 to Holistic Wellness Reveals. I'm Letitia Sharp, and I'm here today to discuss with our guest about breath, breathing, sports, and a whole slew of other things that go along with that topic. Delighted to invite and have today on the show, Jono Blodgett. He's a hybrid athlete. We'll get into that a little bit later. He's a founder of Malcolm O'Kai Fitness. He's a performance and breath coach. He does ice baths, sauna therapy, and he just, oh, and he's a Spartan champion. So I'm super happy, and I would love to invite Jono to the show. Jono. Thank you so much for having me, Letitia. Yes, pleasure talking with you. I'm excited. I am too. First off, let's just, I would love to know what your definition of a hybrid athlete is. So it's kind of been a popular concept that's come up recently. A lot of people are saying, oh, I'm a runner, or I do CrossFit, or they just narrow themselves down to one sport. And growing up in Hawaii, I was always up in the mountains. I was in the ocean, so I was doing just a variety of sports. And so nowadays, they're starting to combine a lot of these sports. So I mean, even CrossFit and things, they're doing some running, some endurance sports, some weightlifting, but then they're also adding swimming. So athletes nowadays do have to be very multidisciplinary. And so that's where this hybrid athlete came along, where it's doing a lot of endurance, plus strength, plus land, water, all kinds of different things. So I just kind of love it all. And so I like being in the mountains. I like being in the ocean. And so I try to do a little bit of everything. And that pretty much is the definition of the Spartan competitions, isn't it? Just being able to be well-rounded with everything. Exactly, yeah. I mean, you do need to be able to have the endurance, because it's a lot of trail running up and down mountains, but then you're also carrying heavy sandbags and pulling yourself up over walls and rope climbs. And so you do have to have the strength side as well. And we're in comparison to say an Ironman athlete, they don't really need the strength side quite so much, just because they're all endurance, just kind of going as fast as they can, just running, swimming, biking. But yeah, the Spartan definitely requires a lot of strength component as well. So that's why I kind of like it, just to make you much more well-rounded and a functional athlete. So, and you're a three-time world champ. Can you, I mean, that's quite an accomplishment. I know we have some Spartan competitions here, but how does that compare to like the world's championship arena? I mean, yeah, think about the Olympics, where there's just competitors from all of the world. Spartan has become a very world sport now. So, I mean, the last one I was in was in Greece. And so there was competitors from Australia, from all over Europe, Spain, Poland, I was racing against guys from Switzerland, Germany, and then there's a bunch of US competitors as well. So it's just, the Spartan race here is much more localized. There'll be mainly people from Hawaii and then some people from the mainland, maybe some from Australia and Japan. But on that world championship level, it's just competitors from all over the world, all different calibers. And so it just, it steps it up, it makes it a lot more pressure, a lot more stress, but it makes it so much fun just because they have a full parade of nations at the beginning, just like they do at the Olympics. So yeah, it's an amazing event. That's sweet. Well, thank you for presenting Hawaii Well with your three-time championships. Congratulations on that. I celebrate you. Thank you. So the main part of this show that I wanted to bring up, and I'm sure that you do a lot of this in your fitness business with Malcolm McKay Fitness, is breath. I mean, how important is breath to being an endurance athlete and then also being able to do strength and being able to do these competitions? Like, where does that play a part? That is a great question. I've been doing Spartan training for almost 10 years now and when I started to get a little bit more competitive and when I started to kind of ramp up a little bit and take it much more seriously, the first step was, okay, let's focus on the training side and how can I get stronger? How can I get faster? And then it was more like the nutrition side. Okay, let me, let me play around with my nutrition. How can I dial that in a little bit better? And then I ended up going to one of the world championships in Lake Tahoe the first year and Lake Tahoe is at 7,000 feet elevation and I went out there trying to, you know, thinking I could just run the same way I could here at sea level and I got a quick realization that, you know, that high altitude definitely plays a big impact on it and so that's really when I started to kind of dive into the breathing style. How can your breathing affect you during your performance and, you know, when we breathe in, that's how we make ATP, that's how we make energy that fuels our muscles, that keeps our body going. And so I was learning just kind of all these different different kind of