weight up above your head
and not just you know, picking it up and setting
it back down. When you tossed it above your head.
It's a whole new world. So I am now making
that a goal that I'm going to get up to
one at some point in the next couple of weeks
or months, however long it takes. I have no judgment
(40:11):
against myself, and we're gonna see what happens. Hopefully one
five I can hit that. I'm going to keep updating
you because I feel excited. I've been watching videos and
just really trying to learn more about the technique in
the form, and now I think I need to add
breathing to that, So I think that needs to be
at a little bit higher on the list. But that's
kind of where I am now with my my lists,
(40:32):
and we're going to see what happens. Maybe this is
the year that I face my anxiety and I get
back on the platform. This is it. Remember what Lindsay said,
She was all about you know being you know, feeling
that and really embodying it. So how can we best
support you? What what can we do to help you?
And fuel this goal and your work towards it um feedback.
(40:56):
Maybe it was really neat because I posted a video
in my story is about me doing the clean and
jerk for the first time and kind of the process
of how is learning it? And I got a lot
of great like feedback, like people that were actually saying like, Oh,
I'm noticing this is what you're doing good? And for me,
that's really like the best thing that you could do
for me is to tell me and note like what
(41:18):
is what I'm doing right? What what's good about my form?
What should I keep doing? Because sometimes it feels really
overwhelming when it's like here's like a long list of
everything you're doing wrong. It feels like it's too much.
How am I going to conquer all of that? But
the little positive notes of like here's what you're doing right,
that just gives me like butterflies and it makes me
feel really good. So what about you tell us about
(41:41):
your fight? What are you doing to prepare? How's all
of that going? I need an update? Oh yeah, we
are officially kicking off fight camp right now. And I've
designed my own conditioning program, which you know, I design
a strength and conditioning program for an entire studio and
hundreds of people, but for some reason for me, it
took a little while to really lock in and get
(42:03):
comfortable with that. So now my goal is to show
up and to really do it. I'll be conditioning on
my own ball slams, growing skier, going into a pliometrics
on my own, And so I'm nervous and excited to
really lock into my own programming in this way as
a fighter. And I am still working with my coach.
(42:23):
We're still doing Olympic lists and and for no reason
besides I think it's just helpful for just power mechanics
and synergy, but I like you, Like today I did
a split jerk for the first time ever, and you
know I'm I'm right there with you. The feedback is
so helpful. I love to watch the videos back and
(42:44):
really see like, Okay, did we get all the way vertical?
Did we get under it fast enough? And so yes,
the feedback would be super helpful. But also just just
hearing from y'all makes me happy. You know, it's a connection.
It is. The connection is the community, even if it's
not even necessarily relevant to my goal. Knowing that I
have people beside me and around me has been energizing
(43:07):
and I'm very much looking forward to digging deeper into
the breathing game too. It's going to be a game
changer for sure. We have a lot to learn, at
least I have a lot to learn. I'm with you,
absolutely well. I'm excited for us. We have some big
goals and I think we're gonna crush them. I have
(43:27):
a good feeling. I love it all right. Well, thank
you all for joining and listening in fit fam. If
you like what you heard on the show, subscribe for
free or follow the show on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you listen, and don't forget to
leave a five star rating and review until next time.
Stay inspired, stay motivated, and don't forget to sweat the details.
(43:47):
Bye bye. If you liked what you heard on the show,
subscribe for free or follow the show on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen, and
don't forget to leave a five star rating and review.
(44:09):
Sweat the details. As a collaboration with under Armour and
I Heart Radio, our show is hosted by me Monica
Jones and me Meg Bogs. Our executive producers are jess
strip Stein, Just Sell, Louis Archbald, Molly Sosha and Maya Cole.
Our producers are Kelly and Tole, Layla Cadrein, Emma Osborne
and Alejandra Arrivallo, and our sound editor and engineer is
(44:31):
Sarah Gible Alaska. Keep up the latest news in women's
fitness by following under Armour at under Armour Women and
at under Armour
Breathing low, slow, and deep in and out through your
nose is the fastest way via the frenic nerve, which
wraps around the heart to tell your brain to calm
the heart down so you can actually control your heart beat,
your heart rate variability with the power of breath work.
It's life changing. This is what The Details a collaboration
(00:22):
with under Armour and I Heart Radio, a sports and
training podcasts made for women by women. I'm Meg Bogs.
I'm a powerlifter, author, body positivity advocate and mother. And
I'm Monica Jones. I'm a fitness coach, boxer, business owner
and u a athlete. Every episode, Meg and I will
talk to athletes, trainers, and experts and learn more about
how the body and mind work together in training and competition.
(00:45):
In this episode, we're breathing in and breathing out because
we're talking all about the importance of breath work and
how we can train our bodies to breathe more efficiently
and maybe even perform better because of it. Our guest
is Lindsay Trubia, founder of Peak Flow, a breathwork ecosystem
and training program. Lindsay was a former D one athlete
(01:06):
who found her passion for breath work after a scary
experience being thrown by a wave while surfing. After that,
Lindsay studied a number of techniques and sports, including yoga
and free diving, to better master her breath. Today, she
is a certified breathing practitioner in the whim Hoff, Oxygen
Advantage and Boutaco methods. Meg I am really excited to
learn more about Lindsay's journey into breath work and hopefully
(01:27):
learn a thing or two about how I can breathe
better myself. But before we get into our conversation with Lindsay,
I think we should break down what breathwork actually is.
