 Richie Norton the strength temple as he is also known and questions for him in the comments and we look forward to getting him into this live hey yeah man how we doing yeah I'm easing into my day I'm sure when you went I've seen on your Instagram with the video was was it this movie out in the sea this morning yeah I thought that would be the best way to kind of like get myself back in the zone but now my body's like kind of like got cold yeah or also like there's eights and paint I don't normally run so yes they also did a half marathon yeah I've never run a half marathon before so I've discovered eights in parts of my body that I didn't know actually existed yeah so I've already done a class this morning to try and like unravel the tension and just try to get to these spots yeah I've had all my tools out as you can see but I'm like all this time you're just trying to rehab my body a little bit mate's work well mate and firstly everyone welcome to the podcast live thanks for having us if people have got questions for Richie start putting those into the comments I'm gonna try and do my best as as the time goes on to keep an eye on what some of those questions are the idea with the podcast live is that people loved the podcast that we did with you but obviously that's just an audio experience they get to hear our conversation but they don't get to see they don't get to interact with us so the chance for people listening to ask your ask your questions put them in the comments and as we go through we'll unravel some of those with with Richie is there's a practical element because of what you're doing I thought the opportunity to bring that to life and actually do a little bit of what we talked before going a bit of sort of restorative work which is that we all need is all good for us and I can say you know personally massive thank you from us for joining us today we connected through mutual friend actually Harvey Gibson originally and through visuals and I've been to one of Richie's workshops when he happened to be in Nottingham it was the end of last year wasn't it and I one of the things that I've connected with Patrick McKeon he's gonna be on he'd on a two o'clock today yeah I was asking you you did some breathwork stuff with us at the workshop and I was just starting to delve into getting interested in that and there's so much different stuff out there I was on my own sort of journey of going no one's ever taught me how to breathe I'm wondering whether I'm breathing right or not that's where my mind was sort of going and you said read the Oxygen Advantage book it's a game changer I've literally like it adds to certain such a thank you to I've literally been saying the same thing to people constantly and we can talk what we're gonna talk to Patrick later about that so we don't need to necessarily go into that one again to your stuff today but I have just one thing on that I have found very different responses to people so you said that to me and I was already wanting to find out about it so I was like I went straight on Amazon and I bought it and then I'm excited about this because and then I'm I'm telling people about it and some people are just like yeah I can't breathe from my nose I'm never gonna it's just an interesting mindset well they don't because they don't try to breathe for their nose they don't want to or just because they just don't feel capable of breathing. I think it's come from a place of I want to tell you about this thing I found out about and they're like I ain't ready for this I wouldn't even ask you Jack about this type of thing and I just I just find it yeah I find it fascinating that just the what we get challenged by every day and then even just something with our almost like mentally when we're ready for a challenge or not and this thing is just something very simple that goes on in the background all the time automatically breathing being challenged on like are you doing it right there's a bit of a like depending on where your headspace is at and it can be yeah you think it might be yeah I think what comes up with me when you say that I I come across various different people at different stages in their life or different different personalities different interests different interests different issues you know we all have these issues where we look at it physically mentally we're always working on well hopefully we're working on them yeah it's more like there's an ignorance to like issues and sensitivity around apes and pains and obviously some irritations or you know a subconscious trying to warn us or remind us of the delicacy of how our body needs to function and align and move and breathe and all these things need to work in like this beautiful synergy but most of us are usually way out of whack whether that's a lot of stress whether that's physically mentally emotionally and I found breath practice was the the key part of my own personal journey before even the yoga side of things because I'd never been taught how to breathe when I was playing rugby at the higher levels and for me it was the biggest transformation for me to start to rehabilitate rebuild my physical strength yeah and my mental resilience and when I tell that story a lot of people switch off because they can't relate because they haven't been an athlete or sports person that have to work at that capacity they're just plotting through life and that's where I've used it come up against people's interest going like well I'm breathing anyway I've breathe yeah and what I find is a little bit of a wake-up is well you're breathing but I break down the mechanics and the biochemistry in the simplest possible form you can and then people realize that's either way under the optimal function and that you're likely leaving yourself open to disease and like cardiovascular issues you know heart health you know just you know how our body gets oxygen and all these different things make it as simple as possible but I think what I wanted to bring up there was whenever you do mobility whenever you're doing stretching whenever you're lifting weights whatever you're doing physically with your body whether that's just you know whatever you do day to day if you aren't breathing in sync with what you're trying to physically push your body to do you're leaving things on the