Today’s episode features performance coach and breathing specialist, Leo Ryan.  Leo is the founder of Innate-Strength.com.  Leo has studied from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates.  Leo previously appeared on episode 219 speaking on many elements of breath training for athletic performance including nose vs mouth breathing in training, breath hold time as a readiness indicator, and more.

The use of one’s breath for training and overall well-being has become more and more on my radar with each passing year.  From my foray into the endurance end of the competitive spectrum (Spartan Racing in 2019), to understanding the role of rib cage expansion in movement biomechanics, to breathing for energy and recovery, to the training practices of the old-school strongmen, in each year of my life, understanding and training the breath becomes more substantial.

On today’s show, Leo Ryan returns to dig into the role of breath training, and its role in recovery, both within the workout itself, and in day-to-day recovery from training efforts.  We often talk about having an adequate “aerobic base”, but for some reason, the actual core of that aerobic base, which is “breathing”, is rarely considered, and Leo goes into making capacity workouts even more effective through breathing mechanics, physiology and rhythm.  Leo will also cover the role of CO2 and CO2 tolerance in human and athletic function, rhythmic aspects of breathing in athletic performance, and then some dynamics on breathing in the scope of strength training sessions.

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Timestamps and Main Points:

4:57 – Thoughts on Irish Dancing and athletic performance, from Leo’s perspective residing in Ireland

13:00 – Getting deeper into the role of breathing and breath-work in helping athletes recover from intense workouts

27:00 – The state of world health and strength on the human level, in the scope of modern society

32:00 – How one’s breathing throughout the day can dictate one’s recovery from training

41:27 – The specifics of Leo’s breath training that helped his training group to drastically improve their recovery in a 10-day period

46:00 – The dynamics of breathing rhythm on health and performance

52:20 – Controlled exhale dynamics and the importance of CO2 tolerance in athletic development

1:05:40 – Thoughts on breathing in the scope of heavier strength training, from a recovery and pressure dynamics perspective

“There is a lot of footwork, a lot of high kicks, and a lot of fast feet (in Irish dancing) so for improving your speed for sport, it’s absolutely incredible”

“Paul Chek said it beautifully that “every summer has its winter” and if you don’t take your winter, winter is going to take you”

“The breath is a phenomenal window into how your whole body and mind is working; and then you can use the breath to upregulate or downregulate the system as needed”

“(After over-using coffee) when you have your morning coffee, you are just getting yourself up to baseline”

“The breath is a beautiful guide to rebuilding your baselines, and making sense of where you are in the world”

“My idea of breath training is restoring your breath back to baseline”

“They ran (12 minutes max) their way first; then they trained for 10 days in nasal breathing and breath techniques, and then they ran it again; and they ran it my way.  What I found was a 1-2% performance improvement, but I found a 40% recovery improvement”