From Turtle to Triathlete: Breathwork, Grit, and Growth with Josh De Jong

In this episode of the Do Hard Things Podcast, Jay Tiegs and Brian Larson sit down with Josh De Jong, a Breathwork Coach, Triathlete, and Sales Professional who embodies resilience and transformation. Once nicknamed “Turtle,” Josh turned setbacks into fuel, pushing through spinal fusion surgery and torn labrums to rise as an endurance athlete, coach, and founder of Eldr and Air.

You’ll hear how Josh uses breathwork, mindset, and endurance training to help others unlock their highest potential. He shares practical tools for:

• Building energy, focus, and resilience through breathwork
• Developing mental discipline and clarity under pressure
• Applying endurance frameworks to strengthen grit and consistency

This isn’t just theory—Josh’s story is proof that the hardest challenges can become the foundation for growth, confidence, and authentic empowerment.

Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives. 

Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us.

Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here:
👉 skool.com/dohardthings/about

Our book, Life on Offense, is now an Amazon Best Seller!  Grab a copy and leave a review. 
👉 Get the book on Amazon

Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! 

👉Gear — Do Hard Things Nation

And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here:
👉 dohardthingsnation.com/events

Transcript

Introducing Josh de Jong

Speaker 1 0:44

All right, welcome back everybody to the Do Hard Things podcast. I'm Siegfried J Teagues, here with my co-host, brian Larson, and today's guest is someone who lives and breathes the Do Hard Things lifestyle. He's not only one of our coaches inside the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy, but he's also a breathwork facilitator, triathlon coach and athlete. And josh de jong, am I saying your name right? Because that's how? I don't know if I've ever actually spoken your name. So I guess this would be a good time if I've uh, is it right?

Speaker 2 1:18

it's close.

Speaker 1 1:19

It's the like the young okay, because you're, uh, you're dutch, all right, so there we go. I've been butchering your name in my head, but I've never. I just realized I've actually never said your name out loud. It's always been Josh.

Speaker 2 1:31

I've heard it worse before, so.

Josh's Breathwork Journey

Speaker 1 1:33

All right, man. Well, before we dive in, if you're enjoying these conversations on the podcast, make sure you smash that subscribe button, share the show and please leave us a review. This episode is brought to you by the Do Our things wellness academy. It's a community designed to help you build grit, discipline and resilience so you can perform your best in health, wealth and relationships. Inside the academy, you'll get access to weekly high performance coaching calls, breath work sessions, monthly challenges, training plans and a powerful community committed to living stronger, sharper and more intentional lives. You got three of the coaches right here. We've got nadine, who she'll be on the podcast soon, but we're the team. We're the team that facilitate. We have a big community doing some epic things in there. So check out the links in the show notes and you can try it out for seven days and experience the power of coaching and everything that we do in there. So, all right, if you're ready to stop going alone, surround yourself with people, go to do our things nationcom. Do our things, nationcom.

Speaker 3 2:37

And let's get into today's episode with Josh, all right, so I'll kick us off here. So let me do a little introduction of Josh. So you have a man who embodies transformation, once nicknamed the turtle, but to see him is a towering presence in stature and spirit. He's up there in the air. He's, uh, earned multiple titles in multi-sport business and now, as a breathwork facilitator and coach, he is currently a packaging consultant consultant by trade but his true calling is healing people, just helping them heal and expand them through breath work.

Speaker 3 3:09

Josh's journey has taken him from overcoming major magical physical challenges spinal fusion surgeries, torn labrums but then to guiding others into deeper states of clarity, resilience and alignment. And as the founder of Elder is it Elder, josh? Is that how you're pronouncing that? Yes, yeah, okay, that's what I thought. Again, once again, not getting all the pieces Elder and Air. And Josh is, as we said, a do hard things coach. He is on with us on mission to serve men and women seeking confidence, trauma release and authentic empowerment. So Josh is combining physical fitness, breathwork and spiritual practice into a life purpose, walking that path towards enlightenment, helping others do the same. So in this episode, called From Turtles to Tidals, we're going to hear Josh's story of growth grit and the tools he uses to turn setbacks into strength, and we are going to roll from there.

Speaker 1 4:07

Yeah. So I guess, before we get into Josh's story, how did we meet Josh? We were at the Peaceful Warrior Retreat, brian and I. We didn't know anyone going into this thing. So we're there together and there's this towering figure who has the same haircut as myself, he sports a nice beard and he's taller than me Usually I'm the tallest guy in the room and here's a man who's kind of towering over top of me. He's got these awesome tattoos. He's like really fit.

Speaker 2 4:36

He just brings this like high level of energy and we instantly connected and been brothers ever since. So, yes, oh, that was a good experience, I remember. I remember walking into the retreat you guys were deep in dynamic breath works. I got there a little late and I dropped in with you guys and then you must have woken up and all of a sudden there's me, just uh, fired up with the energy. I felt it. The second I got there I was like this is the place I'm supposed to be, and then just meeting all you guys and that was a really cool experience oh yeah, so good man, so good.

Speaker 1 5:03

Well, I guess we'll start off with like while the peaceful warrior retreat was a men's retreat, what brought you to something like that?

Speaker 2 5:09

Yeah. So I started doing breath work back in 2020, with no real reason other than I thought Wim Hof was cool and you reminded me of my dad, and I wanted to get the psychedelic effect out of the breath work. And then I started learning about the other benefits included with it, like the sports performance I was I was deep into my triathlon career then as well, so I had a lot of success in it. And then, five years later, I was like I really need to do something with this. I've I've been learning a lot. I've grown a lot from it. It's it's benefited me a lot.

