The Exchanges

Q So for the people that can't work with you, what can they do at home to, to train their heart better that'll make the sort of biggest bang for the buck, if you will?

A The, the first piece is identifying resonant frequency. It's the rate of breathing that maximizes the heart rate oscillations, and you can use tools from elite HRVs, sensors, core sense is very good, uh, Oura Ring can be used, and what you're looking for is the highest amplitude of changes when you breathe at these different rates. So you'll do five breaths per minute, 5.5 breaths per minute, six breaths per minute. I generally start at, at 6.5 and work. My way down. Um, and then once you identify the rate of breathing that, that has the highest amplitude of heart rate oscillations, you go on. Here's the trick. If you can't get a hold of feedback, physiological feedback, 90% of the time, the rate that is someone's resonant frequency is the rate that just feels good. So out of, out of, if you do six breaths per minute, 5.5 and five breaths per minute, I'd have you try those three, and for two minutes using a pacer, You could use Breathe Plus, awesome breathing, easy air. There's an assortment of breath pacers that you can set the timing for, and, and then identify which one just feels most effortless, ok? And then from there, you go through a process. You commit to breathing 15 minutes twice a day. I generally have my clients breathe in the morning upon waking, and 15 minutes before breathing. This is awesome for increasing deep sleep and, and helping, Um, with any type of sleep…

AI assessment note: “The, the first piece is identifying resonant frequency. It's the rate of breathing”

Q And did normal sort of things that people consume like alcohol or caffeine affect their HRV and how so?

A So alcohol has acute and chronic effects. Um, it's really interesting. Everybody has a different affinity for alcohol. So Shane, you may be able to have two glasses of wine and it doesn't impact your HIV, but the person Across from you may have two glasses of wine, and it decimates their HRV. And just understanding what the inputs are for your body is part of peak performance. So you, if you're someone that we see that drinking two glasses of alcohol has a really large impact on your HRV, I'm going to say maybe you shouldn't be doing that during the week. Well, or, or while you're competing or making, let's say, trading decisions. So we make some decisions together by understanding how the body responds to particular sensory implants. So that's one. There is evidence, certainly, that chronic alcohol use Chronically lowers HRV. Um, and what's interesting is withdrawal. If, if someone is a heavy drinker will also reduce HRV because it's showing the distress on the body, but that changes in time as, as abstinence occurs and the autonomic nervous system rebalances. So caffeine is an interesting one. Um, Two cups of coffee for most people doesn't have a huge impact on heart rate variability such that if you're a performer and you have a competition, I would, I wouldn't say That having two cups of coffee is really going to impact you. Having five cups or more seems to have an impact,…

AI assessment note: “alcohol has acute and chronic effects... chronic alcohol use Chronically lowers HRV.”

Q top coaches about performance and how we can do better, and one of the keys to clear thinking is managing your emotions, and this episode will help you. You'll change your narrative about stress, plan for it, and master it. It's time to listen and learn. When I was thinking about where to start this, I think we need to start with what is HRV and why does it matter?

A HRV , I believe, is a biomarker that everyone should understand and know. It is a biomarker of resilient shame. So the larger your HRV, the more control you have over your autonomic response to stress before, during, and after a stressor. And so you can take someone who's taught one percent of the world and what they do, and if they don't have the physiological control to operate at that Top one percent consistently during stress, before the stress occurs, after it happens, they don't have that control. They're operating at a fraction of themselves instead of their best self. HRV in and of itself , the science of it, is we're looking at the, the time in between heartbeats, ok? And more time is better, um, less time shows a less resilient autonomic nervous system. Clinically, when a client meets with me, we use a different parameter than, say, the aura ring, which is, which is looking at the, the Time interval between beats, and we're looking at, you know, there's something called resonant sinus arrhythmia. When you inhale, your heart rate goes up, and when you exhale, your heart rate goes down, and we want these to be big ocean-like waves, and you take an athlete, and they'll come in, and, and those waves, their heart rate will go from, like, 40 to 100, and back to 40, but you take Someone who was CEO of a company under stress, and you see an HIV of like five, 85 to 90, and bac…

AI assessment note: “the science of it, is we're looking at the, the time in between heartbeats”

Q Are there any other, you said start with HRV, what are the other sort of physiology things that we can do to sort of put ourselves in a better state?

A So there are moment by moment things like movement. You could do 20 jumping jacks and your physiology is going to shift. You can listen to music. Some people self-isolate and find a place where there's no noise and It's almost like a little cave that feels really safe, and so my client will identify some of those tools That beyond just breathing help to shift their physiology quickly in a moment to get them back to baseline. And the one thing I say is, look, stress is going to happen. Let's expect it. Let's accept it. Even with training, you, you're going to have a stress response, but I want you to be in control of, of how long it lasts and be able to return to baseline as quickly as possible or as quickly as you need to be.

AI assessment note: “there are moment by moment things like movement. You could do 20 jumping jacks”

Q So, so talk to me a little more about the breathing. What is it that we can do specifically? You mentioned sort of turn it on and turn it off. What is it that we control that allows us to, to do that like a light switch almost?

