👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #37 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (3 min read):
😮💨 The physiological sigh
The physiological sigh is a breathing pattern.
We do it subconsciously when we have a build-up of carbon dioxide in the body (which can happen in deep sleep and stressful situations).
The sigh does 3 things to the body:
- 💨 Jacks up oxygen levels
- 🗑 Offloads carbon dioxide
- 😌 Activates our parasympathetic (”rest and digest”) nervous system
The cool thing is we can do it voluntarily in any stressful situation to calm us down. Fast.
You take a deep inhale. Take another short, fast inhale (on top of the first). Then exhale slowly.
Inhales are through the nose. Exhale through the mouth.
(Watch)
Even 1 or 2 of these sighs can calm us down quickly.
Bang for your buck stuff when the pre-game nerves hit, before a presentation, after getting a rude email, or in any stressful situation.
And if you’ve got a few more minutes, a new study published in Stanford Medicine found repeating this breathing pattern for 5 minutes helped:
- 😃 Improve mood
- 🧘 Slow breathing
- 😌 Lower anxiety
They called it cyclic sighing. And found it was more effective than box breathing, hyperventilation/Wim Hoff breathing and mindfulness meditation.
It’s what the science says is currently one of the most effective ways to combat stress.
Keep it in the toolbox.
🎵 Push it up with A Tribe Called Red
Get the ergogenic effects of music into ya.
A meta-analysis of 139 studies found listening to music during physical activity to help:
- 🏃 Improve physical performance (power, strength, endurance, efficiency)
- 😅 Reduce perceived exertion (how hard it feels)
Try this 2013 album from The Halluci Nation.
It’s the best kind of rare. Upbeat. Tribal. Weird.
(You may wanna skip some of the slower psychedelic stuff).
And from their other albums:
Get it loud next time you want to push/rare it up.
🧦 Don't miss a beat after long-haul flights
I used to battle walking off long-haul flights.
Years of foot and ankle breaks, sprains and strains meant they’d blow up like they were hooked up to a reverse vacuum pump.
I’d sit there wedging my shoes back on as we’re landing.
Because the inactivity of sitting for that long decreases our blood flow. And we get swelling. Which takes a few hours to go down.
(And the injuries seem to 10x it)
Which for most athletes isn’t really an option…
Last year, our team would fly from one side of America to the other. Get on a bus and go straight into a field session. Then play the next day.
No time to be operating at 70%.
Even if you’re not competing. I bet most everyday athletes like to get going straight away too. And apart from being uncomfortable, swelling can tighten up our tissues.
The cure-all for me is wearing compression socks on the flight.
I won’t get on a flight now without them.
A few weeks back I wrote about the science behind compression for performance and recovery.
And nowhere have I found it to be more effective than long hauls.
Cheap insurance so you don’t miss a beat.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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