Speaker 2 5:39

I need to bring it to other people and probably, just like you guys, I was scrolling through instagram one day and ben's ben hololtz ad popped up and it was probably the one you've seen where he's sitting on the tree and he's doing the pranayama breath of fire and he sticks his tongue out. He's all crazy, full of energy and I was like that guy matches with me. And then so the ad was just you want to become a facilitator, bring this healing to other people, make some money while you're doing it? And reply uh, breathwork, and we'll reach out. So I started talking to one of the guys. I ultimately had a call with jack bolton, kind of same thing. Our energy just mixed and I was like this is a younger version of me, like I need to know more, I need to be around these people more. So signed up and then met you guys there at the retreat, jumped into the class as well. Our 15-week course, and and here I am- nice, nice, okay.

Triathlon Career and Athletic Background

Speaker 3 6:31

So do this, josh, talk to us about the, the background in athletics. Like you've got the triathlon stuff. What, what kind of, got you in that and through it and what made you want to compete at that high of a level?

Speaker 2 6:43

yeah, I grew up watching my dad race so lots of early mornings as a kid. I mean, he's from the Netherlands, that's where the last name comes from, and so, as far as other sports went, he influenced me to play soccer. I probably should have played basketball. How tall I am. Eventually kids at school called me a waste of height because I didn't play basketball and I played soccer.

Speaker 2 7:07

So many years of waking up early and going to the races with my dad and and so kind of where turtle came from. I played soccer. I was pretty good at a young age but I was playing on it was not the travel league, so I didn't even know the travel travel leagues, the, the skill improvement leagues existed. So I went from the the lower level soccer, I guess, programs right into high school where I jumped in a skill set that was way above me and that's where turtle nickname came from. So then kind of didn't do much with soccer, stopped playing.

Speaker 2 7:42

Junior year went to college. Just stopped doing any athletics at all major gear. Got out of college. I needed something to do with my time and energy and my dad's here's a bike, here's a helmet. I came back here to Indiana let's go racing. So picked it up, got pretty good pretty quick. In the early 20s it's kind of easy to win your age group because there's not a lot of them in there. But that kind of inflated my ego and I really dug my heels in and start training hard. And they went on to win a handful of national championship titles, five Ironmans, and then started coaching, because that was another thing that I wanted to teach other people how to do it too, if I can do it, and they certainly could as well. So that's how I got into it. Nice Wow.

Speaker 3 8:24

Yeah, I don't understand you runners, but I respect you trust me.

Speaker 2 8:30

A lot of times I don't understand myself either and I'm just like why the fuck am I here?

Speaker 3 8:37

why am I here, so that was so. That's the link to the coaching, because you did. Did the athletics. Where did breathwork come in? Like you said, you started in 2020, what, like? How did that tie into the athletics?

Speaker 2 8:51

it was really kind of around kobe time. I had a lot of time on my hands, like the many of us did during the lockdown and, like I said, I just kind of came aware of of wim hof and breathwork and the cold exposure and I just really liked it and it just had that extra benefit on my racing. So I tied it together and of course there's a lot of material out there about the breath work, increasing your VO2 max and just helping along with that. So it's been more recent that I'm tying the breath work in with the performance as far as coaching goes. But yeah, I used it in my own performance for about five, six years now Nice.

Speaker 1 9:27

Nice, nice. How many triathlons have you done? The Ironman, you said you did five.

Speaker 2 9:33

Five, five full Ironmans, about 27 or 28 half Ironman, wow, and then I'm probably approaching over 100. As far as the Princeton Olympics go.

Speaker 1 9:43

Awesome. What was your favorite Ironman?

Speaker 2 9:46

Ironman Muncie. They only did it for one year here in indiana. It was my favorite because my whole team was out there. We have a big triathlon club here in indiana called tri loco, and then the whole whole bunch of them were out there, so it was cool to see everybody during transitions through the laps, um and all that I was. I was a little bit under trained for that one, so I also went in with the mindset of slow down, have fun, just enjoy it. It was a nice, cool day, a little bit rainy. I don't do well in the heat so I'll always take a colder race. I just had a good time with it.

Speaker 1 10:19

Now, if someone's listening to this, because we have a lot of runners, a lot of multi-sport athletes, but they're thinking, oh man, you know like, or or just a triathlon in general, what advice would you give someone that's wanting to get into the sport?

Speaker 2 10:35

uh, just from the start, that you can do it. Anyone can do an iron man. Just if you don't believe you can do it, go to an iron man and if you see the the different body types across the whole day, uh it'll. It'll definitely inspire that you can. Um, a lot of people are afraid of the swim, and that's valid, because you know if you're out in the middle of the ocean, you stop swimming, you're, you're gonna drown and that's scary, but there's plenty of support out there. It would just take you time to train and learn how to do it, do it efficiently and just start it, start with it and keep after it.

Speaker 1 11:06

What? What has been some of your in your? What challenges have you faced racing yourself in some of these Ironmans and half Ironmans?

Speaker 2 11:16

I'm a big guy, I'm not, I'm not your, I'm not your typical triathlete. So I, I mean right now I'm in really good shape, I'm at 209 and I I will not be lighter than that right, and that's pretty hard on my body. I mean then, through years and years of a long spine and being in an aggressive position, I ended up having what's called isomus spinaeal thesis, so it's a fancy word, for my vertebrae was not attached to the other vertebrae and it was kind of just floating around and then it ground down one of the discs. Brain, it was kind of just floating around, I mean it ground down one of the discs. So it's having the nerve pain down the legs, the centralized pain in my back. So I guess the hardest thing is just probably not having the ideal body for that kind of racing. But I mean it's a benefit in the swim, it's a benefit on the bike, the run not so much. The run is pretty hard on me. This is probably my biggest struggle.

Speaker 1 12:08

Yeah, I get that. I'm a tall athlete myself and I'm about 50 pounds heavier than when I joined the Army. I was just a rail, I was like 175, like 180, and I could run like the wind In the Army. I just gained a lot of muscle, of just a lot of girth from all the lifting and but I've. I mean people are like, how do you run that fast? Because I'm probably right around 225 right now and I still still pretty quick. But I just don't have that that typical body type for an endurance athlete, and so I get I just kind of lumber, I just kind of just just. Uh, I'm a diesel engine, I just got a big engine and I can just go, and as long as I'm eating I can go.