Breath Work is something you may have encountered at the
end of a fitness class during the cool down. Maybe
your instructor guides you through a few moments of deep
and intentional breathing as you stretch. That right, there is
breathwork exactly. Breath Work is a practice of focusing on
(01:49):
consciously changing and working with the way that you breathe personally.
I never realized how important this was until I started powerlifting,
and suddenly I was having to actually think about the
way I breathe through each lift. Yes, I can only
imagine how much your diaphragm would affect that power. With boxing,
it's it's breathing out to make sure that we're not
holding in too much of our power as we're punching.
(02:11):
But we breathe out of our mouth and we usually
make a lot of noise, and those noises very But
it's really cool to see that breathing differently and even
in a way that's uncomfortable at first, can actually make
our performance better. Absolutely, and I'm excited to hear all
about what she has to say. Yeah, I'm so ready
for it. So should we go ahead and bring Lindsay on? Definitely?
(02:32):
Let's get to it all right. Folks were so excited
to have Lindsay Truvilla on the show today. She's the
founder of Peak Flow of breathwork coaching business. Welcome Lindsay,
Thanks Monica, happy to be here. We are so happy
to have you. So you're an experienced breathing coach. Could
you explain what your work is all about? Yeah, So
(02:53):
it's a great question. I get that asked a lot,
especially when us humans think that we already know how
to breathe. So the vision of Peak Flow is to
help all humans, whether you're an athlete, someone who's looking
to heal from the inside out, or a leader trying
to make a bigger impact and lead and inspire with heart,
be able to have breath work as a tool to
(03:15):
allow you to optimize your performance. I really want to
kind of backtrack a little bit um about kind of
how you got to learn more about breath work. And
I know that you were a college athlete. You know
you had a whole D one soccer journey, So can
you kind of explain to us a little bit about
what your relationship with breath work was like back then. Yeah,
(03:38):
my only tie to breath work when I was playing
Division one soccer was when my hands were on my
knees and I was panting, hoping for our next breath
so I could continue to play. I truly didn't even
know about breath work until I had a wave, specifically
a two wave hole down in Hawaii where I lived
at the time, and was chasing the next big wave,
(04:00):
just like I was chasing the next big wind, and
I was paddling one day or remember it vividly, and
I'm not that big of a wave surfer, but it
was big enough probably about seven ft and I was
paddling into it. And for those of you who surf
may relate, and those who don't maybe relate to something else.
When you're on the wave and you're flowing with the
(04:20):
ocean's energy of the Earth's energy, nothing else matters, and
you find what I would call peak flow. And in
terms of this harnessing this present moment. And as I
was going down the wave, my board unfortunately fell and
the barrel came over me, and I was held down
on the water for I felt like two minutes, probably
only thirty seconds to be to be realistic. And as
(04:42):
I'm coming up to take my breath, another wave pounds
me down to the bottom of the fore gosh, So
if you can imagine this washing machine, not knowing which
direction is up or down. I started to think of
my mom and dad and my brothers and literally said
good by to them under the water, and in that
(05:03):
moment of surrender, rather than fighting the waves, trying to
fight the energy of trying to come up to shore.
The second of that surrender, I remember it vividly, and
sorry if I get emotionally here, it gets me every time.
The ocean just literally brought me up to the surface
and I just gasp the biggest breath, ironically that I've
ever taken, and paddling back and panic, no lifeguards around,
(05:28):
back to the beach, sitting there on the beach, just
crying for the first time. A lot of times I
stuffed my emotions down as an athlete, I always used
the soccer feel it to kind of looking back, step
away from my issues, step away from whatever it is
that I didn't want to confront and emotions I wanted
to stuff down. Everything came out on that beach, like
what's my why, what's my purpose? And I didn't know
(05:50):
at the time, but naturally I went to go back
in the water, and I was like, well, the best
way to do this is to learn how to hold
my breath longer. And so there I was end up
for free diving, signed up for big waves surfing, which
of course not only allows you to learn how to
hold your breath longer, but of course trains your mind.
And as I was going through these courses, I would
(06:13):
just feel these emotional releases as we were doing the breathwork,
almost back to that goose bump moment I call it,
when you're just free from the mind and your body
is just completely dancing to the same rhythm as your mind,
your heart, and your soul. And I got up from
the breath work and there's other students in the class
and like, I'm definitely the only one having these emotional
releases and feeling all these fields. And then I get
(06:36):
up and kild you. Not every single person in the
room had tears or smiles, And it was so quiet
that you could hear a pin drop, And in that moment,
I was like, there's something here. It's organic, it's free
when you know how to do it, and I wanted
to dive in deeper and that's where my breath work
journey started. Wow, that is incredible. That was beautiful. Yeah,
(07:02):
I I'm still like trying to recover from the moment
that you've shared under the water. I can't imagine what
that must have felt like. And that had to have
been a very monumental moment for you. Was that kind
of the moment for you or was it a mixture
of things? That moment is definitely the pinnacle of it all,
(07:22):
and I think there's to two pillars to that. The
first was reflecting is the power and surrendering. So when
you allow your body your mind to quote unquote be
like water and not resists and flow with what comes
at you and to adjust and to pivot and to shift.
