Can your breath improve your performance?
Meet Johnny, a breath work coach and a former hockey athlete. After going to Bali 8 years ago he got familiar with Breath work. He then started to educate himself and wanted to bring the awareness to Sweden. That was the start of his breath work center HALE located in Stockholm. Moreover he is the founder of the sports brand and education platform Atunya, where he is a mentor and a coach to younger hockey players where he helps them improve their performance.
Instagram @johnnyodya
This week we have had the privilege to interview Johnny about how your breath can improve your performance.
What role does breath play in our physical performance?
Big question, at its core, our breath works the same for all of us. It's fascinating because breathing is autonomic; it happens continuously without us consciously thinking about it. It's intriguing because it's behavior-driven, which means our breath, like anything else, learns a behavior pattern over time.
This behavioral aspect of breathing is also physically connected. For instance, if you habitually breathe shallow, short breaths, your body can interpret this as stress. Sometimes, we slip into these unconscious behaviors without even being aware of them. Understanding this phenomenon allows us to both "manipulate" the system with our breath and comprehend our physical behaviors better.
This understanding parallels how our bodies function. For instance, if you experience knee pain, it might not necessarily stem from the knee itself but could be due to how your ankle is bearing weight incorrectly. Adjusting your movement to reduce pressure on your knees can alleviate the discomfort. Similarly, with our breath, employing specific methods and techniques while acknowledging the psychological and emotional connections can address the core issue.
This holds true for everyone. Around 70-80% of people have breathing limitations that haven't been optimized. Despite its significant impact on health and well-being, this aspect often goes overlooked. From my perspective, it's a neglected secret that could tremendously enhance people's performance, health, and overall well-being.
How do you work with your clients or athletes today?
I don't devote as much time as I would like to breathwork classes anymore. Previously, I had a small group where we could explore training, breathwork, and performance together. However, nowadays, I have performance classes in Stockholm that cater to everyone, not just athletes. With my athletes, I typically conduct a breathing analysis, where we measure different aspects such as exhaled carbon dioxide volume, which usually provides valuable insights into their breath capacity and behavior.
With this knowledge, we can develop a deeper understanding and improve their breathing behavior, ultimately impacting both their performance and wellbeing. One of the rewarding aspects of my job is that the athletes I work with often haven't considered the importance of their breathing before. While they understand how sleep, diet, and exercise affect their performance, they often overlook the significance of breathing. This presents an opportunity for us to work extensively and make significant improvements for them and their performance. Once they experience the effects firsthand, it becomes impossible to ignore.
From your experience, what is it that people need to improve with their breath?
The majority of us breathe "too much." That's the general problem, I would say. The reason we do that is multifaceted, but there is a lot of stress in our society which affects our breathing. It's natural to breathe more when you are stressed, so it's a natural response. The problem is that it creates this negative spiral of effects of stress. Then we try to put a band-aid on the symptoms. This is a big epidemic that many companies and people are struggling with, where many people are suffering from depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. I believe that understanding and being able to regulate our breath and understand our bodies is one way to help ourselves. As well as your habits, it will affect your life. What you eat, how you sleep, movement, etc. Without those key elements, it doesn't take that long to feel bad. So what is a quick and easy method that can shift your being and mental state? It's breathwork. I haven't found anything else as potent. It's a good skill to bring into life
For someone wanting to improve their performance where to starts?
Our breath is applicable to everything; whether you are swimming, freediving, walking, or running, the breath is always there to balance the homeostasis.
One way to start is by taking a day to become mindful of your breathing patterns. Can you notice any shifts, and can you feel the different breathing patterns?
From a performance perspective, it's about learning breath control. This involves intervention, actively doing something to control your breath. The easiest way to do this is during zone 1 or 2 training, meaning your pulse is below 120-130 (depending on your maximum pulse), which constitutes a low-intensity workout. You will then start nose breathing, which will provide you with much easier control over your breath and pulse, as well as more control over your diaphragm, which is our major breathing muscle.
This will train your body to breathe more efficiently. There is a connection between carbon dioxide and the stimuli for the next breath. Physiologically, you need carbon dioxide to absorb oxygen in the cells. If you breathe too much early in a workout session, you will sacrifice oxygen uptake in the long run.
So it's about finding the balance, being in the green zone (zone 2), using nose breathing for better control and volume in the breath. Then, when moving into phases 2-4 with a pulse of 130-170, it's about learning how to control your breath to push the lactate threshold and to avoid breathing too much too early in the performance. When entering zone 5, you can start using mouth breathing, but you can also practice nose breathing even here.
I believe it's a mental game. If you learn how to control your breath, it affects the psychological response, and you don't feel as tired, which can be incredibly powerful for an athlete to have control over their body. This will also have a physiological response; instead of going into panic and losing energy, you maintain control, and the body's response is accordingly adjusted.
What is your definition of holistic health?
I think, for me as a former athlete, I've been exposed to a lot of performance-related aspects. Whether it's psychology, therapy, physical workouts, recovery, or nutrition and supplements, I believe for me, it entails a combination of the artificial and the natural. Holistic, for me, is something all-encompassing. There is not just one factor that can affect our system. There are so many aspects of ourselves as individuals, and for all of us, and I think we can't ignore that everything is interconnected. For example, for an athlete, you can push someone even if some things are off, like an injury or whatever. You can push that person to achieve maximum results, but it's not sustainable. So, I believe in Sustainable Holistic Health.
The same applies to technology. I can't solely rely on it. For instance, when measuring sleep, I can get some kind of feedback from it, but I'm the one who needs to try and evaluate with the help of technology if it works for me, etc. I guess that's the definition of holistic, and it all depends on the method that you use. I'm pretty tech-interested, so I use that quite a lot to measure results, etc., but I believe it's crucial to also take a step back, evaluate, and observe, as many things happen in that space
What is your top three feel good habits?
Breathwork - I engage in slightly longer sessions, around 1-2 times per week, lasting perhaps 30-40 minutes. If I don't do this, I notice a significant difference in my overall wellbeing. Currently, I'm also training for a hike in the Himalayas, which impacts my breathwork practice. However, I firmly believe that dedicating just 1 hour a week to breathwork can truly change your life.
Regarding workouts and maintaining an active lifestyle, I don't exercise as frequently as I used to, but I still aim for around 3-4 sessions per week, supplemented by biking and walking, among other activities.
Sleep is also an area where I need improvement. I struggle to perform at my best without adequate rest.