table you know you're missing an opportunity to really maximize your output and then you ask the question like well what are you trying to do in the first place like what's your intention why are you training what are you training for you know and most people have the intention to do it well or at least achieve something even if that's just day-to-day and going through life physically mentally healthy for longevity to not get sick to not get ill to not get injuries you at least hope most people have that intention right yeah and I pull it all the way back to well if your breathing is not on point and you're not breathing efficiently you might as well not bother pushing as hard as you want to physically yeah so you be able to get to where you want to go you have to have your breathing on point and that usually gets people at least thinking otherwise they're in self-destruction mode and they're not they haven't got a good enough reason yet to even want to care and that's a different process in its place but I think that's something else also to work on isn't it yeah hoping to achieve while we're here you need to really think about embracing day-to-day more mindful practices yeah to be able to keep control of these different variations of stress to create the adaptations that we hope to have for progression yeah improve whatever that is and everybody is open to this so yeah well stress was something I just but I just wrote down a note like stress you mentioned it there like this is pretty making me think of stress management going when you when you're when you're describing like how if you're not breathing correctly that's going on in the background constantly and then you're going to try and push self and do something else in another area if you've got this dysfunction going on in the background it's a it's a stressor on the body and that depending on where people are in there when they hear the term stress they might only have one image of what that is in being like that stress state because you've got too much on and feeling overwhelmed rather than like thinking about stress is any stressors on the body that can be inputted in physically in motion it all sorts of things and yeah you're there's only so much there's only so much and if you come across Z health no they like see or se a zed health oh z health no I haven't know and and they talk about stress bucket and there's only like so much that you can take and then the body will they'll be the output will then be once it's overflowing it might come out in a pain or it might come out it could come out in lots of different ways and not necessarily just and not all those different stresses can play a part well we'll be able to just trying to give people a little bit of background or you're gonna be able to talk about a lot of different things already which is great but what I loved about the when I looking at your stuff and then when I came to your workshop to experience him we're gonna give people the chance to get practical in a minute is that you bring together that mindfulness you bring together the breathwork you bring together that in in movement and that is something that a lot of us that love like training we love movement like we get to connect to if you only talk to me about or it's just what I think that's really great about your stuff I'm able to connect with it because you're meeting me at a level where or at a point where I'm comfortable like I want to move better and then you bring in these different inputs as well and I think that for a personal but I resonate with your story personally like you talked about on the podcast when you're interested when we did that your actual interview and about you know your rugby background and that you and just want to give people a little bit of context that might be like listening for the first time that your rugby background and then you went through a period of I get this depression of the right words yeah yeah I think if I was to highlight that with the time that I've had to sort of process the journey let's say because I talked about it quite a lot now when I kind of unravel when people asked my my history it was more so I went on this journey of like kind of figure things out when you're younger I was I was able to find the sport as a way to like sort of like you know let out let off some steam but also find a real passion in it and a skill to be able to like go on that journey we all have our own version of that right yeah and then it comes to an end so it stops it's a chapter that ends and that chapter when it ends especially if you've set your heart on that being kind of like your whole future and how it unravels yeah you have this point of why right well right well what's next and you sometimes feel this bit of a loss and disconnection from the reality that you found as being your world especially if it was like a bit of a crutch you do manage stress anxiety anger frustration or just hormone changes you know whatever it is well I think also which he is partly like our identity as well yeah I think is one of the big challenges that when we stop yeah yeah I because we create this attachment whether that's through ego or not to this identity and how we want to be portrayed in this image that we've created right so the biggest transformation for me was actually going to these darker places of going like wow really just like stuck here and I'm lost and I don't know where to go I don't even relate to the person that I am now who is this person but it's more like it was a lack of direction it was a lack of structure it was a lack of self-awareness and to bring it round to the point of the whole mindful element yeah breath work and movement and mobility and stretching and you know these things that I've now found as the foundation of me staying present and be more connected and being more self-aware be more authentic was the biggest wake-up even though the transition was quite hard as a movie player going to yoga's lab it was more I realized that the more I saw the suffering and the pain and like the self-awareness and sometimes facing up to the reality of well I'm not really happy about that part of me it's now become the strength and the fuel to actually maintain the momentum I have now and it empowers me really gives me confidence to actually