protocols and practices you could do to make sure that you're breathing most efficiently, you're getting in the most air as much as possible during the event and leading up to the event, there's kind of lots of different breathing practices you could do to help yourself at that high altitude. So I mean, I can't, here in Hawaii, we're at sea level, I can't necessarily go in and just live at high altitude or train at high altitude to get those red blood cells to how a lot of people would be in Colorado or Utah but there are some breathing practices you can do to at least help yourself tolerate that higher altitude a lot better. So yeah, basically just kind of took a deep dive into it and noticed that, yeah, that was the real turning point on when I was able to really kind of boost my performance a lot better once I dialed in the breathing practices. So on a physical level, there's science behind what actually is created through proper or efficient breathing, right? So is this the way to do it? Does it tie in like going underwater because I've seen your videos and I see you going underwater with rocks and you train people how to do that in a safe environment and just in a pool but also in the ocean and like, how is that comparable to say the altitude? So the way that that is is you're simulating higher carbon dioxide buildup, right? And so your body is under stress by creating that higher carbon dioxide when you're holding your breath, as you know, like your carbon dioxide increases. And so it's creating that stressful environment and the same thing is if you can increase your tolerance to that CO2 so that your body can withstand the stress that's taking place, when we're doing it underwater. But it's also when you're running at altitude, when you're exposing your body to a lot higher levels of carbon dioxide. And so by practicing and training in underwater and you can also do it on land by doing smaller breath holds while you're running to kind of simulate that. But it'll then carry over to when you're at altitude and your carbon dioxide is a lot higher and your body will be able to keep performing even though it's under that higher stress. Is that kind of like if you feel like you're hyperventilating or something like that when you're running and you're like breathing super fast and? Yeah, exactly. I mean, so it's your as you're exercising and running your body is creating through metabolism, you're creating carbon dioxide. And so a lot of times if people aren't, they don't have a high tolerance to carbon dioxide. That's when their mind, they're getting those signals like, okay, I got to slow down, I got to stop, right? I got to otherwise this is just too uncomfortable. But if you practice with that higher carbon dioxide levels, your body adapts and you don't get those kind of warning signals going on in your head. They're like, okay, I have to slow down, I have to stop. You're able to continue to keep going even though you're getting that higher carbon dioxide. So it's pretty cool just how on the scientific level, the physiological level, what's happening in your body. Once you can kind of understand that, then you can play around with it and adapt how you're breathing to help bring your heart rate down a little bit quicker so that you can continue to perform at your best. So that leads me to something else that you do. Like you do the cold plunge therapy and the sauna therapy, the heat therapy. And when you do that, I know that breath plays a huge part in that process. And you mentioned the mind, right? With the breath. And how, can you speak a little bit to that and how, like what kind of breath? Do you do fast breath, slow breath? Do, yeah, I don't even. So, I mean, I originally got into the hot cold therapy form recovery-wise after training for so long, like you start to beat down your body and bring down. So I started getting into an ice bath and I was like, okay, I mean, people have been doing this, NFL, NBA, they've been doing this for years as far as muscle recovery. And after doing it for a little bit, a little while longer, I started noticing that it was a lot more beneficial for the cognitive, for the mind side as well. It's helping you to create a little bit more mental toughness because I mean, if you've ever done an ice bath, you know, it's not the most comfortable place to be in. So it's teaching yourself to, you know, even though you're in an uncomfortable environment, you know, you can control the mind, calm the mind, then it does come back down to the breath, right? So when people first get into an ice bath, it causes that hyperventilation and takes your breath away, right? So after that, it's teaching people and teaching yourself, like, okay, you know, this is a stressful place I'm in right now, but yeah, let me calm the mind, calm the breath, extend that exhale and bring myself back into that parasympathetic state. And then, you know, once you kind of control your breathing, then you're able to focus a little bit more on what's actually happening around you and make better decisions where a lot of people, when they first start to get that