The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Master Breathwork with Brandy Osborne - #241
Unlock the secrets to peak performance as we bring you along for a breathwork session with Brandy Osborne at Kelowna Hockey Fest. Discover how mastering breathwork can transform your mental and physical state, crucial for staying focused and energized amidst life's distractions. Brandy walks us through specific breathing techniques that shift your brain from a busy, thinking mode to a more primal, sensory-focused state, giving you the tools to maintain presence and control even in the most high-stakes situations. Whether you're an athlete or someone looking to enhance your daily life, these practices promise a practical and life-changing experience.
In this episode, we dive deep into the power of breath control and mindfulness tailored specifically for hockey players, but applicable to anyone looking to boost their performance. Learn how intentional breathing methods like breath holding and humming can calm the mind, increase oxygen levels, and stimulate the vagus nerve for a clearer, more focused state. Brandy also guides us through a detailed breathing exercise designed to heighten your mindfulness and bodily awareness, emphasizing a tall spine and deliberate breaths. Experience how these techniques can naturally enhance your chemistry and attention, making the world around you appear more vibrant and clear. Join us for a transformative journey that promises to connect you more deeply with your senses and the present moment.
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So this essentially disconnects us from the thinking brain. It brings us into the primal brain, that is, in and of the environment.
Speaker 2:We don't know what's going to happen to me after that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Brandy Osborne provides tools and practices for you to enhance your human performance. This is the 241st episode of the athletes podcast. We recorded this in Kelowna at Kelowna Hockey Fest. What seems like all what it was a few weeks ago, we'll say by now. We're now in Ontario, london, more specifically for Chicklets Cup here, and we're going to be putting some of these practices into play this weekend. That Brandy taught me in person. I apologize, the video isn't perfect, my head's out of it, but that's okay because you guys get to see Brandy and you get to see what we are going through more specifically, listening to this on the podcast, watching on YouTube. I appreciate your support.
Speaker 2:As you all know, we have an athlete agreement here on the show. That means it's not free. We ask in return for you watching. You just hit that subscribe button Super simple process. It means the world to us, us. It allows us to keep doing crazy stuff, like taking the expert explorer to london, ontario, for the chicklets cup and for the next month here on the road. So tell me where we should go, who we should chat with, who else we should get on the pod. This is the 241st episode of the show. Thanks for tuning in. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in us history history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go. Kelowna Hockey Fest here. What are we going to go through?
Speaker 1:Okay, so today I'm going to guide you through some breathwork for performance. Specifically, this is breathwork for energetic performance to get your energy, your chemistry, your attention, and to be able to direct it into the pillar of you. So it's a little bit of breath meditation as well as alchemy, because we're shifting the chemistry that is within you to tap you in to yourself, but to certainly tap you into that primal essence of you that is seeing, hearing, smelling, breathing, that is in and of the game, that isn't thinking about the game, what's going to happen or what just did happen. So we want to right away. Players will use this after nap time and or they'll also use it when they arrive at the field. Okay.
Speaker 1:Whenever they need to just like tap into themselves for energy. So, instead of tapping into the music that's playing right now to try to get energy, that's external energy. It's agitating, it starts to shift your eyes, shift your vision. You're not connected to essentially your bloodstream, your heartbeat, your lungs, which is the zone Okay.
Speaker 2:So this is something you can use then to get into the zone despite all the external distractions that are out there, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's to be able to be in an environment that maybe has many distractions, but you don't allow them to be a distraction. You're just aware that they are there. You're not feeding off of them, you're not trying to avoid them, you're not trying to like, you're just able to. It's there but you're not stimulated or activated by it. You're activated by your own energetic currency, which is your chemistry, your cortisol, your testosterone, your endocrine system. Chemistry, your cortisol, your testosterone, your endocrine system.
Speaker 1:yeah, I might need some work, yeah, so I'm excited to bring this into this um podcast and everyone that's listening yes, well, this is going to be like the 240th episode, I believe something along those lines so we've learned a lot.
Speaker 2:We haven't necessarily dealt specifically with this. This is going to be a good opportunity for athletes of all ages to get into the zone, tap into their energy and ultimately be able to use this at any point throughout the day, whether you're competing competitively in an athletic setting or whether you are trying to stay in a zen state, maybe dealing with parents, friends, relationships right, totally yeah, it's that calm, clear, connected energy, like you're calm but you're still able to be you're.
