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”
“I found the real genius in training your breath is not to get faster, but to recover quicker”
“Breathing, as you are there (not training) should be subtle, imperceptible, not noticeable (you don’t feel the hairs on your nose move)”
“The yogic structures brought me into imperceptible breathing, of the subtleness”
“Butyeko relies very much on balancing out CO2 in the body”
“You need CO2 to help oxygen get into your cell, you need CO2 to help cellular health, but you don’t get that because you are in a vicious cycle of getting rid of (CO2) without realizing it (by routine over-breathing)”
“I found the idea of restoring the diaphragm, the muscles of the chest, and the exhale, to be let go, is really important”
“Is your diapraghm supple, and can you use it well, can you use your upper chest well, and can you let go of your exhale?”
“The likes of the Wim Hof and the rhythmic breathing are very very powerful techniques for feeling emotions”
“(Regarding breathing) There are the mechanics, the physiology, and the rhythms”
“If you exhaled every time your left foot hit the floor (in running) then you would develop over-use patterns…, so (it’s helpful) learning to exhale on alternate foot patterns”
“You can extend your exhale to every 5th, every 7th, every 9th footstep”
“What I find my workouts are for is solving creative problems in life”
“You want to push really hard in training in your set, but outside of your set, you want to be recovering hard; and the best way to recover hard is to latch your mind onto your breath, slow your breath down, calm it down”
“If you are loading up your body with a maximal weight; and you don’t have a big enough reserve in your breathing system, then you won’t be able to create the pressure that you need to lift that weight and you’ll have compensation mechanisms”
“Once you’ve restored your breathing back to baseline; that’s it, you don’t need to worry about it again, you don’t need to be thinking about it the whole time; you can use specialized techniques for special purposes, but you don’t need to be doing breath training for the rest of your life”
Show Notes
Alex Collins NFL Running Back and Irish Dance
Breath: By James Nestor
About Leo Ryan
Leo Daniel Ryan is a Performance Coach and Breathing Specialist. He is the founder of Innate-Strength.com. He has studied athletic training, health and breathing since he healed himself of asthma in 2004.
After graduating with a MSc from University College Dublin, he continued to educate himself prolifically throughout his professional career in Ireland and internationally. He has attained multiple diplomas and certificates from many elite personal training, physical therapy and breathing schools including Dip. Buteyko Method, Wim Hof Instructor, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Pilates teacher.
Leo Daniel’s love and experience for health and physical performance has seen him research more than 70 breathing techniques, mentor with coaches to Olympians, UFC Fighters and World Champions and he undertook several internships with the world-renowned Dr. Eric Serrano.
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