Episode #5 Slow down to speed up, with Erin Taylor founder of Athletes For Yoga

I had a great chat with Erin about balance, and how yoga can help you to get more balance in your life, and training.

Erin is the author of 2 books:
Hit Reset, for targeting problems that athletes might have with their movement , and Work IN for intentional recovery. You can check them out here 👇🏻
https://athletesforyoga.com/shop?category=Books

We talked about the aversions athletes sometimes have to slowing down, and how it can lead to injury or poor performance.

As a mum of 2 Erin has developed her practice to fit in with her life, little and often is better than an unsustainable practice, useful at this time of year when we can take on unsustainable habits!

Use the code INSPIREDTRIA4Y for 1 free month of A4Y Video — redeem at video.athletesforyoga.com, then download the free app!

Erin has also set up coach training, for coaches who want to help athletes use yoga to achieve their goals.

A4Y Coach Training - https://athletesforyoga.com/a4y-coach-training

You can follow her, and athletes for Yoga here:

Balance Practice - https://erintaylor.substack.com/

A4Y Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/athletesforyogahq

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Transcript

0:03

[Music] hi I'm Celia boothman founder of LTR coaching and I'd like to welcome you to the inspired triathletes podcast where I'll be bringing you stories from female triathletes and taking on topics that are important to women in the sport okay so welcome to the inspired triathletes podcast today I'm here with Erin Taylor who is the founder of athletes for yoga and I first heard Erin on The Purple Patch podcast many years ago I I don't know how many years ago that would have been now have you any idea gosh well I think in terms of how old my children are probably about I think my daughter was about two so so six years ago six years ago yeah that's a long time it seems to have flown by as time does doesn't it um but yeah so Erin is a mom of how many children have you got two or uh two yeah and they are now they're five and eight five and eight okay so you kind of set up the business when they were quite young and then like have developed the business along with bringing up the children as well so that's quite an amazing thing to have done um so I was really inspired when i l in podcast and I was checking out athletes for yoga and it inspired me to incorporate a little bit more yoga into my training and I remember trying to fit it around kids actually that was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about maybe later how you kind of because you're so time crunched aren't you when you've got small children and it's like okay when do I do that I remember doing legs up the wall when I was outside their bedrooms just waiting for them to sort of settle down or something I'd just lie outside the room and do that kind of thing um but yeah if you've got any tips that'd be great but so we'll thank you for being here anyway we'll start off with just if you give us an overview of why it was that you wanted to set up athletes for yoga originally kind of give us an overview of what what it is and why you wanted to set this up for athletes sure and thanks for having me um I started um athletes for yoga to help as many athletes as possible to use yoga to become more balanced and resilient and really to to achieve their goals um I think really I wanted to create an accessible entry point um to yoga for an audience that that really needs it that can really benefit from all that yoga has to offer and um you know I think a lot of athletes have heard that yoga can help them I found that the dots really kind of have to be connected how what we do on the mat directly impacts what you're doing out on your run or on your bike in the pool um whatever your sport or you know Fitness Pursuit might be um because really I found that it's that that kind of knowledge and understanding of you know this joining of the dots of how what we're doing here helps us there really gives us um the motivation to practice and really to kind of to do it right in a way um I first took up yoga as an injured Collegiate athlete um I played basketball and at the time um I have found I kind of found myself in that position of hearing that yoga could help me my team doctor suggested I do some yoga and um you you know I went to a couple of kind of random classes and you know I I I found them appealing and I could see kind of how how it would help me as an athlete because I was really coming at it from that mindset of how is this going to help me heal my injury how is this going to help you know um strengthen my performance um and I remember wishing at the time that you know the that the teacher could speak more specifically to those needs um you know really put the practice into context um so over the years I've developed athletes for yoga to to help join those dots and um create a really accessible entry point for athletes yeah I think that's really important it's like it's this abstract idea or yeah yoga is really good for you but a lot of people don't even really understand what yoga is and because there's so many parts of it as well that it can be quite confusing you might go to one class and it's completely different to another and is it actually doing what you want and and what do you want from yoga like you were trying to rehabilitate an injury it could be that you're looking for strength or Mobility or or kind of Maintenance or something like that so having that idea of what it is that you want to get from it I think is a really good starting point for for people that are a bit unsure as well like do I need this or not well what do you want to what are your goals and and how can you help how can that help you and we you were quite skeptical at first about yoga where you you kind of had a bit of because I think it had a bit of a bad reputation at one point it's very much more you know popular and people know a lot more about it but I I feel like athletes especially like high performance athletes can have a bit of a mental block with it do you get that impression at all with like oh it's for relaxing or it's not for me you know that that kind of barrier to it sure and I mean there's I should say there are so many different um kinds of yoga um approaches and voices in the space and it's all really valuable um and brings something