Clarity

One of my teammates, Coach Brian, recently shared with me that he had started reading the breathing books we have curated for the coaching staff at Oak Park. As Brian was describing his journey through these books he explained how the picture each of them paints is incomplete and all of them left him wondering, “Okay, this is great but how do I coach it? And why don’t our members readily want this coaching? Improving your breathing will improve literally every part of your life! Why do they resist it?” I told him that my experience of diving into the literature on breathing was similar and that I want this blog and my writing to be a solution to this concern.

Poor breathing leads to poorer health (physical, mental, and psychological). Poor breathing negatively affects athletic and cognitive performance. Poor breathing reduces our ability to pay attention and make good decisions. Poor breathing makes it more difficult to connect socially and more difficult to learn. Improving our breathing is perhaps the single greatest improvement we can make for our health, fitness, and wellbeing. It can be taught and learned relatively easily, but it takes time and isn’t especially sexy in practice. I want to use this space to share with people an engaging story of why breathing matters, how the science supports the importance of functional breathing for health, performance, and wellbeing, and provide practical guidance for teaching and learning how to improve your breathing and change your life.