Speaker 1 12:47

And especially on races where there's rollers, because I can use that inertia I can get up, but if it's really hilly then it slows me down, but if there's rollers I can really really get my engine going. But, I'm not a very good swimmer, yeah it takes practice and flat courses are the best.

Speaker 1 13:10

Yes, yeah, so now, as far you know, you've battled some injuries. So what is the mindset it takes to continue to push through with injuries and I don't know if you want to get into it, but you're facing a few things now, like from an athletic perspective and a coach, you know we have a lot of. Injuries are part of being an athlete, injuries are part of being an athlete, and what are some of the strategies that you use to press through mentally, keeping your competitive edge while also navigating the mindset of dealing with nagging injuries, and what advice would you give people?

Speaker 2 13:40

Yeah. So the injuries I had the spinal fusion almost a year and a month ago Tomorrow will be one year one month ago so we repaired that just in time to find out that I have torn labrums and deformed hip falls. So in beginning of October, beginning of November, I'm having surgery on each of those. So yeah, it's been a pretty rough couple of years. I remember getting off my bike for the first time and the pain finally got bad enough, and now it's pretty hard. That was the first time and the pain finally got bad enough and now it's pretty hard. That was the first time I quit a workout because it was painful enough that I had a half ironman panama city in a month from when I had gotten off the bike so I had to call it quits.

Speaker 2 14:17

I haven't really raced since. I've done a couple events, but the, the mindsets, it's kind of sick. But I'm I'm at a point where I'm like these are badges of honor, like I've used my body for the last 15 years so much and so hard. I probably could have done things better. Brian, you could probably scold me for some of my non-mobility things, but I don't know a lot of other people my age that have gone this hard and earned, earned these scars, so that's kind of been a mindset. A lot of people can look at that in the other way, like you're 38, you shouldn't be having back surgery and hip surgeries and but I say let's, let's get them fixed and see how much more I can do.

Speaker 2 14:59

Yeah, that's, that's been a big thing.

Speaker 2 15:01

And then, of course, the other breath work has helped a lot with the mentality of it and keeping my nervous system regulated, just so you know, when I do have a hard day or I want to be out training or something, I just go do breath work.

Speaker 2 15:11

I can do some activating breath works and really still feel that adrenaline and behind from that, but also finding the things that I can do. It's been a blessing having olivia, my fiancee. She just completed her first full ironman and I was able to help her train through that. Not her dedicated coach she has a coach but someone there that can help her out with the workouts and do as many of them as I could with her. I was able to bike for up to two hours with her this summer to prepare for that. So yeah, if somebody else is going through the same thing, just find the little wins that still give you the satisfaction of doing something, if that's the cold plunge, if that's the breath work, if that's just doing 50 push-ups every day. Find those small incremental wins that keep your body moving and keep you healthy until you can really get back into the things that you love.

Speaker 3 16:05

That's a good little piece of advice right there. If you can't do what you want to do, keep moving. Find something that at least gives you satisfaction. So that's really good. I want to. I want to pick up on breath work, cause we've talked about it several times. Like you, you've bringing it up. How about I want to hear from your words for people hearing like breath work for the first time? How do you explain it to people?

Speaker 2 16:32

That's a good question. Tell them you know your breath is the only thing in this world and this life that you actually control. It's the only thing that you can also put on autopilot, not think about, but then you can come back to when you need it. It's something that you can tap into to get a release from where you are now. You can get into that psychedelic effect and kind of drift off and meditate and shut things off. Shut things down for a little while.

Understanding Different Breathwork Techniques

Speaker 2 16:58

I'm ADHD. It's the only thing I can do to get me into a meditative state. My brain's constantly going. If I try to just regular meditate it's just list after list and things I have to do and people I need to talk to and this and that and that. But with breath work I can shut that off. But actually it does move things around in your brain while you're doing it. It pushes blood into different areas, pulls blood out of other areas. As you guys know, the sonic neural can completely flush out the frontal cortex and open up old thoughts, old memories, create new thinking patterns and then things like that. So, and the best thing is, it's you know it's not a psychedelic drug. So if you, if you do eat a full of mushrooms, you're going on a journey for however long they last. Uh, if you're doing breath work and it gets too intense, you just go back to your normal breathing.

Speaker 1 17:47

Great point no, the breath work has been incredible. We had that. You know, brian led a session today and my mind was just like really swirling this morning and I I still struggle. Meditation has been a challenge for me but I have gotten into the habit of doing it. But there's still days that I struggle. The breath work is like I don't even have to like struggle because I'm just so focused on the breath and it gives me such a good feeling and it puts you in that meditative state Like it's a it's a superpower, yeah.

Speaker 3 18:19

I have the same experience. I struggle to meditate but you do a session, a dynamic no-transcript, and your just athletic improvement yeah, just so.

Speaker 2 18:40

Actually, one of the fun points was when I had the back surgery. They give you this breathing apparatus where they want you to test your lungs because during the recovery, if you have weak lungs, you you essentially could, your lungs could collapse and you could die. So they hand me this thing and you have to suck into it and it has a little arrow that you have to keep in a certain spot and you're supposed to get to like x amount of points based on your age and, I think, weight, uh. So they handed to me and I just blasted it all the way to the top and like I needed a bigger one, and so I was goofing off with the nurses, like showing them how, how good I was with it, and that was pretty cool to you know, they tell you most people need to train to get up there, and a cool process through all that too is actually seeing my lungs in the x-rays. They're freaking huge and so just seeing those kind of things.

Speaker 2 19:31

I really haven't had a chance yet to test the VO2 max stuff with workouts Because, like I said, it was about three or four years ago. I had to stop training hard and recently has been when I've been using the breath work more for the fitness stuff. So I am excited to get a kind of a bar test. Once I can run fast again and jump on the bike, I'll go have a vo2 max test and see what it's like, based on not having done any hard training for the last four years yeah, I think you'd be surprised, yeah I think you'd be surprised because I've been experiencing that.