There's so much power in that. And then secondly, yes,
(07:43):
I didn't have my breath, and in that moment a panic,
whether someone cuts me off in traffic, whether I'm about
to do a presentation, whether someone just gets me off
my flow, like that moment of panic, the breath is
usually not there. In using the breath as your remote
control to your nervous system, when you know how to
use it, is the power of life a remote control.
(08:03):
I love that I'm writing that down. Yes, even the
way you're speaking right now really brings me so much calm. Yeah,
I've been, you know, working on mindfully breathing. It started
with kind of using an app to try and get
myself to fall asleep easier, and that right there is
(08:25):
incredibly important. But then it became so much about other
things that I do in life that require more patients
and you know, a little bit more mental calmness. So, Lindy,
can you tell us why the way we breathe is important? So,
James Ester, I don't know if you both have read
this book, but Breathe. It's a beautiful book, and he
has this one quote that sticks out to me, and
(08:46):
it's adults are breathing wrong. And literally, if you think
about our body as a car and you need gas
to fuel the car, our breath is literally what brings
in oxygen to allow our lungs for the gas exchange
to happen, for our muscles to get oxygenated, or organs
to get oxygenated, and of course allowing that CEO to
(09:07):
to build to where you have this beautiful synchronicity with
the optimal amount of oxygen and CEO two. And when
that happens and you're truly using the diaphragmatic breathing and
using the most important respiratory muscle in your body, which
is your diaphragm, it's life changing. And it's been the
root cause to what I've seen with a lot of
(09:28):
individuals that I work with, to a lot of illness,
a lot of anxiety, and it's truly game changing, sounds
so fulfilling just in general, and that is so cool.
When you have athletes come to you for guidance and
breath work, what do they usually prompt you with when
they say they want help. So typically what I see
(09:49):
is I want to optimize performance. I've heard about this
thing about breath work, and I don't know what the
heck that means. But when I get to the root
of it, a lot of it is helping that individual
with competitive anxiety. That's uh. I think the route to
a lot of again, subconscious patterns, subconscious reactions. Of what
we don't think about is you're always trying to compete.
(10:10):
And when you're trying to compete, and in my world,
I say, you're you're doing rather than being. I feel
like for me, when I'm about to compete, you said
competitive anxiety. And before I was competing, I was excited
in the anxiety of it. I failed my first two attempts,
and I had done that weight so many times, and
I look back at the videos and I look back
(10:30):
at how I was training, and I really wasn't breathing.
So let's talk about athletic performance because now I'm curious
about this because I could use all the help with
this right now. But how can breathing properly contribute to
our athletic performance? Right? So, math breathing, especially chronic mouth breathing,
is so detrimental to our performance. And nasal breathing is
(10:56):
just so important for multitude of reasons. But to summarize
it up, when you're nasal breathing in and out, especially
at night. I'll sure we'll get to this, but taping
your mouth at night is a huge takeaway that is
game changing. And the way you breathe off the field
is the way you breathe on the field. When your
nose breathing, you're cultivating this positive core pressure and your
(11:19):
thoracic cage, which allows a huge prevention and injury in
terms of a c L surgeries. I have been there,
done that, and I would not wish that on anyone. Also,
when your nasal breathing harnesses a higher CEO two tolerance
inside your body, so people ask me what the heck
does that mean? Why does that matter? And to break
it down pretty simply is if you look at CEO
(11:42):
two as the divorce agent between an oxygen molecule being
inhale through the nose, comes down to the lungs and
then eventually in the aviolis, which are small sacks in
the lungs, the oxygen molecule binds to a hemoglobin and
that hemoglobin takes the oxygen molecules into the need of where,
whether it's the muscle or the organs, where that gas
(12:04):
exchange needs to happen. The divorce agent for that oxygen
molecule to come off of the hemoglobin is the prevalence
of c O two in your body. The higher prevalence
of c U two have in your body, the more efficient,
the more effective that offloading process is. And the CEO
two comes in in the hemoglobin and comes out in
the expiration or the exhale. So if your mouth breathing
(12:27):
you have a really low CEO two tolerance, which means
that oxygen is really rarely leaving the hemoglobin and actually
being exhaled out of your mouth. Also, the nasal passages
and the nasal breathing allows you to stimulate your diaphragm,
which is that really important breathing muscle that I mentioned earlier,
and the mouth breathing does not stimulate the diaphragm at all.
(12:48):
And if you want to turn on your arrest and
digest or what we call your parasympathetic nervous system, breathing low, slow,
and deep in and out through your nose is the
fastest way via the frenic nerve, of which wraps around
the heart to tell your brain to calm the heart down,
so you can actually control your heart beat, your heart
rate variability with the power of breath work. And I
(13:09):
could go on a lot longer, but kick it back
to you. Yeah, science, we love it, We really do.