Speaker 1:You're more responsive in that versus reactive. Okay, because you're just, you're not in your head, you're in your senses yeah, I definitely need this. Let's do it yeah, everyone does how are we starting?
Speaker 2:this is like 10, 15, 20.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's about a 10-minute breath experience, if you will, or practice, but I'm going to just talk you through it first. My knee is behind, so essentially you can be seated like this. You could have this up higher, so you're seated up higher. Some players like to put themselves against the glass so that they're sitting against something, or you could have it, you know, even this high here. So the key is that your spine is straight and you have the same resistance, so you're not doing something like this.
Speaker 1:We want to tap into our spinal cord and be able to put tractioning into our actual brain, which is our neural chemistry. So we start with a meditation, essentially at the beginning. So I'm just going to guide you through it, but we'll see if that's comfortable. Sometimes you shift in the middle. It's not a big deal, but there's five components to this, essentially. So the first part is for you to be able to direct your vision, so I call it the harmony eye position. Many people have used this in yoga and different methodologies and what it does is it communicates your pituitary gland, which regulates your circadian rhythm, so it brings you into harmony. So with all of them, there's like five steps at the beginning.
Speaker 1:Are you following? You're directing your eyes up and in, so the goal is to direct. The eyes will be closed while you're directing the eyes up and in and maybe you don't have quite the strength to get there because it's not a normal motion. So you might choose to look here or just towards the bridge of the nose. Choose to look here or just towards the bridge of the nose. The key is that we're choosing to tap into our vision, to centrate our energy and attraction the optic nerve to the brain. So this essentially disconnects us from the thinking brain. It brings us into the primal brain, that is, in and of the environment.
Speaker 2:We don't know what's going to happen to me after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'll feel different and usually it does and eventually you're like, oh no, this is what normal feels like. So we tap into that, so the eyes are up and in. So just close your eyes for this moment and just roll them inwards. But you're choosing to see something and maybe it's just black that you're seeing and then try to breathe in to land at the top of your breath, breathe out to land out at the bottom of the breath, Breathe in. So it's quite hard to hold the eyes there, especially on the exhale. There you go, so opening your eyes for a moment.
Speaker 1:So throughout this, it's important that you have your palms on your body, and the reason for that is our palms take up about 25% of our brain. At all times, it's always trying to figure out where our hands are in space and what does that mean. When you bring it to the body, you close that feedback loop to you, so it's not relaying like the temperature of the air, what's happening there. So you always have it there. Maybe you bring it to your actual body, but this usually feels good, okay, and then you're tapped into that primal essence of the hand that's so important, right?
Speaker 2:is that going to help me stay in the sauna longer too?
Speaker 1:then totally, yeah, yeah yeah, the more relaxed um the hands and the more they are in contact with you or in contact with something like someone's holding on to something, they're going to feel more stable. So you have that there or on your body. So eyes are up and in you're breathing to the top, the bottom. So this isn't all about mechanics, it's more us thinking about your chemistry.
Speaker 2:So as I'm breathing in, eyes are going up, breathing down.
Speaker 1:No, eyes stay up, even on the down, but they're going to want to come down with the breath. So that's where it takes practice. There you go and you're just relaxing through the shoulders.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm not quite.
Speaker 1:There you go, chin down a little bit, yeah, and just slowly open your eyes. So that'll be the beginning of it if I was doing breath performance with you, which can take many sessions where we really get you to gain access to your pelvic bowl, your pubic bone, your breathing into your kidneys, your bladder, your QLs.
Speaker 2:We've established I need to work on your breathing over the past couple of days, everyone at Kelowna.
Speaker 1:But this really anyone can do it, because it's more about just chemistry and it's about shifting your attention. The athletes that are really able to dial into their zone. They have all this energy, but they're able to dial into their zone. They have all this energy but they're able to direct it and it's very precise versus like directing it out here. So we just train you to like put your attention to where you want it to be and you breathe in and out and you, you realize that you can do that, like you can slow down time, you know. And then what we're doing is we're just coming into the next phase, which is I'm present, where you're breathing in, you're holding it in, you breathe out, hold it out, the eyes still stay up and in. I get people to hold it for about five seconds. So you just breathe in, eyes are up and in, and you just hold it for five, four, three, eyes rubbing in two, one, let go. Hold it out at the bottom for five, four, three, two, one. Breathe in, hold it in, eyes rubbing in two, one, let it go. I'm just holding it out at the bottom just for a moment, just to get the rhythm of it, and then you're going to slowly open the eyes just for a moment, just to get the rhythm of it, and then you're gonna slowly open the eyes. But even after just doing two of those, you probably realize how it just like.
