We had some pretty incredible things happen today with the breathing. Matt Greenwell was able to hold his breath for 3:30. Yep...thats right...3 minutes and 30 seconds. Incredible.
To be clear, he wasn't actually holding his breath as we all did in a swimming pool at some time. Typically holding your breath would mean that you took a big breath in and tried to see how long you could hold with your lungs full of air. In this method, we release all air out of the lungs and simply sit or lay in a relaxed state without breathing. Matt went for 3:30 with no air in the lungs. Others like Josh and Jody were also able to set personal records with 1:45 and 2:45.
We will continue to try this and see where it goes.
Post breathing we hit this workout
Roney
Run 200 m
11 Thrusters @135
Run 200 m
11 Push Press @ 135
Run 200 m
11 Bench Press @ 135
x 4 rounds
Outstanding workout.
I felt a familiar twinge in my back which, after 18 years of doing stuff like this, tells me that any further stress will result in an injury. Ok, I know...I am hard headed. It took me 18 years but I finally learned to appreciate this signal and back off immediately.
I dropped to 95 and finished the workout with no injury.
We had 3 people who went at full Rx today. Michael Miller, Mike Drew and JR. Outstanding effort from these individuals!
Post workout, I am thinking about the journey that I have been on for the last 18 years. I was an athlete in high school who loved to wrestle. I tried all kinds of sports and settled on the one that I enjoyed the most. However, I took small bits and pieces from everything I had done previously. Waterskiing helped wrestling, racquetball offered something, Karate helped tremendously with flexibility. I noticed some small crossover when I was still wrestling, but later I realized that every sport that I tried contributed to my profession as a professional fisherman in some way. I borrowed a little from each sport to be able to survive 300+ days on the water year after year. Who would have thought that I would be a better flycaster because I had learned how to hit a backhand killshot in racquetball?
The breathing that we are doing is really no different than any of these other things that I have tried over the years. Various diets, yoga, marathons, Goruck Selection, Kokoro, swimming, biking running, and on and on... To find your fitness, you have to continually try new things. Keep what works, discard what doesn't. The funny thing is that our fitness is a moving target. As we age, we change and the needs of our bodies change. Sometimes, I have tried something that I saw no value in as a 25 year old that I return to at 47 and receive great performance value from.
This breathing is no different. Maybe it isn't of interest to you now, but possibly could be down the road. I guess what I am trying to say is that we should all keep an open mind and be willing to try new things and add them to our training. However, if you do decide to try something new, go at it seriously, Read as much as you can and give it it's full due. Trying anything once and discarding is probably not going to give you much benefit. Implementing it for a set amount of time and dedicating focus to whatever it is will tell you whether it is right for you. This can be applied to diet, mobility, yoga, nutrition, supplements, breathing, or other treatment.
Hopefully we will all find our own way to take care of our body to get the absolute most we can out of it every day. Through experimentation, an open mind, a thirst for learning and the ability to take what works and throw away what doesn't we will find what works for us as individuals. That is the only thing that matters.
Good luck!