really important um I think with athletes you know it's the context is so important the context is is really key because I see you know I've been doing this for 20 years and you know more often than not people will come to do yoga not because they're interested in yoga but because they want to run faster yeah this nagging hip issue you know they um they are not recovering properly or effectively from you know the he the the load of you know Triathlon training so you know so it's um really like um meeting U meeting them where they are um with that context and you know and that's something that I could relate to having kind of been in that position myself and uh when I first took up yoga and going to some random classes in you know in San Francisco and you more of the you know more like the yoga stereotypes of the you know the balloon pants and the oming and and all that which you know there's um very much a place for all that um but I think for an athlete you know to really be able to access it and you know again connect those dots in a way that really motivates them to practice actually use um use their practice um that's really what gets results yeah yeah definitely I think once you know the benefits and you know what you want to get like we said and how do you do that in in a leetes for yoga you have like short sessions don't you so how do you kind of how do people know where they should be going and and what they should be doing there I think you've organized it pretty well from I remember like sure yeah well so athletes for yoga it's a it's a video platform and app and I mean if you're new to the platform there's right up chat there's a you know there's a section called start here which talks about um you know I should back up it I should just walk this back a little bit and say really you know um the context of why you're coming is key but the biggest context of all is balance right so we are engineered for balance our bodies are designed in a certain way for a reason and especially as athletes everything that we're doing creates a lot of imbalance yeah which is fine um you know except when left unaddressed over time um you know the body is very very clever and will compensate in all kinds of ways to keep us going you know yeah with imbalance and dysfunction um often to our own detriment so over time when we don't address these imbalances that's when we start to run into some problems like eventually something will break and you know yeah and that's and that's no fun so um you know thinking thinking about um about balance I think is really the most important context so so when people come to our platform you know we kind of guide them to think about how how is imbalance showing up in your body so so we have a set of videos that that gives some guidance around self assessing you know imbalance in various areas of the body um I've also written a a book about this my book hit reset um you know explains some of the most common imbalances that almost all athletes experience in all different areas of the body yeah we think about what's a what's the solution what's a really practical way I can address this in two minutes a day um so it's about really being aware of how imbalance is showing up for you and then you know addressing that with really uh practical Solutions and when we do that that create that creates a really powerful practice Yeah Yeah Yeah so specifically yoga will help you to address those imbalances kind of prevent or maybe help heal some kinds of injuries that you might get and how about improving performance where do you see that kind of fitting into the to the puzzle sure yeah should say also I mean those who like you know some people might might come to yoga because they're like I have tight hamstrings or yeah have a specific um you know purpose context in mind out the gate and you know so what we have like you know you can search by area of the body yeah so quick hip reset um you know flexible running cstring so you can really kind of address whatever area is feeling timely to you um with performance again kind of really um balance yeah performance and yoga is a practice that um you know helps us to become more balanced and um yoga specifically I mean yoga really strengthens the body as the integrated unit that it's designed to be uh and help in doing so we can really um prevent injuries and um recover from the demands of everything that we're doing you know especially as athletes and the recovery piece is something that I'm particularly passionate about I've also written a book about this work in a the athletes plan for Real Recovery and winning results is more of a deep dive on really how to use um mental focus training meditation and physical relaxation practices that's restorative yoga how we use these tools to really optimize our recovery and in doing so we actually get so much more out of that we're doing um and we feel better so yeah I think you know recovery is a massive part of it that is often people go there's no point you know doing I have I do have athletes that if I put recovery sessions in won't do them because I think there's no point to them and I try and explain it and I've even tried to to word it differently um so it's not a recovery session because it can put people off doing it so it's like an integration or a um adaptation or something like that because that recovery is what drives your adaptation to the training and not making time for that you're missing out on a massive piece of of your uh performance so yeah I think that's really important and thinking about it in terms of how is this helping me to kind of fit another part into my it is like when you're training for a massive event like a triath you know you're doing a lot of training it is like a jigs or puzzle trying to fit it all in isn't it it's like how do you do all of these things and and maintain some kind of balance I mean it's not going to be completely balanced when you're training for big events all of the time but you can try try and kind of compensate with these practices to help bring some kind of you know if we're in that high quarters All State all of the time then we're just not going to be getting performance gains so that's what what you're saying these little kind of interventions with the breathing or the meditation which can also carry over into your mindset that's going to help you on race day and also just generally in life as well so you know