A This process takes 10 weeks, and I've done this for 17 years, Shane. I've sliced and diced it. I've had people call me from India. Can I please come, doc? I'll train with you for seven hours a day for 10 days, and then go back. Say it doesn't work like that. It's the chronic activation of what's called the baroreflex, ok? The baroreflex is a reflex in your autonomic nervous system that controls heart rate and blood pressure. We identify a rate of breathing That strengthens this reflex. So think about it. As an athlete, you train every part of your body that has a muscle, but most people aren't training their heart, right? We do calf raises. We do arm raises. Why? Because with a certain amount of frequency, we strengthen that muscle, and we have control over that body part that's increased, and you're able to do that, so to speak, with the bearer reflex. As you stimulate the bearer reflex with resonant frequency, Frequency breathing, a rate that we identify in my office, that everyone has a different rate. It's generally between five and 6.5 breaths per minute, but everyone is slightly different, and we're able to maximize HRV on each breath. 15 minutes, twice a day, 10 weeks, they've made, they've actually created a reflex where during stressful moments, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and helps to moderate. Well, that's kind of cool, right? Because now you have an …

AI assessment note: “stimulate the bearer reflex with resonant frequency... generally between five and 6.5 breaths per minute”

Q In the absence of stress, is there like a default natural rate that we're born with?

A Such an interesting question because everyone's looking for like the magic number. There's no magic number, and it very much depends on your body, your system, your experiences in life. There are some people just born innately with, uh, higher levels of HRV. They tend, it's interesting, Shane, they tend to be endurance athletes. Um, I'll look at someone's heart and I'll say, do you run? And if you don't, you should. Um, but more so than trying to find a magic number for HRV, you want to look at what your range is, so you can do that in a variety of ways, tracking devices, elite HRV, or a ring, and starting to get an understanding of, I, I generally like to look at nocturnal HRV, and The HRV on your lowest days and HRV on your highest days, and then understanding, well, what could be causing that? So maybe your HRV on the highest day, according to the Oura Ring, is in the high fifties, but on your lowest day, it's 17. Whoa! That's a huge difference in your body's ability to process the world, to connect to the world, to make decisions and perform at your peak. So then you want to understand why that's happening, And, and begin to, it's interesting because you want to increase the HRV per se number, but you want to decrease the disparity in between nights. So if I have an athlete who has a 17:01 night and a 72 another, I want to understand why. We want to close that gap so that t…

AI assessment note: “There's no magic number, and it very much depends on your body”

Q And so what you mentioned running, you recommended people run. What additional tools aside from the breathing, is it sort of like when we eat or when we exercise, or is it specific types of exercise are better, uh, to, to sort of maximize our HRV than other types of exercise?

A So to clarify, sometimes someone will come in with just a, you know, a really large HRV, and they're not athletes, and then I will say, you're an endurance person. Do you run? If not, you should. But any kind of endurance sport will increase and maximize HRV, and, you know, along with the HRV, I like to work with a person to create Essentially vectors in their ecosystem that lead to internal state changes. So I'll give you a few kind of fun examples. Sure, sleep maximization and finding the rhythm for sleep. You know, some people need nine hours, some people need seven, but when we track, we're able to see how, um, different amounts of time impact sleep. There are things like looking at how eating within three hours before bedtime impacts sleep. Looking at alcohol, like we talked about use, caffeine use, um, What else is interesting? Music, for some people, can really produce a heightened HRV effect, and, and, you know, Joe and I can talk with you later about some of the things that we did along with the breathing to maximize HRV in real time for specific performance states, but you have to find certain songs. Not every song will amplify HRV. My friend Josh Waitzkin, Eminem, Is the song without breathing like gets his HRV on fire? And, and so I try and find that with, with different performers, the songs that move their heart. Um, there are other pieces when you monitor someone…

AI assessment note: “any kind of endurance sport will increase and maximize HRV”

Q You mentioned sleep, caffeine, food intake. What are the other variables that you ask people about when they come into your office to better understand where they're coming from and what their baseline is? And then I want to talk next about the things that we can do to, uh, move on from that baseline and what things we control to, to maximize our, our peak mental and physical performance.

A Sleep is a big one. Certainly HRV, high HRV is associated with better sleep. Low HRV is associated with conditions like insomnia and sleep apnea. Non-restorative sleep will negatively impact HRV, so there is this circular effect, um, and, and so that's certainly a question. People often want to say, I'm a, I can sleep five hours, I feel rested. HRV will tell you. It, it, it really gives a robust and accurate number In terms of recovery, and I'm able to show people in the nights where they get five hours of sleep, let's say, versus eight hours of sleep, what happens to rest and recovery if we look at HRV as a metric of resilience. Um, so it could be really, really helpful to have that kind of data. The also interesting part about HRV and sleep, as people increase their HRV, a common sleep problem, and it's not insomnia or sleep apnea, it's just busy brain. They can't turn it off, and so you'll have CEOs that can't fall asleep because they're thinking, thinking, and that's what they're great at in the world, but if you don't have the ability to turn off your brain, you don't have deep recovery, and it will affect your REM sleep, and even your deep sleep. This allows the body to turn off, and it's not turning off to make you like you just came out of yoga. You're in control, When you need to be on, you can be on, but now you can be off when you need to be off. And that can be good…

AI assessment note: “Sleep is a big one. Certainly HRV, high HRV is associated with better sleep.”