I love hearing you talk about it. There's such a
passion that ignites when you talk about the difference, and
I can see that you're really living and embodying that
controlled and and truly present breathing, which is incredible. You
(13:34):
have athletes that come to you for different needs. This
can be runners who power through short and powerful sprints
to soccer players who are literally running for around ninety
minutes at a time NonStop. What would you say are
the differences between the kind of breathing needed for a short,
intense exercise versus long matches like soccer or you know,
(13:55):
longer endurance sports. Yeah, so great question. I think what
I would call the life's style breathing in terms of
taping the mouth, doing breath holds, static and dynamic off
the pitch or off the court or off the track,
looks very similar. So you're always trying to optimize or
bring your CEO two tolerance ideally up to about a seven.
Five is great. Below five is typically when we see
(14:17):
this um discontinuity in the metabolic needs of the body,
which is more panic disorder patients, etcetera. But to get
back to your question of how they vary, is when
you're looking at someone who's in a short sprint, there's
actually a lot of evidence when you're about to set
up for the track and that guns about to go,
you actually exhale slowly and then you hold the breath
(14:40):
as you sprint and you run your a hundred meter
or whatever meter that you're running. And of course you
can think of sprinting and holding the breath. Wow, that
sounds really hard and really painful. And yes, and that's
part of the beauty of hypoventilation training is you're teaching
your body how to breathe less, but knowing that breathe less,
that air hunger, is actually optimizing the biochemistry exchange is
(15:03):
happening in your body to help you perform and beat
your competitor. In terms of someone who's playing soccer, how
do you integrate strategic breathwork during warm up to allow
that chemistry to start to build, to have that CEO
two tolerance to start to build. And how do you
breathe as you're running, So as a soccer player, instead
of breathing through my mouth the whole ninety minutes, I
(15:25):
definitely would have been nasal breathing. And of course, if
you get to the point where your your breath is
super jagged, you can take it in through the mouth
if you have to, But the goal would be to
breathe in and out through your nose the entire practice
or the entire game. And then also the game changing
moments I call them when you're whether you're shooting first
free throw, taking a penalty kick, how can you use
(15:46):
that long exhale through the nose to turn on your
rest and digest your parasympathetic visualize then kick. It's so interesting.
I really want to try some of the stuff. I'm like,
I'm ready to do some exercises. Let's talk about your
actual program, your business peak flow. Can you tell us
a little bit about how this whole project began. I
(16:07):
just want to learn more about it. If you can
just share with our listeners about how you got started.
What's it all about? What you offer anything that you
want to share about people. Yeah. So joining the corporate world,
I was actually very much involved in health policy, health insurance,
pharma industries of the world, and honestly, it kind of
(16:28):
eight inside of me because I had this bigger yearning
for health and healing at the route and so being
in this industry and also being an athlete and then
starting to learn breathwork modalities for different demographics, I was
just seeing almost a limitation in all of these methods.
I find them so linear, and a lot of patients
come to me and say, hey, I just read wim
(16:49):
Hoff's book, but I have a past and panic disorders,
and as a practitioner, we should know that that individual
should definitely not be doing a practice that is going
to insinuate physical symptoms that exactly mirror the onset of
a panic attack. So there's a strategic, beautiful synchronicity with
(17:10):
peak flow where we call it the peak flow breathwork ecosystem.
So we have an ecosystem where any human that comes
into peak flow based on your goals, whether it's health related,
sport related, or leadership related. Those are our three niches.
You can have a specific six week integration program customized
(17:31):
to you, and also harnessing the power of community. So
if there's other individuals who have for example, asthma, who
are in the ecosystem, who are in the community, we
connect that community together so you have this beautiful human
connection which we all know, I think is a little
struggle these days with everything going on, but at Peak
(17:52):
Flow we're here to bring that back. And then also
in terms of not just the health example, but so
you're an athlete and you have a goal to opten
eyes performance and you want to connect with other athletes
around the world who are on a similar journey with you,
cultivating that community within our memberships. And then lastly c suite,
so any CEO, CEOs, etcetera who want to lead and
(18:13):
inspire with impact and use these tools to optimize themselves
so they can better influence the world and the teams
that they're overseeing, allowing them to come in and really
harness the breath and the community there. And then lastly
I would add, we have what we call the peak
flow elements, which are sleep, hydration, nutrition, rests, etcetera. Gratitude
(18:36):
list goes on, but they're all foundational elements of how
you find your peak flow and we integrate those into
our programs and challenges, so again you turn a new
exercise into a new habit at the end of our memberships. Wow,
sign me up ready. I feel like there's just so
much that we could continue talking about, but I want
(18:59):
to get to some actionable stuff because this is all
very new to me too. Are these breathwork exercises for everyone? Yes?
