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ep263 upload: You are already really fit. So will breath work actually do anything for you? Of course it will. Of course it will. Because fitness and calmness are not the same thing. There was a study published by Maxud et al. earlier this year. Literally came out a couple of days ago. This paper was done on military guys. Over 900 of them. And what they were looking at, these guys are fit right. What they were looking at was How much slow breathing, slow breathing improved their heart rate variability? So, what you first must understand is heart rate variability is a marker for how calm your nervous system is. If your heart rate variability is low, you might be fit, right? But your heart rate variability, it's your ability to go from being elevated to low. So your heart rate variability is those two markers between What is high, so you'd be able to tolerate a high heart rate and get it back down to a quite low heart rate, a resting heart rate. So this paper doesn't specifically look at what combat sports athletes do or military guys do under immense pressure, but it's more around breathing rate. and understanding what breathing rate has and the implications of breathing rate do and does to heart rate variability. Cause when you breathe less and less frequently every single minute, what you're doing is you're actually lowering your resting heart rate or simply just lowering it lowering your heart rate. So, what this mechanism does, because you gotta remember there's an accelerator and there's a break when it comes to your breathing. What that actually does is it is it accelerates or it decelerates your heart rate. So when you breathe slower, when you breathe less frequently every single minute, your heart rate starts to drop. It's the decelerator, it's the break on your heart rate. When you breathe more frequently, Every single minute. It actually increases. So it accelerates your heart rate. So what these guys did was they did slow control breathing and they lowered the amount of breaths that they were taking every single minute. The guys who noticed the biggest difference in their heart rate variability have a guess who? The ones that were breathing up to 15 breaths per minute. And then they lowered it down to about six breaths per minute. And if you control and Actually get into the rhythm of doing six breaths per minute, you'll notice a significant drop in your heart rate. And not only that, but your heart rate variability will improve because your nervous system is a lot more calm. It's pretty cool. But what does this actually mean for the guy who's getting into the ring? For the guy who's getting into the cage or going on the mats and going into his match? Well, pretty simply, if you're calm, you're seeing opportunities. If your heart rate is elevated, well, it's not gonna be hard to elevate it more. It's not gonna be hard to get it into that survival mode more quickly. But is that what you really want? Because the guy who usually wins is the guy who's very calm, very composed, and very in control. Not always, not always. But remember, we're looking at the probability of you winning. We're not looking at perfecting and getting a win every single time. That would be idealistic. And yes, it would be fun. But we live in the real world. We live in reality. It's not gonna happen. There is luck, there is chance that things change. Because if life goes 100% your way, doesn't go my way. Doesn't go your competitors' way at all. And that's not a life that's fun. That's that's that's rigged. If you won all the time. and had no contrast to what losing felt like, the win wouldn't be worth it. You wouldn't actually enjoy winning anymore. Because it's the contrast of life that actually gives us the opportunity to experience and actually really truly be grateful for the times where we win. Right? That's that's simple. So does breathwick actually make a difference to you if you're already fit. Yes, of course it does. Train your level of calmness. It'll improve your composure, your control. your ability to just go out there and really be present in the moment. Soak it all up. Soak it all in. Not only that, but you'll start to see opportunities open up because you are more calm, more composed, more in control. And your opponent is probably gonna wonder, how is this guy? So controlled. How is he dominating me? It's because you have a tool in your arsenal that he doesn't have. So that's it. That's all I got. If you want to learn how to breathe better, please message me. Get in contact. We'll have a conversation. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I am Shaun Tucker, health scientist and breath performance coach. See you in the next episode.