How Breath Control Improves Focus, Calm, and Performance

Today’s guest is David Jackson! David Jackson is a Master Instructor with the Oxygen Advantage working now as a breathwork coach. He is a former professional rugby player, accredited UKSCA Strength & Conditioning coach, NASM performance enhancement & corrective exercise specialist on a mission to make breathwork a normal part of our everyday lives. Having retrained his own breathing after a brain injury in 2013 forced him to retire from professional rugby, he's passionate about helping others change the way they breathe to improve the way they feel, move and perform. He believes that in breathwork there is something for everyone, having worked with professionals seeking better stress management or those suffering with anxiety to professional athletes looking to improve performance and everything in between. David knows how your breath can impact all areas of our body and mind, which is why he is so passionate about helping people use breathwork to fulfil their true potential. Having felt the benefits personally, he wants to share it with others. Please note there is a short part of a couple of minutes or so that the sound quality isn't great. In this interview, we discuss:   How your breathing affects your health as a whole. Why breath-work can be a secret sauce to win more, think better and live healthier. How to level up your breathing right now. And so much more.   Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on Always remember your current point need not always be your end point - you can change at any time. When one door closes, another opens and you can continue on a path you maybe hadn't considered. Always be chasing that next level in your life, to keep that handbrake off in your life. You can train your breathing like any other skill. An improvement in your breathing can enhance your living systems and cognitive behavior with some work. Your breathing is a key system that keeps you alive, it can be dealt with by the body on auto-pilot but if you train your breathe more automatically you can become more efficient and skilled. At the moment, there are a lot of athletes who are not working on improving their breathing system, so take advantage of their short-comings and upgrade the key performance area now before it becomes part of the mainstream training methodologies in all sports. Shallow breathing or panting is never a good thing, normally a sign of distress and panic. Better breathing can help you take in more oxygen each breath to help fuel you brain and movement. Better breathing can allow you to deal more efficiently with CO2. Better breathing can create better cognitive function. Better breathing can help you relax and reduce the level of stress you are feeling. Better breathing can be learnt at any age and will benefit everyone. By breathing quietly, it tends to make you breath slowly. Close your mouth, put the tongue to the top of the mouth and breath quietly the nose will change your life! Your brain will always go the path of least resistance. Just because something is automatic doesn't mean its optimal. Breathing can be affected by the size of breath, the time held, the speed of inhaling and exhaling, how it is expelled etc. You need to breathe into your belly, not your chest. Learning to breathe better shouldn't be complicated. Shallow breathing will not help you catch your breath better than long slow breaths.  Being seated or stressed can have a big impact on your body and in turn the quality of your breathing. Your posture and how you sit will affect the quality of your breathing and that in turn will affect how your health and body responds to the quality of breathing and quality of air you take in. Stress causes will always be there, so we need to build a skill to deal with them, and better breath control and quality of breathing is the key. Exercise is a great method to check the quality of your breathing. You shouldn't be out of breath going up stairs!