hyperventilation, right, if they don't control their breathing, then it might send them into a panic state. And so it's just learning, you know, like, okay, I'm in the control, I can control my mind, I can control my body until one of the steps that I need to do to get that going, and it all comes back down to the breathing, well, staying in that present state, not letting your mind wander, you know, go into a fearful place and, you know, then it's harder to control yourself after that. Right, because it just sort of snowballs, doesn't it? It's just nice to have a coach, to have somebody, especially when you're first starting out, I mean, maybe you don't need them forever, you can start slow, right? Yep, yep, 100%, but it's just a lot of times, it's learning how to, what sorts of breathing practices you can do to help incorporate that calm state of mind where, you know, if someone just goes, dives right in, they may not know how to, what to do. And so, yeah, having that coach, just being able to walk them through it the first few times and then once they kind of understand what's happening physiologically and in their mind, then they have a better understanding and they can kind of take charge from there and then it carries over into other aspects of life, right? If you're going into a stressful meeting or just having a stressful conversation with somebody, it's a lot of these same breathing practices that you're doing in the ice bath that you could do before a big meeting to help you perform better, help you calm yourself so that your mind is a little bit more clear and able to focus on what you wanna do. So I'm so happy that you brought that up because it is not just this high performance physically that we can use breath for. It's a high performance, you know, mentally and spiritually and emotionally. So that anxiety and that fear that just can be so gripping, like it can just, it can overtake you. I know that there's been times when I've gone on hikes and I'm not an extreme hiker, but just doing the rim of Kohelepelepe is like, okay, there were points where I was really, really scared. I mean, I was listening to David Primal and I'm like, okay, I gotta turn her up and just breathe and I just was like, okay. And then I was doing a bit of a mantra while I was doing it, but you know, if I didn't have that practice, I think I may have been paralyzed. Like I wouldn't have been able to move, I don't think. Oh yeah, I mean, that's a lot of people when they get into those situations, they'll do exactly like I said, it's that freeze or flight, right? And a lot of people will end up freezing and they're not knowing how to, you know, their brain is going into all kinds of different scenarios. And so then they're unable to actually kind of just think clearly, you know, okay, like what do I need to do to get myself out of this situation? You know, I think much more calmly and it can snowball and then turn into a worse situation potentially. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I've even been on a very, it's a large rock, really, really big rock, but it's at the top of this mountain, you know? And I could try to do tree pose with just my foot on my ankle and I'm like sweating and nervous and shaking. And then I go on top of my mom's fence, which is maybe two feet by one foot. And I could do full tree pose, you know, with no problem at all because I know if I fall, I'm just gonna maybe break something or bruise myself. But so your brain has that power, but if I would have been able to harness my breath, what kind of breath would you use in that situation? So in that situation, I mean, a lot of it, if you're feeling stressed, you're doing a lot of shallow chest breathing, right? It's the poor breathing mechanics that a lot of people are just going through life and living nowadays, unfortunately, but when you're in that stressful state, it exacerbates it even more. And so it's just that shallow rapid breathing. And so you're not actually getting the oxygen that you need because you're breathing so quickly, right, that your carbon dioxide never actually has a chance to build up. And so that's where the science side comes in is when we build that carbon dioxide level up, that's what signals the body to release the oxygen into our muscles, into our brain, into our system to help us think a lot more clearly. So people just, you're actually dropping your CO2 levels down even more. So a lot of it is just slowing the breath down, really breathing down and deeper into the belly, expanding the rib cage laterally, and just extending the exhale, right? And just extending that exhale, slowing it down, coming back down into a parasympathetic state. And I'll often have people do small breath holds in order to bring that carbon dioxide level back up. So imagine going a lot of times with, say, people who's having an asthma attack or panic attack, the old ways to do it, people would say like, okay, breathe into a bag, right? Breathe into a brown paper bag. And all that is is you're just rebreathing your own air, you're rebreathing your own carbon dioxide. So that's increasing