Speaker 3 20:04

I took a little bit of time off from cardio and hop back into a workout just last week and I actually nasal breathed through the whole thing to really push myself and get that like high altitude simulation and still kept pace with just about all of our. You know you have three or four of our athletes are just really crazy high but I kept pace with the higher middle with nasal breathing, just because my lung capacity is improved from breath work.

Speaker 1 20:31

It's pretty amazing, that's awesome yeah, I've noticed my runs are getting easier and I'm not doing. I'm not doing any more speed work or anything different. The only thing different is the uh is the breath work, and I'm noticing it's getting easier. I saw it, was it probably on tiktok? There's like a world record broken for someone holding their breath underwater 29, 29 minutes. I don't even know how that's possible, but I saw that yesterday. I want to share that with you guys.

Speaker 3 21:03

Wow 29 minutes. Wow, that is insane. It's incredible. I don't even know how that's humanly possible. You this question, since you guys have started doing this in our breath holds. What's your experience been? Because I remember the first time I did it I struggled with a one minute breath hold and I can get to three, three and a half, depending on where my nervous system is before I start the session. If I do it in the morning and I'm calm and relaxed, I can hit two and a half to three without much trouble most days yeah, go ahead josh, I'm about the same right.

Speaker 2 21:40

Where you are Of course depends if I've had coffee and you know what time it is, but when you started?

Speaker 3 21:45

where did you? Where were you? Do you know?

Speaker 2 21:48

Not that long. Yeah, I think I think I remember right because I used to have an app there's a Wim Hof app and you, it guides you through the breasts and then you tap it when when you stop holding. Yeah, I think I started out probably right under a minute. Um, I was excited about the 90s, but then I stopped timing and really just just go off that's actually how I got into breathwork too, wim hof, and I use that app.

Speaker 3 22:14

That app was good. It's a good app. What about you, sig?

Speaker 1 22:17

yeah, same, I think a minute. I remember the first few times I did dynamic and it was just like wow, like I get this euphoric feeling just kind of. You know, with the, with the inhales, exhales through the mouth, and the first holds like 60 seconds, I'm like like, feel like I'm going to die. And I'm probably not. I don't know that I can go to three yet, but I think I'm definitely like two and a half if everything is, if I'm having a good morning, which is significantly longer. And so those, those first sessions cause I use another app and some pre-recorded stuff I definitely noticed a big difference, because before I could barely keep up and now it's just like those have become easy. So I'm definitely on like the next level. So that's the.

Speaker 1 22:57

It didn't take that long. It didn't take that long to see improvement, which I thought was kind of cool. And it's interesting to your point, because I did breath work this morning before your session and then I had just eaten and then I went to your session and then my holds were definitely a lot shorter. But I don't know, because I just I had a much more euphoric feeling, like I saw a lot more color and a lot of visuals, especially in the in the last two rounds. It's really just incredible, like and I was in such a deep meditation like once you uh, when you started the meditation, like I was out.

Speaker 3 23:30

I think lacy fell asleep well, I, josh, fell asleep last week during a dynamic too, if I'm not mistaken. That's the point I really you think about. We're doing this because there's the stimulating response of breath work. Right, it's hermetic, it's positive stress, but on the tail end it actually regulates to get you in that parasympathetic state, so much that you can slip into meditation and actually fall asleep because you're so relaxed. And to me that's been.

Speaker 3 24:01

For me, that's been the biggest change it's had on my own life, like my, my day in and day out. Now it has decreased my stress levels and I'm able to find that in the midst of chaos, I've learned, when stress amps up, you can just take a short little dynamic breath in through the nose and exhale, and that alone will kind of it's like you can snap into that calmer state faster. So, okay, which leads me to a question Okay, so that's how that's impacted my personal life outside of the breath work itself. What about you, josh? So you've, you've you've not really seen it in athletics yet because you haven't gone back into it hard How's it affecting your personal life, all the breath work you've been doing?

Speaker 2 24:43

Yeah, I noticed a long time ago I think the biggest flag was driving. I'm an outside sales rep and I used to sell grocery for a company. I would literally all day just drive grocery store to grocery store and we had deadlines and my computer wouldn't work. I was just a typical testosterone-p pumped mid to late 20 year old, in road rage, punching my steering wheel, throwing my keyboard. I just things would set me off and I would react.

Speaker 2 25:12

The first thing I noticed the breath work. Someone cut me off. I'm like that's okay, what was that? Or like I'd be pushing the deadline and you know there's nothing I could do as I watch my computer load and I would just be like, oh, it'll be up there eventually. It's just that that space and time between the action that happened and the reaction just grew where I could have pause and think about it and just be like, oh, that guy probably didn't cut me off because he wanted to like probably wasn't malice, it was just probably incompetence. And you know he'll learn his lesson, probably not do it again. But it calmed me down a lot with ADD too. It's like if I start, you know, kind of stemming out or whatever, I can do some breaths and and bring it back down and focus in a little bit more. So that was probably the biggest in the personal life and just a little more control of your emotions.

Speaker 3 26:07

And yeah, yeah, you just pretty much quoted Viktor Frankl right there, with that space between stimulus and response. I that's where it's been so pivotal, for me too. Good stuff.

Speaker 1 26:19

I know, for me personally the uh, the sonic neural has been a great outlet for I feel like I I am very much like a, like a steam pot, and if I don't let off steam I will blow up. And I don't like to blow up emotionally but I gotta be careful with I. Guess it's hereditary because my father was the same way, but the sonic neural has led me able to just like really get a lot of like just work through that, like tense emotion through the breath and give space there, like just like letting off a bunch of steam. And that's that's been so good for me personally. I love it just helps you respond versus just reacting. It gives you that space.

