Breathe Better Now

I was afraid. I didn’t know if I could handle the monumental effort it would take to complete this test of physical endurance and mental toughness. We were in an old school warehouse gym in Houston. Humidity was high, but it was only 82 degrees F.

I grabbed the 44-pound cannonball with a built-in handle. It’s known as a kettlebell to those of us familiar with the language of fitness. I started swinging it back between my legs and forward like a pendulum, switching hands at the top of the swing.

First task was to swing this kettlebell 100 times. I tuned into my breathing and coordinated my breath with the pattern of the swing. This is how I was taught by Ken Blackburn, the main instructor.

I focused on moving the air with each powerful exhale and letting the inhale happen passively as the air rushed back in to fill the space created by the powerful exhale.

This pattern of breathing seemed awkward at first—kind of like hyperventilating. But as I carried the technique into the next task with no opportunity to rest, it started to make sense.

16 clean-and-jerk repetitions on each arm with the same 44-pound kettlebell, that was next.

I used a sharp exhale 3 times for each repetition. According to Ken, the Russians had done research on using this breathing technique during kettlebell sport, where competitors perform high intensity work with a kettlebell for 10 minutes.

 Unlike traditional weightlifting where the objective is to lift as much weight as possible for one repetition, kettlebell sport athletes lift the same weight as many times as possible in 10 minutes. It’s a grueling test of physical work capacity and mental toughness.

The research on this breathing technique suggested that one could perform more work at a lower heart rate. I was starting to believe it. I made it through the 16 clean-and-jerk reps on each side and continued onto the next part.

30 snatches on each arm were enough to damn near kill me. But my breathing carried me through. I was now in the zone.

The next test was 30 squats holding the kettlebell. After the exhaustion from the previous exercises, this was the last part. In all, it was 10 minutes of constant, high intensity activity. I put the kettlebell down and began to recover.

This was my test to become a Certified Kettlebell Teacher through the IKFF (International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation). At the beginning I was not sure I’d be able to meet the standards of the test. Practicing on my own in the months leading up to the workshop, I had not even come close. But my breathing during preparation had been based on my experience with weightlifting for power and “hard style” kettlebell lifting.

This type of breathing, called paradoxical breathing, is well suited for creating tension in the mid-section of the body to stabilize the spine. This is helpful for near maximal lifts and low duration exercise, but the excess tension wastes a ton of energy in the 10-minute endurance lifting scenario.

As I sat there recovering from the test, I realized the immense power that the properly chosen breathing pattern could give me to attain peak performance. I had already become a believer in breathing techniques through the practice of yoga. I had used the breathing techniques of yoga to recover from anxiety, depression, and addictions.

I reflected back on my career as a health and fitness professional and realized that I had been overlooking the most important thing. As a teacher of movement, I had not been giving proper attention to the most important human movement, breathing.

I went home and started to blend this new-found experiential knowledge with what I had learned from yoga and qigong. This Eureka moment sent me on a deep dive into everything I could learn about breathing.

The Breathe Better Now Program is the product of everything I've learned about better breathing.

With the Breath Better Now program, you get:

• THE MOST important breathing tip you'll ever get (and how to implement it effectively).
• the biggest key to controlling your breathing, no matter how intense the exercise or how exhausted you feel.
• key exercises that help you ACTUALLY use your diaphragm.
• how to use breathing to relax your body and mind so you can beat stress and sleep like a baby.
• an age-old yoga technique can give you laser-sharp focus.
• how to create a calm and relaxed state of alert concentration.
• how to create a state of balance to enhance your creativity.
• learn a breathing method to energize your body and revitalize your mind.
• strengthen the deepest muscles of your "core".
• how to use breathing to optimize force, power, and strength output.
• how to implement better breathing to increase endurance and work capacity.
• breathing methods to optimize your warm-up and and rev up your nervous system before each exercise session.
• breathing method to cool your body down and strongly initiate the recovery phase after exercise sessions.