your carbon dioxide and is helping you to calm yourself down. So a lot of it's that same thing, just when people are having that anxiety or the panic attack, just slowing the breath down, extending the exhale and doing a small breath hold will really help to bring the mind back to a state where you can think more clearly. So that's something that you could practice even before. Say you have a really uncomfortable conversation that you have to have with somebody and you're feeling really emotional. You can just take like 10 deep breaths and just feel your ex, count your exhale. Is that how you would do it? Count your inhale on your exhale? Yep, yep. So I might do just a, you know, try to keep everything nasal as much as possible, just a nice three-second inhale, a six-second exhale, do that for five or six breaths. And then maybe on the last breath do a small, maybe just 10, 15-second breath hold and then kind of return to normal breathing after that and you'll feel much more calm and relaxed and in a better place. That's a really simple tip that just anybody can do, right? It's not super complicated. You don't have to be an expert. Anybody that's being could be able to do that and just say, okay, I'm gonna do five breaths in three out six and just hold for 10 seconds on the sixth breath, on the exhale. Exactly, yep, yep, yep. And then, and yeah, and like you said, breathing into your hips, right? Like breathing all the way deep. All the way deep, yeah. And it's not just about breathing down into the belly. I mean, our diaphragm sits below our rib cage, right? So breathing down into the belly, but then you can also really expand the rib cage outwards, right? So your lungs are like a cylinder. So when we're just shallow chest breathing, you're really only feeling that top half of your lungs. So by really getting that deep breath, spanning the rib cage laterally, you're gonna be able to feel that entire lung capacity all the way down where all that blood exchange is occurring and the oxygen exchange is taking place. And so you're just getting back down to the more efficient breathing, right? To your every breath you're taking in, you're actually absorbing more of that air. Your body's just making it's more efficient at using the air you breathe in. I have a question. Have you ever gotten into a situation because I know you do a lot of water things, you do mountains. Have you ever gotten into a situation where you were literally legitimately scared? And would you be open to like sharing one of those if there's more than one experiences and how you basically used breath and talked yourself out of it? Yeah, in off hand, the one situation I can take up was I was hiking up the backside of Prouty Line where you can keep on going up further to the spot called Poo Manamana. And I kind of got knocked trail and I was going a little further back along the ridge and I was by myself, which I know shouldn't be done on hiking, but it was during COVID time and I needed to kind of get out. And so I just decided to go off by myself and I was on a very narrow ridge and got myself into a predicament where it was some very loose rocks and gravels and things. And so, I mean, my mind started going into different scenarios if I fall, like no one's gonna know I'm back here, they won't be able to find me and things. And so I basically just stopped at where I was and took those breaths and just thought about like, okay, what do I need to do to get myself safely out of here? Calm myself, if I was shaking a little bit and just took the time, I didn't rush and was able to eventually make myself get into a safer situation. But it's definitely, if someone was in that and didn't know what to do, and they may have been shaking a little bit and mis-stepped and then that could have led to disaster death or anything. But so it's learning how to deal with those uncomfortable situations and still be able to keep the mind focused and clear. Right, and I heard you say don't rush and isn't that just, like that's so essential. That's essential to not just in a critical situation like that, but that's essential in our daily life. I mean, anytime I rush, I either hurt myself or I hurt somebody else or I damage something usually. Yeah, yeah. You know, so in this- It's just learning to stop and take a step back, take a breath, look, observe about what's going on around you. Some people they get so focused in on a situation that they're not observing what's going on around you. I give the example of the, if someone's up on a ridge and they're scared of snakes and they see a snake, it's just sitting on the path five, six feet up front of them. They're so focused on that snake that they take a step back and then they fall off the cliff. And so what was the actual, the cliff was the thing that ended up hurting them. It wasn't the snake didn't even do anything, but some people get so laser focused on things that they don't look at what else is going on around them. And so, it's just stopping, observing and taking that extra moment just to take it all in. Right, I even have a dear teacher of mine who teaches