#1793 Are You a Mouth Breather?

In our last few +1s (here, here, and here), we’ve been having fun taking a quick tour through some of my Heroic Target swipes.

We started with the dozen I hit before I even start my day then we focused on a couple weird ones.

“I’m in Bed for 9-10 Hours Like a World-Class Athlete!” 🎯
“I’m in the Best Shape of My Life!” 🎯
“I Feel Heroically Energized!” 🎯
“I Have Fun Going to Bed by 9:00 p.m.” 🎯
“I Sleep with Tape” 🎯
“I Sleep in the Citadel” 🎯
“I Love Starting My Day with Early AM Sunlight” 🎯

Those are from my Energy Protocol.

Then some Heroic Love Targets I hit first thing in the morning:

“I Begin the Day with a Smile!” 🎯
“I Appreciate My Life!” 🎯
“I Make My Bed!” 🎯
“I Send My Wifey a Love Note!” 🎯

Yes, that’s like me.

Now…

I want to spend just a moment longer talking about YOUR BREATHING as it relates to peak performance.

Quick context.

We’ve been blessed to work with a lot of elite performers over the years and I’ve been having fun connecting with a *lot more* SUPER ELITE performers over the last several months.

One of the groups of elite performers with whom I have the most fun connecting?

Athletic coaches.

It’s always super fun to chat with people who are ALL IN about how to turn up the heat and activate their (and their teams’!) Heroic potential.

Now…

One of the “small” but HUGE things I like to discuss when we strategize?

BREATHING.

It pains me when I watch athletes panting through their mouths.

If I personally owned and/or ran a sports organization, the VERY FIRST (!) thing I’d have everyone do (right after we set them up the Heroic app of course!) is TRAIN THEIR BREATHING.

Of course, we’d DOMINATE all the big and marginal gains on ALL the fundamentals (Eating! Moving! Sleeping! Breathing! Focusing!) as we helped the team AND the team behind the team make their prior best their new baseline as we forged a culture of organizational EXCELLENCE but…

Breathing is one of those things that NO ONE seems to be prioritizing. It’s a HUGE potential competitive edge.

As I typed that out, I was thinking of a text exchange with a new friend of mine who happens to be the head football coach of one of THE premier programs in the country.

His response after I shared Breathing 101?

THIS…

In that class, I talk about 10 Big Ideas we need to know including the competitive performance edge that training our breathing would create.

In that context, I share a story about the ancient Spartan warriors.

Apparently, they would pour a little water in their young warriors’ mouths, then have them run something like 10 miles AT PACE.

Then… They would spit that water out of their mouths at the end of the run.

Note: That’s one heck of a way to force you to breathe through your nose.

And that’s today’s +1.

Know this: We evolved to breathe through our NOSES not our mouths.

In short: When we breathe through our mouths all day every day, we trigger an incessant fight-or-flight response while disrupting the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in our blood which limits the amount of oxygen that actually gets out of our hemoglobin and INTO our cells which significantly diminishes our well-being and athletic performance.

So…

Take a deep breath with me now.

In through your NOSE, down into your belly (working out the most underutilized and underappreciated muscle in your body: your diaphragm!) back out through your nose—exhaling slightly longer than your inhale.

Flip the switch with a nice, deep, calming yet energizing breath like that ALL DAY, EVERY DAY—especially between the “big plays” of your games as you activate your Heroic potential and take your calm confidence and energized tranquility to the next, NEXT level.

TODAY.