Speaker 3 27:01

Yeah, hey, let's, let's pause here, cause I think this is a good cause. You know I mentioned dynamic. You mentioned sonic neural. Since Josh you're, you know you've gone through the same training we have, why don't you, for the listeners, talk about the different techniques you know activating, stimulating, and then dynamic and sonic neural so people understand the framework of what we're talking about with those? Okay, I'll do my best, we're recording a podcast.

Speaker 1 27:27

We're just not three of us talking. Yes, good idea.

How Breathwork Transforms Daily Life

Speaker 2 27:33

Yeah, so activating breath work can stimulate the nervous system. So it's probably a good time to define the differences in parasympathetic and sympathetic. Your sympathetic nervous system is rest and digest. This is when your blood is going to be in your organs, when it helps you to rest and digest so you can process your food, so your liver can do what it needs to do to be healthy, and then when you're in the. I might get these wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 27:59

Parasympathetic is fight, fight or those are, those are backwards sympathetics. Fight or flight okay, sympathetics.

Speaker 2 28:07

Fight or flight, so that's when your blood is in your extremities because you need to either run or fight.

Speaker 2 28:11

But when your your blood's out there, your organs don't have the blood to repair your body and to do the things they need to do, like sleep and rest and recover.

Speaker 2 28:20

And in this day and age we're constantly in the fight or flight state because our phone's constantly going off, you hear the train go down the street, you hear sirens, your boss is calling, you know whoever it is is bothering you. So we're constantly just in this fight or flight state and not resting and recovering. So we do have activating breath work that can put you in that state if you need, to say, start a workout or if you're going into a meeting that you need to be pumped up for because you're presenting. But you can do faster breaths, like the breath of fire, quick inhales, exhales to activate that system. I think the better benefit is from the recovery or relaxation breath works where you have longer, slower breath, breath holds, ohms or sighs or the Ujjayi breath. The ohms and the sighs and the long exhales activate the vagus nerve in your neck, which actually is the nerve that puts you into the rest and digest system so that you can sleep better and recover, like I said. So does that answer your question?

Speaker 3 29:23

Yeah, yeah. Now talk a little bit about dynamic and sonic neural, because those are a different level. Like the dynamic is obviously based off of some of Wim Hof's style, but just like what those do, and the durations maybe as well, just so it gives everybody a better understanding.

Speaker 2 29:39

Yeah, so dynamic is a series of upwards of 40 deep inhales and exhales, breathing deep down into your belly. So belly breathing is exactly what it sounds like you breathe, with your belly going out. You're not actually breathing air into your belly, but you're just pushing it out with your abs, which pulls your diaphragm down so that you can bring the air deep into your lungs and really fill your lungs all the way up. So while you're doing that filling your lungs and then exhaling, emptying your lungs it's really working your VO2 max as well. So after the 40 breaths, you take a deep breath in and then you blow it all the way out, and what you've done at this point is fully cleanse your body of carbon dioxide, your CO2. And then this activates the hormetic stress, like you mentioned, which activates your immune system, so you can start clearing out old, dead cells and attack anything in your body that's not serving you at that time. So then that's the long bolts we were talking about. When you're exhale upwards of two minutes, three minutes, you try to hold as long as you can until it's uncomfortable, and then you take a deep breath in through the nose and fill your lungs all the way up. So this is really the biggest VO2 max exercise because you're really expanding your lungs, opening your chest, opening your ribcage, pulling your shoulders back and expanding In dynamic.

Speaker 2 31:00

About 15 seconds into that hold we ask you to take a few steps more in to really expand those lungs even more. This is kind of typically where I have my psychedelic experiences and things can get colorful, lightheaded. That's the fun part. So we hold that upwards of a minute to two minutes and then there's the long, slow exhale Encourage to do an om or a sigh or just blow it out through pursed lips. The longer the slower, the more it's going to activate the vagus nerve and put you in that rest and digest state. And then you do that for typically four, five, six rounds. I've done a variation of that, going upwards of 10 to 12 rounds and I can get really deep and the further you go round-wise, the more kind of a psychedelic experience you have. Yeah.

Speaker 1 31:48

I think we were talking about in the last one that you did. You did multiple rounds, like I think he went up to 10 and he's like he was like blasted off into the moon. He was just like amazing he was having such a euphoric experience. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 32:04

So yeah, so this actually activates your pineal gland as well and that's where your endogenous dmt if you've ever heard that word for psychedelics is stored. So you can actually release that dmt. That's the chemical that's said to be released when you're born and when you die. So if you can kind of release a little bit of that, that's when you you might. There's theories that that's what heaven and hell is.

Speaker 2 32:27

Is actually your, your dmt experience. That could be related to experiences you've had leading up to a dmt experience. If you've kind of lived a bad life of treating people poorly, you know that that time or the dmt, is gonna be bad. If you treat people well, that time of dmt is gonna be good. So that's could be your variations of heaven and hell. But yeah, it's a it's a really cool experience. So that's dynamic in a nutshell.

Speaker 2 32:52

And then Sonic Neural is just something all on its own. I couldn't believe it when we did that. It's just a series of continued I guess 90% lung capacity in and out, faster rhythm. The soundtrack's very important with that, I think. So it kind of takes you on a ride of nice joyful music and then it gets into some heavy warrior sounding music and what that does in the process is it does pull the brain, the blood out of your prefrontal cortex, and just gets you into the other parts of the brain where trauma can be stored, old memories can be stored.

Speaker 2 33:31

It really kind of helps you to face things that you might not have been facing and and like we experienced at the the retreat, you can have very outward, intuitive movements and reactions to it, like screaming if you need to let off some steam, laughing if you know there's something that you've just been dealing with inside that you want to joke about and laugh at. This is really just different for anybody and everybody, and that one lasts about an hour After like the first 10 to 15 minutes of breathing automatically. It kind of just kicks into autopilot and then you're just doing it and it's pretty wild. So I suggest anyone and everyone try it. It's a pretty awesome experience.