Great question depends on what exercise you're going to ask
me to do, but the answer is no. Not all
breath works are for everyone. The one that I will
walk you through is for everyone. Highly recommend it works
for any individual. But in terms of the breath holding,
(19:22):
I call it breathing plus where you're actually putting yourself
in this hyperventilagid state, consciously igniting your stress response and
then becoming more at ease. Those are the types of
breath works where we have to be a little bit
more cautious and making sure that individual number one knows
the science behind it, understands the symptoms, and can be
carried along and on their journey and this path where
(19:45):
they feel like they're being met where they're at and
then can succeed and eventually doing all the exercises. That's
how you know you're a true present professional is when
you don't just give the one size fits all. Everybody
is different and you've out of no where they are
getting started where they currently are, their history, and then
help them create a path from there. And that's so
(20:07):
supportive and really awesome to hear. Thank you. Let's say
someone comes up to you and says, Okay, I'm not
breathing well, I get out of breath really easily, and
I want to make a change. What would you say
would be the first step that person should take to
improve their breathing The nose nose, So always go back
to the nose. So if you catch yourself mouth breathing,
(20:28):
the first step is becoming aware. So awareness and my
mouth breathing, okay, let's shift to the nose. And also
understanding that every inhale that we take energizes the body,
and every exhale that we take allows the body and
the mind to relax, so sympathetic alert inhale, parasympathetic rest exhale,
(20:50):
So our body has this evolutionary, beautiful way of balance
rightly end and the yang. So when you're in a situation,
so you wake up and you want wake up and
you don't have time to go get coffee, or maybe
you're not a coffee drinker, and knowing that scale is okay.
If the inhale allows me to become more alert and
(21:11):
the exhale allows me to become more RESTful. Let's take
a breath pattern where my inhales are longer than my
exhales and continuing that until you have this new heightened
sense of alertness. And the same is true for the opposite.
Say you're going to bed and ideally in and out
through the nose, if you're able to breathe through the
nose and having that long, slow, extended exhale, because again,
(21:33):
that allows you to turn on your parasympathetic, your rest
and digest system. Linda, can you take us through one
of these exercises totally, Monica, Let's do this. I really
really want to try star breathing. Let's do this. I'm ready, okay,
So let's go ahead and close the eyes if you're
comfortable with that. And I just want you to gently
sway in your seat left and right, just visualizing your
(21:56):
torso your heart melting towards the earth, relax of shoulders,
and if you're not already moving the air in and
out through the nose. Let's go ahead and shift and
notice on your gentle inhales, not changing the breath at all,
just yet, the warmer air coming in through the nose
and the warmer air coming out through the nose. And
(22:17):
now on the next inhale, may be noticing the air
is a little colder, and on the exhale, noticing the
air's a little warmer. Good. Continue at your own rhythm,
and as you continue to breathe, let's take your bottom
right hand and place it on your belly button, and
then take your left hand and place it on your chest.
And now I want you to follow just my breath
(22:39):
here as I count. But at the bottom of the inhale,
I want you to focus on pushing your belly into
your bottom hand. So here we go. Inhale through the
nose and gently push your belly button into your hand
and exhale as you relax the body, exhaling through the nose. Good,
continue inhale, gently push into your hand and exhale slowly
(23:04):
through the nose. Good that's at account here. So inhaling
belly for four three two one and exhaling for four
three two one. Again one more round inhaling, slow the
break down for three two one, and exhaling for four
(23:28):
three two one. Now keeping the eyes closed if they're already,
you can gently take the hands and place them on
your side of your ribs. So we're gonna do the
same exercise we just did, focusing on the belly first
at the bottom of the inhale, and once the belly fills,
I want you to focus on your ribs, going left
and right and almost breathing into your hands. Here we
(23:51):
go inhale through the nose, billy comes out, ribs go
left and right, and then exhale as you relax the
whole body. Good inhale belly first, ribs, left, in rice
and excel. Relax one more inhale, belly, ribs and come down.
(24:19):
The hands come down. I can remain closed one more
target area. Right hand again on the belly, left hand
on the chest. So like we just did, we're going
to do the same thing, but add the chest at
the top of the inhale. So here we go inhale.
Gently guide the belly towards your hand, ribs, left and rights, chest, lips,
(24:41):
and exhale as you relax the entire Lilly good. Two
more rounds inhale, belly, ribs, chest and exhale relax. One
more inhale belly, ribs, just and exhale relax. As you
(25:03):
melts into the seat, let the hands come down, and
when you're ready, no rash, you can gently open the
eyes and I'd love to hear how you feel. I
feel fantastic. I know, I don't think I've ever inhaled
that much. Normally I have a hard time with inhaling
because I just run out and I'm like, you can't
get anything at the end. But when you broke it
down like that, I was actually taking the whole time.
(25:24):
I never thought of it that way. I'm like, if
you watch a newborn baby born, you can actually see
on the inherenthale their bellies rise, then the exhale they fall.
So it really is like the natural way to breathe. Wow,
And you wonder what causes that. You know, you want
to have abs, especially as an athlete trying to have
(25:45):
these you know abs, and a lot of times, honestly,
I find the students that I work with the most
who have this inflexibility or unflexibility in the rib cage.