that once we breathe and really allow ourselves to surrender into that deep breathing and our deep breath that it can actually slow down time. So you actually have more time rather than feeling like you have to rush through something. Yep. Right, I mean, it makes so much. I agree, yeah, yeah, 100%. Makes so much sense to me, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. So talk to me a little bit about the ice sauna therapy retreats that you're doing and how you coach people with Malcolm MacCypherness. Yeah, I do a lot of different things, workshops where we do some breathing practices and then we practice some of the underwater breath holds in the pool and then we'll always finish with an ice bath just so you can incorporate those breathing practices you just learned and then get yourself into that stressful environment and practice them in order to calm the system back down and get through it. And an ice bath always invigorates you and makes you feel amazing after. So it's kicking up all kinds of epinephrine and dopamine and all the feel good hormones. So it's a fantastic way to spend the day and enjoy and learn about yourself and learn about your body and what you can handle. Yeah, and that's really just like how, not just invigorating, but it's very liberating, right? Yeah. You feel liberated after doing something like that that you really might be anxious or fearful or just not even like doubtful, even just some self-doubt thrown in there. Oh, yeah, yeah. After you- Yeah, I mean, the self-doubt is there's people who have a lot of fear over cold and so when you can get over that self-doubt, I mean, you feel accomplished and like, okay, let's go try something else that's difficult that maybe I can do. So it really helps to build that self-esteem as well. Yeah, even if that goes from like an ice bath to being able to say approach your boss with something that you wanted to talk to them about or your teenager or a man who's your loved one because all just bubbles over onto each other, doesn't it? Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, if you can get yourself through one difficult situation, then it'll carry you over. Okay, well, yeah, start off with a cold shower. Start off with an ice bath first thing in the morning. I promise you like, okay, if you got through that, you can get through any other difficult situation throughout the day. So that's no problem. So how can our viewers find you, Jono? Yeah, I'm on Instagram, just Jono Blodget and I've got Facebook as well and then my website is not for Makai Fitness where I have a master class where anyone can go on and just kind of go at your own pace, breath, strength, mind, master class where I go through all breathing mechanics and how to use the breath. And then also I cover how you can use that in overcoming fear and anxiety and then build in mental strength and kind of more grit in your life and how the breath is incorporated into all that. So. I love it and you don't even have to do that in person. So you don't have to be in Hawaii on a walk-through. You could be doing that from Ohio and you don't even have an ocean, right? That's correct, yep, yep. It's all kind of all online self-paced. So you can go through the lessons and it has some other explanation texts below it where I give a few other examples and stories and things like that. So it's a great way to introduce yourself to the different breathing and I give some breathing protocols as well as far as, you know, this is what you could do if you're a pre-workout or this is what you could do and like if you're having a hard time going to sleep and staying asleep or for that stress, anxiety, having a panic attack. So lots of different good information in there. Oh my gosh, that's great. I absolutely love that. I have so many clients who are like, I just can't sleep at night. And I would be, I'm so happy to be able to have a place to direct them to go. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. It's amazing how the breathing affects your sleep as well. So it's pretty wild. Yeah, that's a whole nother episode actually. Oh yeah, exactly, exactly. Oh my gosh, well thank you so much for taking the time out. I can see that you're on the move that you've got, you know, some people milling about behind you. Thank you for taking the time at Beautiful. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you to Think Tech Hawaii. Thanks for providing this platform for us to be able to talk about all of these subjects and topics that can help us further our body, our spirit, our emotions and our minds. With that until I see you next, Aloha. We want to announce that Think Tech Hawaii is moving into a new phase and will not be producing regular talk shows after April 30th. We will retain our website and YouTube channel and will accept new content on an ad hoc basis. We are also developing a legacy archive program to provide continuing public access to our content. If you can help us cover the costs of the transition and the development of our legacy archive program, please make a donation on ThinkTechAway.com. Thanks so much. Aloha.