Speaker 3 34:14

If you would have told me I'm going to enjoy 55 minutes of breath work, I'd have been like you're crazy. But it is the most amazing 55 minutes. I mean just that. The way the conscious mind shuts off and the subconscious takes over the breathing, and where your, your thoughts and your energy goes, and the amount of stuck and stored energy you release is just it's. You can't even describe it.

Speaker 2 34:39

It's so incredible yeah, yeah, it was phenomenal at retreat too, when we're doing the share circle and everybody's stories of what they were experiencing they're all so vivid, like dreams for everybody with different purposes. And then the small things that were like connecting through all of ours that were in the same room, like when I was throwing around. I was having just a dream, I guess, of throwing around money and then Sergey's over there saying, yeah, I was sitting there and it was like raining money.

Speaker 3 35:08

Or the Viking experience, the consciousness of that group there, that where several guys were having the same experience of being like in viking boats and on the, the water and somebody seeing themselves past somebody else.

Speaker 1 35:24

it's, it's wild, but it's so amazing yeah, absolutely that was not on my bingo card this year to experience that, let alone say that I'm facilitating that. And I didn't even know that existed. Brian got me wrapped up in this. I've done a little bit of Wim Hof here or there. I didn't like the feeling of it. I'm like remember the first few times I did this. I'm like this is hard, I don't like it, it's too hard, I'm not doing it. I don't like it, it's too hard, I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1 35:59

But now that I've been doing it regularly, making a daily practice and seeing the effects it's had on other people, it's incredible. I just didn't have enough knowledge around it or understanding or probably even doing it appropriately. Yeah, and and. But I think for the, the sonic neural, which is a the mystical freedom experience they call it, having having been in groups and seeing everyone's experience with that has been incredible. It was interesting what they their experience and being able to process emotions, and I don't know if for every single person has had a very unique and powerful experience every single time. It's so unique, so good yeah.

Speaker 3 36:53

I think. I think this would be a great place to plug the community, since the three of us all lead dynamic sessions, and then you know the potential of doing some sonic neurals in live settings.

Speaker 1 36:58

Maybe you want to throw something out there about that yeah, if you want to check out the experience for yourself, you go to do our things nationcom and join the do hard things wellness community. There is a monthly fee for that but you're getting four coaches we do it's. It's mindset, movement, meaningful challenge and community. That that's really the, the four pillars of the community. We talk about mindset. I'm a certified high performance coach and then every one of us in here has have has a background and in in just mindset and grit and discipline. So we sprinkle. You know mindset is is crucial to living a life on offense and getting after it. And then the movement bit. You know we've got to. We're endurance athletes. I'm a running coach. You know Josh has his experience in triathlon. And then you know all of us. You know we alluded to it. We're not great at mobility. Well, we've got Brian to help us out with mobility and movement and strength and nutrition and so he brings that to the table.

Speaker 1 37:58

And then meaningful challenge we're doing monthly challenges of some type. Nadine's hosting a book club and then just a community of like-minded people. Because, look, personal growth and development can feel a little lonely, like you go out there and tell people that you're a triathlon or you're doing a triathlon or a marathon or breath work or we're. We're kind of few and far between the, and so getting connected with like-minded people that are that will cheer you on and clap when you win is really, really important. And ultimately, the goal is to develop leaders, right? We want people to step up and be role models. So you take care of your mind, body, spirit, and then you're going to go out there and be the best role model you can for your family and for the people out there that depend on you. So doyourthingsnationcom. And that's it for the infomercial.

Speaker 3 38:46

I was going to say and there's our commercial break, there's our commercial break. It felt appropriate because, as I'm kind of listening to our own conversation, like we're talking about all this breath work, and if I were listening about our experiences I'd be like I kind of want to try that, and so there's not many people to try it, so yeah, I could not recommend it enough and we've got three facilitators right here and obviously we're invested in the community and tribe that we're putting together, but it it really is a game changer for people.

Speaker 1 39:16

So if you, if you're listening to this and you're have any slight interest, go come check us out, come join one of our sessions. And the cool thing about breath work, or what I find unique, is that every facilitator has their own unique style. So don't just try one. Keep trying different facilitators. There's some that you might prefer over others and that's okay, but keep finding one and just keep trying all the different modalities. I'll say the dynamic is probably the workhorse one. That's the one that's recommended. It's the one that we teach more often than the others. But man, there's some good ones out there. I mean that euphoric one.

Speaker 3 39:52

Oh yeah that, but man, there's some good ones out there. I mean that, that euphoric one.

The Origin of "Turtle" Nickname

Speaker 1 39:53

Oh yeah, that is a good one. I forgot about that one, yeah, and I haven't. I haven't. We need to lead one of those in the community, but that one is that will blast you off to the moon yes as uh as jack would say, you can get high off your own supply, and it's absolutely true I've not heard him say that.

Speaker 3 40:06

That's funny sounds like jack great well, turtle.

Speaker 1 40:12

Where did the name Turtle come from? This is one of the cool things that when we initially connected because I had recently started reusing my name, siegfried, which is my birth name that I hated for so long, and then you mentioned the same thing like Turtle, you kind of rejected the name Turtle and now it's like here in quotations, we call you Turtle, and so tell us about the story of how you became turtle, the rejection of it and then reclamation yeah, yeah, I kind of alluded to earlier.

Speaker 2 40:41

I grew up playing soccer and I was good in the league that I played in, but I didn't know. There was like a skill development team and so I jumped into the high school team, showed up late because I thought you're supposed to be there at the time of the game but you had to be there, you know, early to practice and whatnot. But I ran as well. I was just the slowest guy in the field but I wanted to be the forward. I was going through growth spurts to become this six, eight frame and and I just didn't have the movement and the speed that went along with it. So one of the not so nicer kids on the team decided to start calling me turtle and the rest of them thought it was funny. So a few others started calling me turtle and the coaches started calling me turtle. And then they got to school and by the time I'd say junior year, everyone except my parents called me turtle. Um, and it was.