it's something that um I think I I I couldn't I was like I can't fit it in I can't fit it in and I started doing it and it was like you don't need to do much it's just got to be a little bit like like we said earlier you know you can do it at a certain time and and sticking it with a having your video platform or something like that where you've got that library that you can just go to and go it takes the thinking out out of it to a certain extent as well so it's like okay I don't need to work out what I need to do I can just go on there and and find something for my tight hamstrings which I have yeah I mean exactly I think that's part of the beauty of it is that I mean people don't feel we feel like we don't have time but um really um we don't have time to not prioritize and value recover because it really is just as important and equally as productive as as everything else that we do um and you know it's really that um a little often approach that you know we get the most out of so rather than feeling like oh oh I don't have time to do a whole yoga class I don't have time to you know do a 20 minute stretch sesh like just a f minute um hip mobility routine is like G to you or even like I don't know if you can very faintly see on the the wall behind me there's this kind of this line that's from um when I work with people here in my in my office um those are the heels from like um which I do myself as a transition when I'm done with my when I'm done with my work day in here I um mandated for myself you know I usually spend about 10 minutes um there with my heels on that line yeah making a transition and um yeah so it's really like you know knowing that um it does matter those even two or five minutes and the more often you do it um not only the more you want to do it the more you want to you know really flame those those little moments happen during transitions that you could just you know lie down um and get the child's pose or you know whatever it is that you're going to do but um the more we practice that the more efficiently and effectively we can actually you know balance our nervous system and to that more um you know restorative restful State that's yeah yeah and that's you were talking about legs up the wall weren't you earlier with the he yeah just in case people don't know yes yes L down that's like literally the that that is I call it the boss of recovery that's it that's like that's the queen you know lie down put your legs up the wall just exactly what it sounds like just magic yeah it's like it's so good and it's I think what's nice about it it's just so easy as well you don't have to think I did um the 4 by what's it called again 4 by4 by 48 is it that you know when you run four miles every 4 hours 48 hours I did that in lockdown um and uh I did legs up the wall quite a bit in between those sessions right there's a f there's a video of me just lying up lying there with my legs up the wall for quite a while it's just it's so nice and it's a nice one to do before bed like just to reset because I know um a lot of athletes do have trouble when they are in that sort of high arisal state to get to sleep it's just something to bring everything down and and relax you especially you know nowadays there's just so much that you can end up doing until I don't know what time and then you know not not getting in an optimal state for sleep and and yoga is something that can help just before you're trying because obviously sleep is another part of your recovery if you're not doing that then that's not going to help you either so it can be like something you do at the end of the day it's just it's kind of like finding the time that works for you like you say those transition points are great um are there any other kind of ways that you've managed to integrate it you know with having children is there anything specific that you've done or yeah that's a good question so I mean I call it yoga for real which you know doing what you can when you can and it's been just an eye opener for me to see how I mean before I had kids I used to do much longer practices and longer meditations and I feel like I actually um do a lot more yoga now than I did kid because uh instead I'm using it throughout the day in the moment when I really kind of need it most and I found the same when my kids were were um you know much little and even more of a handful and you know requiring just you know that constant supervision and it's like uh you know stretch my hamstrings while I'm waiting for the the kettle to boil um you know um in the evening if they're watching watching a bit of bit of TV I'll just get on the floor and do a little bit of hip stretching um in the morning now as a practice I often now that uh my family sleeps into to a more Humane hour um actually I I like to get up ahead of everyone just to have a little bit of a little bit of time uh by myself to just kind of um set my state for the day with a little bit of movement or sometimes it's just a little bit of breathing um simple um to set set my state that's that's become an important part of my practice and it's just that knowing that you know a little often is a lot and absolutely I found that the more you know um I do things the more the more I use these practices the more I just want to do them it's like you want to get it to a point where I mean that's really like creating a practice for your real life because if it doesn't work in your real life it won't work and you want it to feel like you know um a bit like brushing your teeth it's like it's beyond just it's beyond even a habit it's something you do like I feel a bit dirty if I haven't done any yoga today right it's like something oh I just all right yeah yeah you not okay if you don't um do these things to yourself um I think uh that's that that um you know when you can kind of get into that mindset through your you know repetition that's when it really starts to become a natural Rhythm rather than this like extra thing you have to try to fit in yeah like a box you have to take or like something like like that that's kind of yeah I've got to get that done and because then you you're going in with the intention of like I've got to tick this off you know not actually maybe getting what you actually need from it you know it's like another thing on your list it sounds like your practice has really become quite intuitive um now so would you say that's developed that's something