Speaker 1:So a lot of players would use this specifically like goalies, right before a puck drop, and they will use this as a way to literally stop the earth from spinning. It feels like they just hold their breath in, hold their breath out, forever. It was like, if you're holding your breath, that's not good, it's like no, but when you intentionally do it, it feels like you've regained your sense of control, your sense of presence. It can happen for a goalie in the net when, all of a sudden, it goes from being um, essentially offensive to defensive, like they just see the play shift, they choose to hold their breath in and they're just seeing and they're listening. They don't need to be breathing in that moment. They're just witnessing. Yeah, okay in goal.
Speaker 2:mag did a nice little feature on devin levi and his uh Ingo. Mag did a nice little feature on Devin Levi and his meditation games.
Speaker 1:Oh sweet, Something similar to that, yeah, exactly yeah, yeah, and you know some players will use it when they come off the bench. They weren't happy with their shift. Instead of thinking about what went wrong, what could have gone better, what am I going to do? We mitigate that and we just come into this. Next shift's always more dialed in, know, okay? So the next one after that is um, I'm attuning and it's where you're using, you're humming the air out. So you're breathing in the nose and it's just humming the breath out. So just open your eyes for a moment after that.
Speaker 1:The reason why this is so effective? There's so many reasons, but essentially, I think we can all relate to the fact that we need our vision, we need our sense of smell, we need our hearing, we need our sense of taste. We don't even realize that we're tasting the air that we're smelling. It's a part of being primal. My whole ambition is to rewild the instinctual athlete, you know, okay. So it's like when we are humming, the goal is we're oscillating our optic nerve. We're oscillating our eye because we're creating this little earthquake. We're oscillating the honeycomb structure of the nose that can get very mucousy. We're oscillating the inner ear that only communicates with vibration. We're oscillating the back of the throat, our vagus nerve. We're stimulating it, which is our calm, clear state. Just because you're calm doesn't mean you're tired. We're just not used to feeling calm, so some might think they feel tired and then they're like wait a minute, I'm just calm. Weird, you know.
Speaker 2:Usually it's like this is weird and it's like well, that's okay yeah, I can already tell I'm in a more calm state, just having focused on my breath, you know totally yeah.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna do um, five of these humming the breaths out, not right now, because we'll guide you through the whole thing, but again, the goal is to oscillate and to communicate to our senses. And it also is in the nose. We have more nose hairs in the nose, or cilia, than our whole body. In the nose is where we produce nitric oxide. Nitric oxide opens the lungs. When you hum, you're producing more nitric oxide. Opens the lungs when you hum, you're producing more nitric oxide. That they say when you breathe in after you hum, you receive 20 more oxygen. Oxygen is energy. Oxygen is our speed, our agility, our power. So we want to bring that in instead of a stimulating drink or something that wears off. It's like no, you have it within you. You have this ability to to literally shift your chemistry, so you have the energy you want love it you know and then okay, so then you would be humming it out.
Speaker 1:Then we come into a couple I'm present where you're just holding it in, holding it out, aware of how you're feeling, tuning into the vision. Then we come into I'm expansive. So this one is a breath work that can you can feel quite light headed with it, and if you do, that's just. Your body isn't used to holding energy on a cellular level. So that's why we have to train at this, no different. We need to practice at it so we can perform at it, so our cells can hold more energy. I was telling a player like we have 1 trillion cells in the body every hour. 50 billion cells are dying, 50 billion cells are being born. The ones that are being born. The intelligence of the physiology is they're being born with how you've been breathing, essentially like what, where's your cell cellular structure at and where are you guiding it to? It will always adapt to new demands. Okay, so if we are always outputting as much as we input, we're staying here versus breath work is just inputting, it's just bringing energy in you're not. You're not moving.