Speaker 2 41:32

It was hard, it was a rough time. There were a few other things going on in I'm I'd say junior year, everyone except my parents called me Turtle and it was. It was hard, it was a rough time. There were a few other things going on in life too that you know. Kids were mean back then, like, like you, you went through SIG with. With SIG, you know, I was going through the same with Turtle and just trying to get away from it for the longest time I didn't really know how to, where to put that energy, how to react to it, other than fighting and screaming and just not dealing with it.

Speaker 2 41:55

Well, so then I went to college and I was like, hey, this is. I went to school down in South Florida, west Palm Beach, like this is an opportunity to shake the nickname, like I can go down there, I could be Josh, I can start over, be fresh. But I got down there and I was just so conditioned to turtle that I didn't even hear josh. And then one night I got drunk and I was like, hey, guys, just call me turtle. And they all thought it was funny and they loved it. And then so all of a sudden everybody in my college is calling me turtle oh man yeah.

Speaker 2 42:25

So then I moved back up to indiana here after spending three years in florida where I was going to end up in a body bag in prison or in the Mexican cartel, because it was not a very productive few years of my life down there. So I ended up coming back to Indiana, I moved in with my brother, got a job and I was like all right, seriously, this time I'm old enough to know my name is Josh, I'll go start working a valet job downtown. So people were calling it Josh, everything was going well. Then a buddy from high school needed a job, moved out here to Indiana or to Indianapolis, started working with us and he still called me Turtle because he was one of the guys from the soccer team and then so it followed me here.

Speaker 2 43:04

But this was right around the time I was starting to race triathlon and getting pretty good and people were like, hey, why is it turtle if you're, you know, putting a 25 mile an hour split down on the bike and running six mile or six minute miles, and so at that point it just. It finally was kind of a motivation for me to work harder too, because then people were reaching out like, hey, turtle, wow, you're actually doing something and not just drinking and partying, and and that was a good opportunity for me to say, hey, hey, if somebody like me could do this, you can as well. I kind of thrived off that. So then, you know, wasn't shying away from telling people I was turtle, but it wasn't, you know, telling them not to call me turtle and and yeah, so it's been hanging around for a little while and I was just kind of cool with it.

Speaker 3 43:46

I used to run slow and now I can run a 18, slow and now I can run a 18, a sub 19 minute 5k and I'm still the turtle. That's fun, okay. So I have one question why on earth did your high school soccer team not put you in goal? I mean, a good, tall goalie is always amazing to have I don't know.

Speaker 2 44:03

I don't know. I think it was just that bad and that slow, but everyone was just like guys, let him just want to wear himself out and go home because I was not good.

Speaker 3 44:13

Too funny, too funny.

Speaker 1 44:15

One of the coolest things is when, when you, the night that you decided to join us on the in the do hard things wellness Academy, we've had this. There's like a little rock out here on our pond. And the night that you said, yes, lacey's like hey, look, look out there. I've never seen anything out there on that rock. Look what's out there it's a turtle. And every day since then there's been a turtle out there on the rock. So every time I see the turtle I always think of Josh, because it was the day that you decided to join the team. He's been there ever since. So we have a little spirit animal here with us, so good.

Speaker 3 44:47

That's funny.

Speaker 1 44:49

So well, josh, you'd mentioned what is your passion for coaching, and why did you? I guess, ultimately, why did you decide to jump on the team with us here? But what is your? You're in sales, you've been doing that for a while, but your passion is ultimately coaching. What are you hoping to achieve?

Speaker 2 45:06

Yeah, I love helping people and, like I said, I used to be just a lost guy. I would be honest with you, I drink a lot. I didn't do a whole lot of my life before getting into triathlon. I started coming into myself and cleaning my act up and figuring things out and becoming successful and really thriving off of off of doing well.

Speaker 2 45:24

I mean I want to teach people, show people how to do that, um too, and I've always had the the calling to it and the feeling to do it and I was never able to kind of put words to it, but then it was really at retreat, you know, when Ben's teaching us that our purpose is the path, not the destination. I mean, you know the defined masculine is a man of service, a protector, a provider. So really stepping into that role and defining it and understanding how to do it is lighting that flame and I'm just happy to show people that you know you can do anything. Anybody can do anything. You just have to stay in mind, disconnect from your, your limiting belief and just go after it.

Speaker 2 46:03

I mean, if that takes you know, a tall, goofy guy to to sign me up for a program and show you how to do it, then let's go. I want to give people the tools. I don't want to coach somebody forever. The perfect client. I have them for one to three months, show them how to do it, teach them how to do it, send them on their way and if they need to reconnect at some point later on, then we can.

Speaker 1 46:36

But that's always been my philosophy, even with triathlon I'm not just giving you workouts, but I'm showing you how to train and how to live the lifestyle, instead of just you know holding your hands to the finish line yeah, teach someone how to fish and get them on their way, that's right. Yeah, it's good. So where do you see your work with coaching, triathlon and breath work heading into the future?

Speaker 2 46:46

yeah, just creating a community here in indianapolis. I long for a group of people that are aligned with that purpose and the same morals, values and just building the community, because when the tide rises, the tide rises, so do all ships, so we can all be here for each other and we all know we're on social media. It's a really rough time right now, especially socially, economically.

Passion for Coaching and Future Vision

Speaker 1 47:13

So more healthy, happy of us, and I think it's incumbent for all of us and I'm going to speak directly- to is men stepping up like they need to be, and I think a lot of our challenges and problems in society wouldn't be nearly as challenging as they are if men were stepping up and fulfilling their role as fathers and leaders and acting like men. Like you know, the book that comes to mind is Way of the Superior man. Like men. Like you know, the book that comes to mind is way the superior man. That's like the. To me, that's the manual all men need to follow and abide by. So it's a whole tangent, a whole other episode, probably in the works in the near future, but since you brought that up, like that's really what's been on my heart lately, yeah, I'm feeling you on that.