Are athletes constant compression. Yeah, And the other key thing
is when you bring the belly out, that ignites the
diaphragm to come down, which allows the lungs that sit
(26:05):
on top of your diaphragm. Here, when the diaphragm comes down,
your lungs fully expand. And then on the exhale, the
heart gets massaged as a diaphragm comes up and pushes
the CEO two out. They call the diaphragm the second heart. Interesting,
that makes sense. Wow, that is so incredible. So that
(26:26):
type of breath work, I would always tell students, it's
great for you to come to a state of calm
and if you want to take it to the next
level using that calm to alert scale that I mentioned earlier,
shorter inhales, longer exhales, so we usually say four to
six second count and harnessing the power of a long,
slow exhale is the key to optimizing your CEO too
(26:48):
tolerance and then if you wanted to take it next level,
breath holding after exhales is what we do a lot
with athletes. When we just tried a nasal breathing exercise
and saw its power, it was incredible. Do you have
any advice for chronic mouth breathers who want to improve
their nasal breathing? Yeah, practice, practice, practice, but also knowing
(27:10):
and trusting that your CEU two tolerance can change, and
the way to change that is to start nose breathing.
And when I say CEO too tolerance, it's really important
to understand there's a lot of times this misconception around
I need more oxygen to breathe. The actual urge to
breathe is the build up of c O two in
the body. So when someone has a panic attack or
(27:34):
an asthma attack, their body is offloading all of the
CEO two which causes this hyperventilation out of the mouth.
That's literally the biological response of your body telling you
to stop breathing because you need to allow that CEO
two to build up. Why. Because c O two is
a vase of die lator, which allows your throat to expand,
(27:55):
allows your blood vessels to expand. When we have patients
who have asthma attacks, say, can you do many breath
holds instead of taking your in hailer, which as we know,
is over a three billion dollar market. Yes. Yeah, So
let's talk about the different methods. I know there's three
that I can kind of list right now. You're a
(28:16):
practitioner for all of them. We got whim Hoff oxygen advantage,
and this is the one I struggle with Boutako. Yes, perfect,
Oh okay, So I know that you kind of focus
on all of those. Can you explain what the differences are?
Is there one of these methods that you would say
is best for athletic performance? Yeah. I was just on
(28:37):
site with an n C double A team talking to
coaches about this, and I think it's actually a mixture.
And this is why I love the Breathwork ecosystem because
our approach to supporting athletes is both the mental health
and the physical health. And I think a lot of
times the physical health. We saw Simone a couple of
weeks ago, what happened there and that moment gaming goose
(28:59):
bumps for like day because proud of her. That could
be a whole another conversation, but I think a lot
of athletes got goose bumps SAT day. And for mental health, again,
depending on where you are at with your health and
the moment, I really think whim Hoff for what we
call breathing plus because you're over breathing is really great
(29:20):
for the intention of resetting yourself, resetting your nervousnesstem pressing pause. UM.
I use it a lot, especially if I'm in a
social event and i feel like I'm just dragging and
not in an optimal state. I will go do breathing
plus and come back completely re energized. Same thing if
you're in a recovery or so you just had two
(29:41):
games and the Monday's the rest day, utilizing that day
for breathing plus. And then in terms of lifestyle, breathing
for athletes absolutely oxygen advantage. That is so cool. It
is incredible to know how deep you can dive into
the world of breathwork based on what your person the
needs are. How did that come to be? Yeah, it
(30:03):
all started in India. I took an eight day retreats
actually just before COVID had happened, and it was this
retreat that was completely in silence. You couldn't look at
your phone, you couldn't even look people in the eye.
And we did what we called Shodar shin Krea, which
(30:24):
was made in Bangalore, and in that space we would
wake up, do yoga, do breathwork, and the breath work
looks very different from any of the methods that we
have mentioned. It's about a fifty minute practice takes time
and dedication, and then we would meditate after and the
amount of healing that happened in that room and it
was so fascinating because all of us became so so
(30:46):
close without saying a word to each other. So what
I wanted to cultivate was a method that worked best
for me and my body, and of course not saying
that's going to work best for everyone, but it is
about a four i minute practice that intertwines some of
the crea that I learned there along with sound healing.
So one of my really good friends will teach on
(31:08):
a regular basis here in Ansonita's, California to get back
to the community for free. And it looks very much
like the l T method. Wow, the way that you
speak about human connection and healing all of these things,
just I just feel like I'm having like so many
epiphanies right now. It's this is this is a lot
for me. Um. What is the breathing exercise that is
(31:31):
like your go to or your favorite or the one
that you always find yourself doing the most often? Yeah, Um,
I think the most powerful one is the Sharshan crea
that I learned in India. The only thing is like
the time, right, So I have sometime being so busy,
like do I have the time? And the answers yes,
I get to make the time. So when I make
(31:53):
the time, it's truly game changing. If I need a
faster like I don't have enough time, I'll do like
the reading plus whim Hoff method. I still take my
mouth and then I can next to my partner and
we wake up with mouth tape bond. It's a beautiful thing.
And still doing the breath holding and oxygen advantage exercises myself.
