#121 | Recovery for Performance Longevity | Brian MacKenzie of ShiftAdapt

Fullscript for WiseAthletes

As we kick off the new year in 2024, I continue my pursuit of better stress management with one of the legends in the space.

Today on episode 121, Glen and I speak with the great Brian MacKenzie...a best-selling author and recognized expert on stress adaptation…to help me to better understand how to rebalance my ability to perform well under stress and recover quickly to create greater performance longevity.   

Brian explains his practice of stress adaptation to improve performance AND the quality of life. Brian says we have to see what we really want so that we will be willing to do what it takes create sustainable performance. Higher HRV is not enough; know your why to have the motivation and staying power needed to make it happen. And, if you do it right, you'll get higher HRV.

Brian is the Founder & CEO of Shift. He is also the President and Co-Founder of The Health and Human Performance Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching how breath and innate tools can optimize and help health and human performance.  Brian has also co-authored the book Power Speed Endurance, The New York Times Best Seller UnBreakable Runner, and UnPlugged. And, Brian is the co-founder of The Art of Breath, a course he teaches through SH//FT that teaches a principles based approach to breath & performance.

Bullet points

• Eagle Story -- Don't be an Eagle that lived like a Chicken
• Do more non-exercise movement: 10k steps a day, or 2 sessions of zone 1 cyclings a day (max 15 breaths per minute; nasal breathing)
• Build in cycles of up/down stress every day.
• Find time for recovery snacks: drive the speed limit, don't take the smartphone into the bathroom, breathing exercises several times a day
• Breathing Gears:
  • Gear one: 2 seconds inhale; 2 seconds exhale...nasal breathing
  • Gear two: power nasal breathing...fast inhale/exhale (only for 25 breaths before shifting to mouth breathing)
• Test CO2 tolerance to check your nervous system status. Then build a plan to recapture your ability to flex between stress and relaxation / recovery
• Brian's Speed Power Endurance book: https://a.co/d/3LKSEQL
• Peter Crone YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcakm7T9YgnrWYL4g15Drgw
• Ernest Rossi - Ultradian: https://www.ernestrossi.com/interviews/ultradia.htm
• Anthony De Mello -- Awareness book (I saw $6 used copies on Amazon)

Related info and episodes:

• Brian MacKenzie website
• shiftadapt
• The Health and Human Performance Foundation
• Episode 68 - becoming-anti-fragile-w-dr-mike-t-nelson
• Episode 50 - the-science-of-better-breathing-with-george-dallam-phd
• Episode 32 - helping-older-athletes-be-young-again-with-dr-mike-t-nelson/

More Brian MacKenzie Info:

• Twitter (X): @brianmackenzie
• Instagram: @_brianmackenzie
• Breathing Gears on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKgylXtO0Z/

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