help others as a coach because I kind of like know that there are different stages to you actually figure it out for yourself yeah I'm just sometimes when you see that little helping hand to navigate that whole period but don't be afraid to like give it a go no matter where you're starting from because we all have to if we're learning and we're curious and we're trying to improve ourselves if you like think everybody would do yeah whatever your dream is you have to go on the journey of discovery and sometimes that's going to be hard but to create adaptation to get growth to find change you've got to like leaning some things that are going to be hard work whether that is physical mental emotional spiritual however you look at it right so it's like well yeah I was I was pretty low I can say it would be depression if you want to tie on it but it was like this wave of like lows and then some highs and then some real lows and then some highs but I had no way of harnessing it until I found a practice and these daily rituals that gave me this space to actually go whoa okay this is where I'm at what's the best thing for me to work help myself navigate this time to move forward and get to the next day yeah and then oh I overcame it brilliant right that's a building block so to make this you know to make this more relevant again to other people and allow them to relate we all face our own versions of these challenges and these obstacles so we can choose to hit it head on and like you know see the obstacle as a real opportunity to grow and that's like fight it in a mindful way or we can maybe choose to step away and take a different perspective to maybe navigate in different direction because that's the path of less resistance that will allow us to kind of like get a bit of breathing room and then choose a path that was probably not right for us in the first place but we've evolved and we've changed and we've put the time in and I find this now in my personal practice training physically and I'm doing meditation work when I'm doing breath work when I'm doing yoga the more mindful you are with your breathing and attaching that to the physical practice the more chance you have of really listening to what your body is capable of in that moment not just being a robot so this mindful connection to movement whether you're lifting weight whether you're a ballerina the more in the zone that you are the more connected you are to the muscle recruiting all these fibers but also you really get into a nice rhythm and that's when you have your best possible connection to your body also your mind is really like dialed in we should all be searching for this right no matter what level you're at yes I tapped into that for the first time I was like what on earth was I doing when I was playing rugby back in the day I was smashing myself and I wonder I got injured you know so what I teach with the yoga or the movement and the meditation or when I'm coaching people through like life changes the practices are still the same we just disconnect from all of our awareness and our natural intuition and our good and our life feelings we're all just up here way too much so that's when we all spiral out of control and things can unravel out of like alignment and then get overwhelming and overstressed and then you're not managing it because people aren't taking that space yeah and that's where the breath plays a huge part yeah it is the key yeah so that was a bit of a ramble but no no no that helps me unpack like why I'm here and what I'm doing and what everyone should hope to go wow yeah yeah there's there's there's a lot on that I was making a couple of notes as you were talking through it so I was going to think a couple of bits like you're talking about like self-improvement and you because of your mindset towards it and it's so like positive was that you want to improve like yourself there's like a level of assumption that like sure everyone everyone wants to everyone's on this same journey and they are I agree with it they are on the journey but I think every what they're lots of people are at different levels of awareness of like whether they are realizing that they should be or are trying to like self-improve I think one of the one of the great things about the guests that we've got we've had on the podcast in general and then the 12 amazing guests we've got today throughout the day is like everyone's bringing like a different bit of expertise and so we get to try and self-improve or learn from these different experts and they all plug into them us improving ourselves which is yes one of the great things about bringing lots of different people together the same way as I said already like that you bring a lot of different elements into your if you call it your practice that it is breath it is mindfulness it is gratitude it is movement it is those year grants and like I guess I don't know whether do you have like one word do you have a one like how do you describe that all in one like do you have a like it's this I know that this the strength temple was like that yeah no there isn't really there isn't a title I think it's just your coach yeah my coach but it's more like an intuitive coach you know I I don't have like one direction of that's what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life I like to be curious that keeps me interested so to make it even more relatable for the people that listen to this no matter where you are you don't have to be an athlete you just have to be someone is a bit more conscious of like being a human being that is capable of a lot and the way to make the most of the time that you have here is make sure you are conscious of your health physically mentally emotionally and the tools that we all have access to right so yeah you mentioned like there's different people on the podcast there's also lots of different people listening to this right life and they would have had a different upbringing so even if I learn all the same skills everybody on here talking and teaching my story would still be different so how I delivered it and how I perceived it was going to be different right so yeah anyone watching this anyone listening to this is like right well where am I starting from what has my story been and how do I want to steer it from here so what