I do that because it's really important for me to
(32:14):
teach in this authentic manner where it has moved me,
and I think students in the community can feel that
because that's our goal too, is to move people. Yes,
such a deep connection. The mouth thing I've tried at
one time at under Armer actually, and that was very difficult.
I was surprised at how much more difficult it made
(32:34):
things for me, and that that was my AHA moment
back then, when I was like I am I guess
I'm a mouth breather and I've been trying to work
on it ever since, so I'm excited. Well, and I
think what you just said is really important because it's
really easy for us when we're not good at something
to to walk away from it. And I would encourage
you to lean into that, and when you understand the
science and the benefits, then it cultivates this. Okay, I'm
(32:58):
gonna do this, and the mindset component of right, it's
like I will or I do. I love that. Yes, UM.
So for any of our listeners that really want to
just see what this is about, do you have any
extra resources that our listeners can tap into, um to
learn more about conscious breathing. Yeah, if you go to
(33:18):
the peak flow dot com, we have quite a few
clinical studies up there for anyone who's still not fully
enrolled in the science. And also, honestly, YouTube has a
lot of great practitioners on there. I think everyone, every
teacher brings a different style and energy, and I encourage
you to look some up and see what's best for you.
But in terms of the peak flow dot Com joined
(33:39):
the newsletter, We're going to be launching a new platform
here at the end of the month, and I've personally
hit a ceiling with I was trying to help as
many people as possible, and my days were just so
so slam. So I'm happy to say that we've hired
a whole team and we're looking to expand and help
as many humans as possible. Oh yes, we are going
(34:00):
to breathe y'all. I'm so excited about this. Thank you
so much, Lindsay. This has been thank you enlightening and
comforting and just inspiring. You really really have brought us
to a better place in just a short amount of time.
Under armours, what the details will be back after a
short break. Welcome back to what the Details. So let's
(34:30):
do a little shake out, shall we, meg, Yes, let's
do it. Okay, I feel really good. But we're gonna
go ahead and play a game. Before we start this game,
actually want to acknowledge that it's called breathing. Breathe out,
so we're gonna lighten the mood. We're gonna ask you
about your lifestyle preferences. Okay, so you would respond breathe
into what you like and breathe out to what you
(34:52):
don't like. That makes sense, and we're gonna kind of
like rapid fire it perfect, all right, All right, meg
kick us Okay, morning yoga practice, breathe in work hours,
breathe out surfing, breathe in deep breathing exercises before sleeping,
(35:15):
breathe in chronic mouth breathing, breathe out meditation apps. I'm
curious about this answer. Breathe in out Okay, I like it.
I like it. It's an in between. It sounds like
on the meditation apps. So do you have a favorite
or why is there a mix? Well, truthfully, I think
(35:38):
there's power and letting go of the technology and allowing
yourself to be so with that, I love listening to
YouTube videos of the guru in India that taught me
for meditation. Other than that, I don't listen to apps. Okay,
good to know, Good to know. That makes sense. Yes,
I love it and that's the game. Linds, thank you
(36:00):
so much. This is so fun. You're welcome. Thank you
so much for having me. It's a blast, of course.
Can you share where all of our listeners can find you? Yeah?
So you can find us on Instagram, at peak flow,
underscore and also at www. The peak flow dot com.
Perfect awesome, Lindsay, thank you so much for joining us today.
(36:22):
This was such a great conversation and hopefully we'll chat
soon again. Sounds good. Thank you ladies. Breathe through the
nose always Wow, So thank you again to Lindsay. That
was such an inspiring and informative conversation. Mon, What was
(36:44):
something that you took away because my notes are like
a mile off. Yeah, I'm trying to read my chicken scratch.
It's like the whole thing. I'm like, all of it.
Wrap it up in a package because that was gold. Yeah,
number one, the nose no os like, just bring everything
back to the nose and back to the power that
(37:05):
we hold with our breathing to calm us or to
energize us, like inhaling is energizing and exhaling is relaxing.
Putting that together with intention, I feel like it's going
to literally transform everything I do in my day to day.
So powerful and so valuable. Yeah, I feel like when
(37:25):
she mentioned the competition anxiety, I related to that so
much because of that one competition I had that just
kind of left me feeling defeated, and it was my
anxiety that's what took over. I couldn't control my breath.
I mean, I feel like breath is something that we
think is just so natural and that it's so easy
to control. It shouldn't be something that's difficult. But I
(37:46):
have a very hard time controlling my breath, especially when
I'm doing like grueling exercises. It's like I lose complete control.
So I feel like I'm actually going to take away
a lot of this stuff and try it. And she
mentioned something she said, the power of surrendering. When she
said that, I got chills. I got serious chills because
(38:07):
she was like, the power of surrendering and you can
use your breath as your remote control to life. And
I don't know something about that, just it hit me,
and it made me just so much more aware. I'm
I'm blown away, to be honest with you, right now.
I really didn't think that talking about breathing was gonna
have me feeling like I should go run through a wall.
But right now, I'm there, I'm there, I'm with you.
(38:29):
We're going through the wall together. We are breathing, and
we are running through this wall and we are conquering.