Speaker 3 48:28

It's and it's, it's. It's like the concept of divine masculine, like a polarity masculine that is rooted and grounded in love and authenticity.

Speaker 1 48:42

Yes, yeah, it's definitely lacking and that's the space that we're trying to create, you know, with this tribe. Is this tribe is? Is? You know, we are all you know, all three of us. I know that we have our shortcomings and we're trying to be better men and we're trying to create a community of like-minded people who simply want to be better. We're we're the coaches. We're not gurus. Don't put us up on a pedestal, because we have something to learn from the students that are within, you know, the Academy and but just being around a like-minded tribe of people that just want to be better, to, to, to serve and to be grounded and to be, to go out in the world and do amazing things. And, josh, that's why we love having you around, brother.

Speaker 2 49:23

Thanks. I'm very excited to be in the presence with you guys. I think I told you when, when you asked me to join the team, I looked at Liam and I was like I can't believe I'm on the same ball field as these guys. That's the girl.

Speaker 1 49:35

No, it's so good. As soon as we met you, there was definitely like a connection. Like man, I hope that there's some synergy. And here we are. We're all on the boat, rowing and trying to get as many people to join us as possible. Well, we're already 15 minutes in, so what's? What do we need to know about turtle or what? Anything else that you'd like to cover before we start moving toward the exit here?

Speaker 2 49:59

I don't think so. I think we got most of it. I mean, if you want some high energy and and to be pushed to your best, then reach out. I'm here for it.

Speaker 1 50:09

Brian, do you have any other thoughts or questions?

Speaker 3 50:12

Not thoughts. I just you know, as we're wrapping up, I think it's like what's on my heart is an invitation, and it's the invitation if you are someone who's been a high performer or you're just always going after something, or you're just always going after something but you're waking up and going, I don't know. There's got to be something more than just this pursuit of this thing. Then find us and join us, because part of our goal and our mission, we've walked the path of struggle and we're still, like Sig said, we're still growing, we're still figuring things out, but it took us years and years of reading this book and this book and doing this program, in this one in our collective knowledge. We hope to give our community members that information in a much shorter time for their own transformation, and I think that's what we're about is trying to help transform and inspire and just keep pushing people to do hard things. So if that resonates with you, find us and come join us.

Speaker 3 51:24

Yeah, yeah, and I was feeling that, as as Josh was talking and as you were talking, just like man I I wish I would have found what we're doing 10 years ago.

Speaker 2 51:36

Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time Go ahead. Jack was here for a while after retreat. He's what 23, 25, something like that I just kind of found man. I wish I was surrounded with this group of people and I knew what you know now when I was that age. I would be so much more powerful and in a better place.

Morning Routines and Final Thoughts

Speaker 1 51:58

Yeah, yeah, you can read a book, you can listen to a podcast, but when you are around people and you have blind spots that you can't see that's why having a coach is so incredibly important Because you have things that you can't see you can accelerate that growth process and this is why the world's highest performing people have a team of coaches from a variety of different backgrounds and you know, from wealth to relationships, to health and wellness to you know all of these different things, and we're trying to do this in a way that's affordable for people and create a community around this idea. So, yeah, not to make this an extended infomercial, but we are. I mean, the end of the day, that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to get people connected and to build this community of people that just want to be better. So, if it speaks to you, click on the link connect with us. We'll just take you through a sonic, neural or any one of our other things that we got going on and we'd be happy to serve, all right?

Speaker 1 52:57

Well, I think we're about at the exit here. Any, josh, what's one takeaway from your experience with the Do Hard Things Nation and your work so far? What has spoken to you the most. What are you most proud of?

Speaker 2 53:16

Develop a morning routine, get your morning routine going. I wake up every morning and I get aligned physically, mentally, spiritually, before I start my day, and it's it's that time of the morning 6 to 8 am. Nobody's calling me, nobody's texting me, but I can. I can focus on me and what needs to be done so that I can focus on others.

Speaker 1 53:34

Yeah, you get that fighter stance, yeah, fighter stance first thing in the morning. I just had a phone call with a client earlier. We were just talking about the importance of that waking up in the morning and not being like right into reaction zone. He's like, as soon as I wake up, my phone's blowing up, I got to rush my kids to school. He's like, as soon as I wake up, my phone's blowing up, I got to rush my kids to school and as well. It's like if you operate that way, your whole day is reacting. You can't ever really catch a breath. So, starting your day, you know, with your cup full and fighter stance, then you can lean into the day and just kind of dominate. It just has a different the day has a different energy to it when you start off that way?

Speaker 1 54:07

Yeah, yeah, off that way, yeah, yeah. Well, josh, we really appreciate you coming on today. I'm sure we will have you back on the podcast again. You can definitely find Josh inside the uh, the Academy, uh, and so the cool thing about the Academy is we've had a classroom and he's already uploading a bunch of breath work. He's going to be working on some triathlon training plans and a myriad of other things.

Speaker 2 54:35

And uh, he hosts weekly live sessions and we're just excited to have Josh on the on the team with us.

Speaker 1 54:39

So any other final thoughts before we exit? No, not for me either. All right. Well, josh, thanks for sharing your wisdom today and, you know, for those listening, if this episode, if this episode, resonates, just do us a favor, make sure you smash that subscribe button, share it with someone that needs to hear it and please leave us a review. You know the reviews really really matter. It helps us. You know we always talk everyone's talking about algorithms these days. Well, if we're really trying to expand and grow the show and it really does help us reach an audience who may not have heard of us before. So please take a moment and leave us a review and if you're ready to take your health mindset performance to the next level, join us in the do our things wellness Academy. Go to do our things nationcom. We got merch, we got podcast episodes, we got events, we got the Academy and we just love to hear from you. So, until then, keep breathing, keep pushing, keep doing hard things. We'll see you in the next episode, I hope.