do you want to educate yourself on what interests you stay curious explore experiment right so if you're a bodybuilder or your calisthenics person have you ever tried yoga no okay well why not give it a go and explore it try to be teachers see what your experience is you can absorb that information whether you use it for yourself or not you then might make connections based on your past and your history and injuries that you'll then start to unlock other powers and other abilities to be able to improve how you move and how you transition through certain movements how you recruit more muscle how you mentally tune in to your lifting practice more consciously to be less distracted to get better output and achieve more in a short period of time so I'm trying to create dialogue to and context to everybody has the ability to improve on where they are now no matter what their level of ability fitness level and stage of life age yeah you start to be a bit more mindful curious and aware of an intuitive to how you move what you're dealing with how do you build from it no matter what your story's been now what your you know life so far until now is whether you're confident whether you're a little bit nervous maybe don't lean into this that much but why not just explore it knowing that you're only gonna learn more about yourself and also your body's gonna create more adaptation because you're challenging it whether it's movement challenges mobility range of motion respiratory mechanics are how you breathe more conscious getting more comfortable in tricky situations these are all life skills it's not just about you know being an athlete and performance it's more about like you're gonna be able to go through life more controlled more more like a Jedi you know where I like to think you know you like one of my clients called me Yoda I was like you know pretty small like you know I was embracing the Yorkshire yoga the northern yoga Yoda and to help this transfer over when you have these physical and mental skills and this more awareness let's call it you're able to engage with people in a way that gives you this different energy connection yes so you can channel how you want to communicate your body language but also you listen in a different way because you give people space like you're giving yourself space so you don't react so fast and say so you don't need or you just make a better decision based on the feedback that you're getting from that engagement so it transfers into everything and that way we're all more mindful how we eat because we're more in touch with our gut we're more in touch with our energy levels yeah and then this it feeds everything yeah well it's not much more than a physical practice is what I'm getting at yeah it's just so cool to explore it and that's all I ever want from anybody is just to kind of like delve back into something that they might put off or look in a slightly different direction get curious you know yeah now definitely like well it definitely acts as I can speak from obviously myself it just hearing you're talking about it and picking it more people that are listening now like is the smallest even the smallest amount it's encouraging to like just challenging go like why don't you like why don't you like open up the mind a little bit think a little bit further it's really I'm laughing at myself because I meant I mentioned about that when you were talking about the rugby thing I said oh it's like it's our identity and like we give ourselves these labels and you know I transitioned out of like professional we have to my head injury and dealing with losing that label that we give ourselves like I always I always found that difficult I think a lot of people do I used to actually not like the if I met some whilst I was playing professional rugby if I met someone just socially and they asked me they asked you what you do for a job which is obviously like almost one of the early things that come into a conversation isn't it I used to I used to hate talking about it and say it's I didn't want to I wanted to be like I'm just me like not jacket on the plan but then what made me laugh was that I was then literally going to you like oh well what label I was basically saying what label do you give yourself now so I already in the conversation I'm challenging myself like why did you do that like it's just like which it was all this stuff like and that's cool I think the other thing was that the Brian Keen who was on the first one we talked a little bit about self-awareness then and you're talking a lot about that and encouraging people to actually start to be a bit more in tune with yourself and that if we're what I'm sort of hearing is if you're an athlete or not but even if you were an athlete if you're only focusing on like that outward performance you might miss some of those internal things that I'm gonna allow you to like outwardly perform at your best if you're not in in tune with your yourself how you're feeling your energy level all those things if we're not in touch with them then you're potentially going to miss out on outward that outwards like performance that you're striving for and then the final thing was when you were talking about the depth of of one's journey I think that because you have had that it allows you to have that depth as a coach and as you said like relate to people on lots of different levels even whether the journey is the same or not but just because it's not been an easy road in an easy path that gives you that context and I think someone someone had commented saying you know they never thought about was a new leaf treehouse company there you go he's got a shout out but say thanks like that the context like the context really matters and helps them people relate to you the same way as you to be able to relate to them yeah I think the key thing to also mention there yeah in case it was missed because we talked about the breath work side of things yeah our breathing is a really key feedback tool to help us understand what state we're in because most of us are just mindlessly going through the day unaware of these these like emotional triggers kicking in yeah you know we can say mental health on a on a whole is like under a lot of stress right now for a lot of you in various forms and whether you look