Speaker 1:You're not breathing hard. While you're hiking up a mountain, you're breathing hard and you're just like lighting up your brain. Your brain, on on an MRI, is just getting brighter, brighter, brighter. Your cells are getting bigger and they're starting to be able to hold more energy. But when they can't, it's like, oh, but that's okay, because we'll, we'll harness that, okay, okay. So I'm expansive, just literally. It looks very similar to a Wim Hof breath. It's just so. It's just a quick inhale, offloading, inhale, offloading, so it's not to the top or the bottom, just even without.
Speaker 2:You're probably already like I feel this I've done wim hof, I, I'm familiar, I'm excited for this one.
Speaker 1:I haven't I've been doing it as regularly, so yeah, so this is just 10 breaths and then you're going to hold the breath out, just like Wim Hof, or you're going to stay there to get this hormetic stress. So it's no different than a cold tub. You're staying in that discomfort in a calm state because you know you can breathe whenever you want. You're just feeling it and then you're maybe letting out a little more air, more CO2. And then you'll breathe in and we'll do 10 more. Hold it out, hold it in and then essentially, we then come into just that couple holding it in, out, just to like feel where you're at. Then we open your eyes. When we open your eyes, it's still this is an Andrew Huberman thing where we are directing our vision to one spot that's as local. Maybe you just look at the R on this, as you're like, and then you'll hold it in. Okay, so just practice that one for a moment.
Speaker 1:But your vision, you could be looking at this little thing I got one and you're just One more.
Speaker 1:I got one thing and you're just one more. Next one hold it in, let go and just soften. In a perfect world, you, you would look so that you're actually directly looking at something more streamlined. But some players would do that while they're looking at their water bottle on the bench. And it's the key is you're like pressurizing, yeah, so you're creating that resistance, so it kind of stays here, yep, and then slowly, like I would work with you over time where we'd have less movement up here. But again, it's not that big of a deal right now. We're thinking chemistry. Okay, so you're ready to go let's do it 10 minutes 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:Just want to give shout out here to perfect sports supplements, the best protein powder on the market, who also happens to make the best protein bars on the market. You get your creatine, your glutamine, your bcaas, your hydro splash everything you need to stay performing at your best. Use perfectsportscomca. They're shipping globally and if you use the code ap20, you can save 20 yourself.
Speaker 1:Now back to the episode so I would always tell people to do this, of course, like at home see how you feel, and then you would merge it in before your warm-up, maybe even after your warm-up, if your hips are really tight. You're a hockey player, you're like no, I need to mobilize my hips before I sit and do this.
Speaker 2:I think I might go this way yeah, is that okay.
Speaker 1:So you would do this might actually feel better. Yeah, there we go when you're there, but your hands are still there, so see where you feel good there.
Speaker 2:That's better.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Quads are a little tight, you know. Yeah, all that testing.
Speaker 1:So I'm just going to kind of be around you and guide you through it. So your hands are there. Maybe it feels good to have them here. You feel where it feels good.
Speaker 2:Is that okay?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, totally so. Nice, tall spine. Eyes are up and in. So you're directing towards this spot here. So just come into your breath, finding the top, finding the bottom, directing those eyes up and in. If it feels really challenging, just soften them. You don't have to try too hard with this, okay, you're just seeing Exhale, find the very, very, very, very, very bottom. There you go, nice and slow in, exhale out, keep softening through the spine. But the spine is tall, eyes are up and in. Keep going all the way in, all the way out. This can be in and out the nose or in the nose, out the mouth, whatever feels good for you. So just do about three more. Eyes are up and in. What are you seeing?
Speaker 1:dark and out, perfect. So two more nice and slow, until you breathe through here a little bit more. There you go. So the next breath in, just hold it in at the top, just holding listening eyes are up and in exhale. Let go, just hold it out, maybe you notice the air is a little bit cooler than your skin breathing in all the way, and hold it in at the top, maybe you feel a breeze, maybe you soften your hands a little bit, your jaw exhale, let it go, just allowing the air to leave, and then you're going to breathe in and hold it in. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And then breathing out, holding it out. So, right away, you're going to breathe all the way in and you're going to hum the air out All the way to the very bottom. Eyes are still up and in oscillating that optic nerve, the bones of the skull Spine is relaxed, yet tall. When you get to the bottom, you breathe in the nose, humming it out. You got it and the higher you hum you'll find it comes up higher, all the way to the bottom. We're going to do one more of those all the way in, humming it out, find that tone All the way to the bottom. Great job.