that's developed with your with you since you started um it has absolutely and I think again it's this sense of like the more you practice the more you you know um I think the more aware you become of just kind of you know what's going on in your body yeah and I think a as athletes like this um this awareness and kind of felt sense is super important because we're usually doing such a high volume of things often so hard and so fast that we kind of just blow right past like sensation and often you know the body giving us really important cues about what's going on often little like even little niggles or you know things that you know can lead to injuries even I'm I'm too busy to deal with this right now I can't yeah right I've got training to do yeah it's like well if you don't sort it out you out later and um so you know really like slowing down enough that and and you can still do everything you need to do but keeping yourself you know on a Cadence where you're maintaining some you know sense of how everything is feeling and being willing to respond to what's coming up um and the more you do that you know the more that just becomes a natural way of kind of being in that I think is really important and that um serves us so much in sport and in life life yeah I think you know like as you say as endurance athletes we're used to pushing through ignoring the discomfort the pain the kind of like just that's what you train your body to do to a certain extent um I remember going to see a guy who did seatics and he was like well you've trained your body to like not to ignore all this stuff so you've got to kind of tune back in and I was like okay so and it's quite subtle like sometimes that you feel something and you can tune into it and just pick it up before it becomes a big thing and it once you learn how to do that and I think yoga is a great kind of Gateway as you say to learning more about your body and and picking up those signals and it's not something to be scared because I think for me I was scared of picking up those signals because it's like well if I like listen to my body then I'm gonna have to stop and you know you kind of catastrophize and think it's going to stop everything all my training is going to go downhill I'm not going to be able to get fit and I'm going to lose all my fitness and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah um but that is not the case at all and i' I think like since my practice has developed and I've got more experience as an athlete probably as well I've learn okay if that happens just do this for a bit and then you can kind of get back to things um and it's just it's just much easier than kind of pushing through and battling all the time it is and it's almost like this you know to me it's all just like a forever kind of Revelation that we actually like we end up being more productive and moving closer toward our goals like this is possible not just from like gritting our teeth and you know pushing through it but you know that's possible from taking a deeper breath we can get there by taking a deeper breath and um you know to me that's always been um a revelation and um you know it all comes back to I think you know just balance as a practice because I mean balance is not like a um you know it's not like this end goal it's not like this fixed thing it's different every day day to day moment and moment to moment and it's just our ongoing you know attention and awareness of of you know what's coming up and just the willingness to respond to that rather than ignoring you know really important signals um you know that really help that it really just optimizes everything yeah I do think a lot of athletes are scared though to to listen to that and you know it's it's just it just takes practice like you say you need to kind of learn it for yourself no one can really tell you it you have to feel it in your body and understand it in your mind for your for yourself without you know and things can help but it has to kind of come from you to a certain extent so um I'm gonna I just wanted to ask as well like we've talked about how important it is for us to practice yoga is there anything specifically um because I specialize in coaching women and I know that women do take on a lot quite often and do you find that they don't tend to prioritize their practice or themselves sometimes is it something that can help people to start giving themselves a bit more time to themselves or prioritizing what they need to do I think it's very easy to um you know put yourself last on the list really um especially often for women and um and for moms and you know um you know especially as we move through as women we move through these different seasons of our life and you know and then there's also you know there's a lot of different hormonal shifts we go through and you know even for you know month to month and you know that again comes comes back to balance and being willing to um recognize where you are and respond to that you know um I think is is so important and I know you know I know for myself like when I when I when I don't practice and when I haven't carved out some some time for myself um that you know that doesn't help anyone that my family I'm not as effective in my work um it just you know it's like the put your own air mask on first like it's it's so it's so important it really is and um I think as women also like having having your practice um is is a really valuable tool for navigating the different you know Seasons that we all through and you know every time you come to your practice it just kind of give you gives you really a reference that reference point and the space to check in to kind of you know realign yourself and kind of reconnect with you know what's important what's needed how how can I support myself right now or today um you know otherwise we're just blowing right through everything yeah I don't think we can sort of be at at our highest sort of performance or service in in that mode no not at all so do you get help from do you kind of sit down or anything do you have kind of any plan where you go through what's what the week's going to look like with your partner or anything like that so that you make sure that you have that time for yourself or it it sounds like you kind of bit it into the the gaps that you have but do you also make sure that you have dedicated time as well yeah I do I mean I I schedule myself time to practice