at that as training stress performance stress or whether you look at that anxiety depression fear all these things that are like in excess can do so much damage and like really wear us down and weaken our whole energy if not managed the the breath work once you get better understanding it and feeling it and having more control over how you channel it whether you want to ramp yourself up but you want to like stay on the level from an athlete point of view if you're over breathing you're blowing it over the carbon dioxide as you know or you don't you don't find you know you aren't aware of when you're over pushing over stressing it you're gonna deplete yourself and you're gonna run out of gas quicker than you you should be yeah or you haven't a bit of a panic you're at work you stress you've got a lot going on you've got your bit overwhelmed with everything but you're you still have the same breathing response so you're like over breathing so upper chest breathing lots of stress love sympathy nervous system yeah fire you know you're gonna be again pushing it too far to eventually you're gonna burn out you're gonna crash and you're gonna like something's gonna like give somewhere where if you start to use your breathing and and you can monitor it a little bit more you can put it back okay okay you've caught yourself he's like you check in your core we caught yourself before you've run out run out of gas yeah and then you can pull it back make better decisions again going back into like Yoda mode where you just can okay right I just need to pull myself back here and then you go back in again ready because you just you've channeled the energy you found that focus and you've used it in a positive way rather than let it control you yeah this is training this is work this is home life you just have this yeah you know just that yeah you know all this stuff and yeah that's a key tool that most people aren't using yeah I mean I just on that one more get into some practical stuff in a second just on that I after your recommendation of and read the option of antige one of the things that I noticed was that exact but exactly what you're saying when I started to like do some specific breathing practices and it's dead simple these it's not even nothing nothing I've taken from that has been like complicated at all but just that awareness like we're talking about self-awareness the specific awareness of breath and what I started to notice was when I was like I work from home when I'm at home and I'm getting stressed about work I feel like I feel a tension and it's like it's obviously upper chest breathing but I feel a lot of stuff here and when I previously as you said I was just like a robot just going on that was that that feeling was there but I wasn't aware of it and then because just because I was starting to think about how I'm breathing and questioning am I being inquisitive like you said I was starting to go am I doing it right or not and then being able to some time you know I'm not I'm by no means the best and you said to me the other day when I asked you about I've got my bolt score up quite I've reached 30 seconds this morning it was 21 because I haven't as you said like training anything if you get a bit slack on it it starts to go backwards and stress plays a role in that but I what I started to notice was I was going oh now I'm feeling I'm feeling a lot of like tension and energy up here and you know I am feeling stressed right take a second relax breathe for your nose try and chill and I would just like an actual physical sensation I would feel drop down into my stomach is anywhere from described like because I'd be trying to breathe that do diagram from breathing through my nose it literally drop down and it would be and I I would physically feel something changed and I would feel better for it so I'd encourage people to yeah to heighten the awareness and have and as you said have a little bit of a go and and so with that said can we there was there was someone thirsty talking to saying and yeah I know there's I don't know if there's a question it was more yeah there was more it was more just getting on board and agreeing you with breathing people saying well beautifully explained as well it's great if people do have any specific questions on any of the stuff that we're talking about with Richard do put them in in the comments and we will answer those but on the yeah from can we go I've got I've set my yoga mat up on the floor to do a little bit of can we can we go and take this sort of and practically of what they have one thing to jump into the practice I remember when I came to your workshop and you've mentioned a few times as you've been talking about like pain or niggles or injuries and I remember you the sincerity of you came over to me at the end because you get it I've had a problem with my elbow for about two and a half years and it's something I've just been able to manage and at times it is worse and that was a time where there were certain positions it was it was painful and you had that you're your sincerity or concern in it on your face when you you know it's someone like genuinely it's like there's a difference between your eye and like I can see that like this and I can see that you wanted to you wanted to do something about that but in the in the group context we didn't have time to but it's it's it's doing very well so that's that's good news but can we yeah can we go into a little bit of bringing this show bringing this a little bit to life so what some of that breath work and what some of that like restore you know we talked about moving some of them some rotaris restorative move yeah in your style what that would be for people can follow along yeah so what I'll do to intro this is because you know I did this virtual world that we've all been playing it for the last few months yeah what I was watching things from afar when people are copying a coach or someone online or YouTube whatever it is wherever they get in this guidance right it's impossible for the person who's teaching to know everyone's body type to know everyone's breathing patterns right and also range of motion mobility flexibility age injuries right so you know it's a bit of a cowboy world you never know who you getting guidance from right so I think when people