Speaker 1:When you breathe in, you're going to hold it in and you're just pausing. Eyes are up and in and you're just feeling. You might feel this like of cells moving in the body, this chemistry that's moving for you. Exhale, let it out and just rest at the bottom. You're just feeling, feeling the cellular energy. Breathe in, hold it in, breathe out, hold it out Just a moment, to just feel eyes are up and in. Next, breath in, breathe fully in and you're going to offload it.
Speaker 3:In Out In Out In Out In Out In Out. Five more In Out in out in out.
Speaker 1:Five more in out. Eyes are up and in in out. Three more in out, two out one. Hold it in for a moment, exhale, let it go, and you're just holding it out. Keep holding it out. Do you feel that first urge to breathe and you let it go and you're just holding it out? Keep holding it out. You feel that first urge to breathe and you just soften more. Maybe you you breathe out a little more, only breathe in when you need to. But you want to feel that stress, knowing you're creating all these endorphins that you need to essentially go to battle, go to be that warrior. When you do breathe in, you're gonna hold that breath in. You might feel dizzy different. Hold it in In out, In out. In out.
Speaker 1:In out. You can soften the inhale if you want In out. In out Four more In out, in out.
Speaker 1:Direct those eyes In out. Last one in out, last one in. Hold it in, exhale, let it go and just rest. Eyes rubbing in. Maybe you're seeing different shapes, colors. What you see there, that shift, is just your chemistry. It's almost a cerebral spinal fluid. The fluids around the eyes that you're seeing have shifted because the chemistry is shifted. Only breathe in when you must, and you're going to hold it in at the top, just nice and gentle. Relax the shoulders. You're just present. What do you hear? Can you feel the air's temperature? Exhale when you're ready, hold it out, just pausing, feeling that cellular energy. Breathe in, hold it in, breathe out. Hold it out and then tilt your chin down, open your eyes, but just seeing your own body as you breathe in. Gateway to the nervous system is open. Eyes are open. What are you seeing? Breathe in, breathe out. Can you sense open Eyes are open. What are you seeing? Breathe in, breathe out. Can you sense the temperature of the air is cooler than the inside?
Speaker 2:of the body, definitely.
Speaker 1:And then you're going to slowly raise your eyes up to see something in the distance, find that one little spot. And we're just going to do three of those. I'm connected. So when you're ready, next one, hold it in. You're just seeing the shape, the contour, maybe the space to the left, the right of it. Let it go, close the eyes for a moment, just feeling the energy that you just created, open the eyes again and just as you're breathing in, you're just looking around, connecting to the ceiling, the turf, the boards.
Speaker 1:maybe you notice things are a little bit more white, more red brighter maybe you notice the breeze on your skin a little bit more, that air that's moving always. Yeah, maybe you hear the music like it's more crisp but certainly not distracting colors are definitely brighter yeah, what else are you noticing?
Speaker 2:I feel like my peripheral vision has actually improved. I feel like it's probably stretching out the eyes. Is that a thing?
Speaker 1:totally yeah, probably haven't done enough eye work tracking and the most primal essence of you, yeah, is looking more in the peripheral vision than forward right like you're capturing more with your vision, like the athlete that finds that unique way to the net is capturing more with their vision than most people, whereas when you're not breathing fully and your chemistry isn't in harmony, it's like all of a sudden you lose that just because of fluid dynamics and the hormones. But as you're breathing in and out and that sharp vision here, sharp vision there, activates that arousal system which is ready to go hunting kind of thing. So you're going to be like seeing that person walk up there. You're like oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No, like I'm legitimately the only thing from start to finish, the drastic change is like I can almost go 90 degree on either side now and I feel like I haven't had that necessarily as much over the past decade. Thank folks for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this 241st episode, something a little different, something that you can practice, maybe put into action not while you're driving, but maybe while you're out and about. I hope you enjoyed this episode featuring Brandi Osborne. She is at the elemental athlete on Instagram. Go check her out Brandi Osborne, the elemental athlete on Instagram and wherever else you out Brandi Osborne, the Elemental Athlete on Instagram and wherever else you're consuming the Athletes podcast. We appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in. Hope you have a great day. See you next week. Bye.