I'm so excited. Oh my goodness. Well, I think that
our listeners are going to have quite a bit of
information to take with them as they head into these
next couple of months facing breathing and living and the
(38:49):
power of surrendering. Absolutely, I'm making it definitely my goal
to get into some more breathwork. And on that topic,
let's talk about these goals. Let's do it. Let's get
into where we are with our goal check in. So
for everyone that is listening in, for those of you
who are usually listening in, or those of you who
(39:09):
might be listening for the first time, this is the
portion where Meg and I like to talk about what
our goals are and how we can help each other,
how we can continue to support one another reach those goals. So, Meg,
what you've got going on over there? What's your goal
right now? Well? I talked about my dead lift goal,
which is still a goal, still working hard for it. Um.
(39:30):
But I actually introduced something new to my training last week,
and it was Olympic lifts. I've been so inspired by
the Olympics. My coach has been telling me it's time.
You've been powerlifting now for three years, it's time to
move on to some weightlifts, you know, and just let's
give it a shot. So I learned the clean and jerk.
(39:50):
It was terrifying for me because it's a whole new
world when you're throwing that weight up above your head
and not just you know, picking it up and setting
it back down. When you tossed it above your head.
It's a whole new world. So I am now making
that a goal that I'm going to get up to
one at some point in the next couple of weeks
or months, however long it takes. I have no judgment
(40:11):
against myself, and we're gonna see what happens. Hopefully one
five I can hit that. I'm going to keep updating
you because I feel excited. I've been watching videos and
just really trying to learn more about the technique in
the form, and now I think I need to add
breathing to that, So I think that needs to be
at a little bit higher on the list. But that's
kind of where I am now with my my lists,
(40:32):
and we're going to see what happens. Maybe this is
the year that I face my anxiety and I get
back on the platform. This is it. Remember what Lindsay said,
She was all about you know being you know, feeling
that and really embodying it. So how can we best
support you? What what can we do to help you?
And fuel this goal and your work towards it um feedback.
(40:56):
Maybe it was really neat because I posted a video
in my story is about me doing the clean and
jerk for the first time and kind of the process
of how is learning it? And I got a lot
of great like feedback, like people that were actually saying like, Oh,
I'm noticing this is what you're doing good? And for me,
that's really like the best thing that you could do
for me is to tell me and note like what
(41:18):
is what I'm doing right? What what's good about my form?
What should I keep doing? Because sometimes it feels really
overwhelming when it's like here's like a long list of
everything you're doing wrong. It feels like it's too much.
How am I going to conquer all of that? But
the little positive notes of like here's what you're doing right,
that just gives me like butterflies and it makes me
feel really good. So what about you tell us about
(41:41):
your fight? What are you doing to prepare? How's all
of that going? I need an update? Oh yeah, we
are officially kicking off fight camp right now. And I've
designed my own conditioning program, which you know, I design
a strength and conditioning program for an entire studio and
hundreds of people, but for some reason for me, it
took a little while to really lock in and get
(42:03):
comfortable with that. So now my goal is to show
up and to really do it. I'll be conditioning on
my own ball slams, growing skier, going into a pliometrics
on my own, And so I'm nervous and excited to
really lock into my own programming in this way as
a fighter. And I am still working with my coach.
(42:23):
We're still doing Olympic lists and and for no reason
besides I think it's just helpful for just power mechanics
and synergy, but I like you, Like today I did
a split jerk for the first time ever, and you
know I'm I'm right there with you. The feedback is
so helpful. I love to watch the videos back and
(42:44):
really see like, Okay, did we get all the way vertical?
Did we get under it fast enough? And so yes,
the feedback would be super helpful. But also just just
hearing from y'all makes me happy. You know, it's a connection.
It is. The connection is the community, even if it's
not even necessarily relevant to my goal. Knowing that I
have people beside me and around me has been energizing
(43:07):
and I'm very much looking forward to digging deeper into
the breathing game too. It's going to be a game
changer for sure. We have a lot to learn, at
least I have a lot to learn. I'm with you,
absolutely well. I'm excited for us. We have some big
goals and I think we're gonna crush them. I have
(43:27):
a good feeling. I love it all right. Well, thank
you all for joining and listening in fit fam. If
you like what you heard on the show, subscribe for
free or follow the show on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you listen, and don't forget to
leave a five star rating and review until next time.
Stay inspired, stay motivated, and don't forget to sweat the details.
(43:47):
Bye bye. If you liked what you heard on the show,
subscribe for free or follow the show on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen, and
don't forget to leave a five star rating and review.
(44:09):
Sweat the details. As a collaboration with under Armour and
I Heart Radio, our show is hosted by me Monica
Jones and me Meg Bogs. Our executive producers are jess
strip Stein, Just Sell, Louis Archbald, Molly Sosha and Maya Cole.
Our producers are Kelly and Tole, Layla Cadrein, Emma Osborne
and Alejandra Arrivallo, and our sound editor and engineer is
(44:31):
Sarah Gible Alaska. Keep up the latest news in women's
fitness by following under Armour at under Armour Women and
at under Armour
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.