just before we go into like some movement it's important to be mindful we're using that word again so I will teach a Zoom class that I did and I was able to watch because that's the benefit of you know seeing people lie yeah I'd like slow everything down we I want you to be more intuitive to what your body wants to do slow down and people still yeah yeah yeah just trying to get to the end shape yeah trying to get to that end position have you read the book use of have you read the book use of self no it was written out sick written a hundred years ago that's quite difficult to read it talks about end gaining we're like so trying to like do that as you said I'm working so hard to do that and that you're missing out the actual you're making you're messing up how you actually get there because we're too focused on trying to do the end point well yeah I know you see this most yoga classes as well because everybody wants to be in the end position be perfect for Instagram pictures you're missing the connection so I always like to mention people are hyper mobile that have the range yeah and just want to get and look wicked or tangled up you know all like super aligned and everything else which has its place but most the time they miss the benefit of strengthening the joints and improving stability of the joint but also getting the nourishment and the transitional muscles that play apart and you get in from one point to the next point if you're looking at like improving the longevity of your joints your ligaments your tissues you need to make sure you're mindfully make connecting the dots right so you know this but most people will miss the power and the magic and the self control of actually learning how to get their body not theirs yeah from one point to the next in a nice safe way under control for you to be able to explore maybe some new ranges especially if you're starting from scratch or you have an injury to protect and rebuild I never learned that but the biggest way so I was written off as a human being physically capable of anything when I had my injuries the way I was able to rebuild is because I found a teacher that explained to me was all about rushing all the end goal it was more about like connecting the dots in a safe way and then using breathing to help me brace my body and stabilize my body and then also using the the signal to the nervous system when you breathe out softly to find more range and allow the tissue to open rather like do you know we need to find this nice fluid release to be able to find new rain in a safe way without really aggravating all the tissue so the reason I say that's because I can go and do a little classy and everyone could follow along and it will feel nice but I think if there's a takeaway for this is from now that wasn't on your radar slow down a little bit yeah and don't feel you have to keep up with your teacher who you're watching you know take control back and then explore the ends of these ranges so you think about when we're building muscle through body weight movement or whether you're lifting weights or whatever you're trying to do yeah more mindful you make it the more connected you are to the movement and your body's going to respond in a way that's like he's dialed in I'm safe here I'm going to give him or her more room yeah and then you're not going to get injured you're going to recover a lot quicker you're going to grow a lot quicker and then you really get dialed into everything that you do so you find this mindful movement meditation even if it becomes hip training which I know people do and they love it which is why you see a hip person doing yoga that's restorative like you know I mean and then missing this like you know important slowing down but when he starts to pick up the tempo the memory in the muscle is already dialed in so they're doing it safer they're going to get lower on the squat they're going to be more explosive they're going to be open up a little bit more even at higher pace because they've done the foundational work you know this I'm not preaching to you but yeah I know some people need a reminder about this when they're pushing themselves you have to do on the ground work because that's going to like step up and move ahead of everybody else and not get injured and probably enjoy it a lot more we all need these we all need these reminders we all need these reminders right let's do 10 minutes because I know we've I didn't know how we got to 42 minutes yeah I'm gonna come I was just I'm gonna have to stand up now because we've got this little cop yeah we're gonna keep it grounded I'm gonna I was trying to be you're like one of the coolest people I know so I was trying to be cool with me so the key thing to do and then it's starting now when you're when you let's say any breathwork any meditation any movement practice you want to dial in my sympathetic nervous system is quite jacked because I'm talking and I'm engaged and I don't know what's going on so first things first when you do more storied movement first of all never get sick cross-length so it's actually okay to prop yourself up against the couch if that's more comfortable for you to start to work in opening the hips you notice it's you know you're doing these positions that feels better to you yeah when we look at doing some breath work to tune in also that might not be what I want to do today you might want to be here so that's really important thing when you're doing your own self practice you want to like come into it a level where you can be still and comfortable and then just allow the breathing to be your only focus and then you know so I know you can sit cross-legged another thing to do when you're in this upright position just we're gonna do a few breath cycles here yeah you know again we're trying to breathe down into these lower areas of our body so we're trying to get into the lower lungs and start to fall the breath in and out so wherever you're trying this now if you're watching this on repeat for example you can sink into this and go as deep as you want in the time what we're trying to do is just check in you know address ourselves I'm feeling a bit of a niggle in my left shoulder now I know I'm now going to go and release that so I'm going to steer this practice around releasing tension in my upper body so going into the upper chest but down into the ribs and down into the base we're looking for this expansion as we breathe in and as we breathe out that's going to soften and when it gets a little contraption around the abdominal wall and try empty all the way out so when you breathe in breathe into the belly ribs and then up into the chest without the shrug of the shoulders it not causing tension and then you reverse it on the breath out so the chest lowers the ribs lower and then you empty everything allowing the diaphragm to be the main driver so breathing again belly ribs chest we feel this expansion we're getting this stretch finding room through the rib cage our chest cavity and then follow it all the way out so we're just mentally addressing the whole process of the mechanics but also each cycle if you've got any cues Richie just I always find on the inhale like I am as you're I'm doing as I'm doing that as you're as you're talking I feel like I'm doing I feel like it feels right on the and it's coming from the diaphragm I can build it up on the if you got any cues on the exhale like when people talk about like the diagram I don't necessarily sometimes feel like a force that out or is it so yeah so if you so mechanics of it all the diaphragm as you breathe in can like pulls down on the lower on the lungs finds more space needs to get expansion here yeah which is why we can use the exaggerate a bit of a belly lift okay so when you breathe out it doesn't have to be chest ribs belly you just have to imagine this going so you can like squeeze it out so if you if you're happy to sit on the knees some people find that easier it allows for you to be able to like open up through here and really breathe down into the belly but like without breathing I can still do this just by activating the muscles so what we're trying to do is prime respite system to get deeper full of breath and as you breathe out the cue would be to let it sort of fall out of the body don't try and force it apart from the bottom if you're really this is the intention to get the diaphragm working is squeeze so you use the diaphragm and you're using the muscles round here to help with that contraction to get all the air out and then it's just a case of reversing that so it comes back elastically and then because the intention as you know with bulk scores and yeah co2 tolerance test which that's a good cue good guide for health and fitness and your overall health is allowing that the air to release gently without feeling like panicky so you're trying to slow you trying to smooth in the whole process in every situation even when you're hyperventilated or you're really pushing yourself and gassing the key is still to get fuller deep breaths unless you're trying to up-regulate your system which would be there which is like more intensive yoga breathing different stimulus but as a foundation for this practice if you can just start to be more mindful of the whole process of an inhale feel the lungs up diaphragm opening expanding and when you breathe out contracting and empty and just try and follow it for around 10 cycles you're already well ahead most people get mentally distracted and they switch off and then they're not connected to their breathing which is key before you do any physical exercise so we could do that all day we should we can almost do like a separate exercise on breathing practice but I think that's quite a good key things allowed me to take away so to cue that with a movement practice you want to try and maintain in a restorative mindset that same breathing rhythm but remember every time you're breathing in you're finding room in here so you're creating stability for the spine because you create this like little air pocket so you're protecting all the internal organs so if you go on to all fours best way to sort of show this maybe that same breath in you're gonna feel the back open up as the lungs fill in yeah well if you're breathing down into the belly that we were doing sat up and then you hold your breath but you contract so you try to squeeze the abdominal muscles you're gonna feel this extra brace so you're stabilizing the spine so when you take the knees off the floor in that same position you can kind of lock that will give you that brace and then breathe in and out in that same position keep contracting you'll feel that lift into the back you'll feel the ribs like lock in you feel the intercostal muscles all stabilize yeah and then release so I'm giving you some building blocks that if you then use that same brace so when you're breathing and then you move into more more dynamic movements or even when you're in a lunge position so rather just putting all the load in my spine that most people do they haven't got a good abdominal strength or pelvic for strength and able to use this bracing that the breathing allows your spine your back is going to get a lot more load than it needs to so if I'm doing something like stepping forward my right foot into this lunge position and then open if your left hand is down and your right foot is forward open up the right hand take a breath in feel that brace and that strength as you activate a little breath hold feel that strength and that control and that extra power in that stability take the breath in and as you breathe out so you be more passive see if you can open and twist a little bit more as you breathe out as you soften now open the left shoulder a little bit more push off the floor let the chest open a left side left shoulder left peck take a breath in now see if you can go a little bit deeper as you breathe out as you add that little bit of extra resistance and passively let go as you breathe out and then bring it back down yeah 100% make sense of the nervous system it's being signal by that breathing not just you force it mechanically and just using strength and muscle yeah your breath is allowed to stabilize keeps you safe let's do the other side to balance out yes you bring in that brain that brain element is going that fight or flight response almost or just the fact that the brain is interested in like protection and if it feels under threat why would it let you go to into a deeper range you need to let it I think that he's happy then they'll let you go a little bit further exactly so this is the same when you do it if you look at flexibility as your focus mobility or just better recruitment of the muscle fibers you have to put that breath work in that mental connection otherwise the nervous system doesn't really make create the signals clearly so you're leaving an opportunity on the table you're not maximizing your practice and this is what we were saying before if you're just like okay yeah okay my teachers there you're not really training your own body you're just following someone else yeah you're just trying to get to the end rather than like yeah we're in the process not making the mindful connection to get these nerves and get these signals dialed in so they maintain their consistent presence in your practice right so take your breath in activate the back leg so hit flexor here the back the thighs obviously active with the knees off the floor push off the floor with this right hand so you engage through that shoulder as you breathe in open up this left side keep the left leg bent take a breath in start to brace the abdominal muscles start to squeeze into the floor the hands and the feet so you stay late strengthen that position take a breath in and hold and just squeeze and activate everything that's got contact with the floor and as you breathe out next breath see if you can deepen the twist a little bit more and now I'm not just with the left arm try and open the right shoulder the right pet so you now get this nice spinal twist and then one more breath in little holes you get this little isometric contraction and then push into the floor and then see if you can go one bit further you'll find an extra few meters if not seven meters and inches I'm going like it's yeah it's one of those things which if you go because you do a few times you know these things but like I said these reminders because I've just followed you there it's very specifically and all of a sudden got a ton more out of that hmm so obviously that's just too real yeah so if you know as a takeaway for people the homework I always set people no matter what we've done is now try and integrate that mentality knowing that that's how our body responds to every movement that you put your body through okay so whether it's resistance training whether it's movement training whether it's breath work training let the breathing be your guide yeah but also be intuitive to how your body's feeling some days you feel a bit closed off your time just a half marathon I've got some work to do so I'm not going to jam myself to the normal position I know I can get to yeah I might need to give it a little bit more time and then gently pull it back this is restorative practice this is healthy movement so whether you're looking at a joint getting nice open range of motion hips nice and open spine nice and aligned mobile if you're just jamming it and forcing it to what your teacher or the person of video is showing you yeah I'm not made to mentally going through the process yourself you cannot waste your time a little bit and you put yourself at risk to one not benefit being the key but also potentially damage yourself and I think that's a really important thing to do this for me was a game changer with yoga practice because I was that kid that's like she's doing that I've got to compete here position I'm really uncomfortable this is really painful but I've got to do it you know and it's like well what are you doing it for are you trying to punish yourself or you're trying to progress and learn about your body and give it some love rather than just beat it up all the time and this works in any discipline just sometimes you got switched into more of an aggressive mindset if you're competing but the the mentality should still be the same yeah be conscious try and level out your energy so you can be consistent and stay like maintain that trajectory rather than crash stay optimal reduce the risk of injury and really enjoy learning about what your body is capable of and I promise most people if they stick to those rules you're going to be on a really lovely journey and you can steer that anywhere you want yeah no definitely I think you've got in you're getting a lot of people say it totally agree thank you so much so true lots of thumbs up lots of thank yous last saying making me making him your and I think that there's there's something around like nervous system stimulation and your knee is the not but this is I think what just with what you showed us that it's just a great reminder for me so I've been on one of your workshops but we need these reminders it's a reminder of like what that that breath with what that connection using that for everything that we do how that can help you as you said right back at the start how that can help you do everything better well nothing is quite it's a good thing to mention that on the on thing before we go on your name is usually it's been connected to them then the requirement for the body to need more oxygen so you're not in you're not breathing efficiently or you're tired because your body getting starved and it's fatigued and it needs some nourishment through the form of oxygen to the tissues yeah also it could be the trigger because the nervous system going to more parasympathetic calming because you slowed it down made my mind trying to get your body to go into a nice rested state so feed into that yeah it's like you're not you and you're like all jacked up how are you going to go into restorative practice and so it's a really good bit of self-awareness so I'd use that it's good yeah good thing to be aware of I actually feel like I could go for a little power nap now I'm thinking about it's only a little that little bit and I feel great but we literally wait I know we'll cut us up but mate thank you so much for spending that time with us everyone has been commenting about how much they enjoyed that if you don't yet follow Richie make sure you go over and check him out and you know puts out so much of this but stuff there's lots of other stuff that you can go and follow from his around using this as part of your part of your daily life and improving ourselves and everything that you go and do thank you so much for my journey man we'll have to there needs to be a follow-up to this for sure but we're nice and broke we'll run out on this one thank you so much man