um you know now my kids are both in school and primary school now so um time has opened up somewhat um yeah as any parent know so there always um you know the inevitable um sick days and all unpredictable but I schedule myself time that's you know pretty non-negotiable to me you know I I usually try to do um some practice like right immediately after I've done all of the morning family activities and school run because I know that you know it can be harder to get to yourself if you leave it to later in um you know and as I said I also like to get up before everyone so I can have even just even just 20 minutes um by myself um you know and that that's kind of become a more sort of intuitive practice of oh do I need to just sit here and just drink my tea or do I feel like just getting down on the floor moving a bit or a little bit of meditation so just kind of really like seeing what's needed and just that for me has been um a real game Cher to have that opportunity to kind of set my state you know the flip side of that being like for me to be able to do that I need to go to bed early I stay up too late that's kind of been that's not really um available to me so for example like my partner my husband and I usually um he knows I'm no I'm no night out so usually he takes does the evening the evening um kid stuff which is really helpful supps me to you know um be able to have rest so that I can um do what I need to do the next morning um just as an example but um but it's always it's always like shifting and you know I think you know as you know as as a mom also um you know the just the the different needs and demands um of your children just are constantly shifting as soon as you think you have a rhythm like everything again it's just being and that's and that's okay like you know your practice doesn't need to be rigid the more the more we can just kind of do what we can when we when we can and embrace that um you know the more we get out of it and um yeah for me when especially when my kids were little or letting go of this notion that it has to be sort of this formal thing you know um letting go of that um it's really liberating and yeah yeah I think that's I mean that is what yoga can teach you as well isn't it it's another part of your yoga practice is like the flexibility and being able to let things go um I remember my mom we we did this yoga course a while ago and she was like oh I need to make a special place where I can do this practice and the guy was like no you don't you can just just do it you don't need to make a special place to do it you can do it wherever and that is part of your yoga is learning that you can just do it wherever and and not have to have it a certain way or you know it it quite often you know athletes are perfectionists they want to get it all right and they want to do it exactly right so being able to do that makes a massive difference and I think yoga can definitely teach you to let go of a little bit of that perfectionism yes and be a bit more adaptable because that's what we need to do you know especially as parents and you know it's it is like you just get throwing curve balls all the it's like oh okay AB that's the only certain just it expects the unexpected um every day really yeah yeah it's all fun though isn't it yes I know I thought we were out a bit and it was like yeah they're getting older they're gonna even now it's like oh okay teenagers it's kind of a different ball game I don't know whether it's worse or better I don't I don't know mentally I'm like fried but but physically I was like that when you know when they were little you're physically kind of tired and it's the sleep and the sort of fatigue and things like that whereas now they sleep you know they are teenagers sleep but then there's the other side of it like you worry about them because of life and you know but yeah yeah so um and as you you were talking a little bit about women and and you know how we kind of have different phases in our lives and I would say also my practice has changed since like quite a bit be I've also changed my training as well to be honest you know I'm not training as much as I was anymore but I did integrate some meditation and breathing practices in lockdown because I was getting really stressed and I was doing sort of 10 minutes every morning and that just kind of evolved into a lot longer now and I do I do get up in the morning and I just sit and I breathe and it's really nice to have a routine I think we talk about our bedtime routines but I think our morning routine like you say is also really important and having something in there where we don't just get up and sort of like get coffee sort of down us straight away and kind of go 100 miles an hour I really like that kind of integration into the day of sort of gradually you know getting into it and I don't know I think that's that's made a big difference for me doing that so that's good yeah having that that time to think of it as just sort of setting your state for the day just um it's a game rather than just like jumping I mean how jarring like you're even awake just all the you know the bombardment of you know if you like get right onto your phone or have um small children and if you are in the if you are in that season now I'm having anyone listening who has very small children just you know also knowing that that will that will pass as well you know that morning space does become more available I'm just remembering back to when my youngest was um under two he just we had a whole year if he woke up at 410 410 410 four to the point where I was convinced there must be something in the house that was like actually waking up so precise and sometimes he would even stre push it to like 350 and I was just like yeah that kind of almost broke me a bit and I remember during those during that time like just longing to be able to have a more sort of gentle start and to kind of GRE greet myself um yeah before like morning jumping in the bed like got so much energy haven't they yeah oh bless yeah no yeah we're sort of talking like yeah you can do this but it is there are times in your life when when you can't necessarily do that but you can still do it a little bit you know at the other end of the day there might be a window there or it could be during the day if you've got that opportunity as well there's always places where you can find it it's just it's just looking for those those opportunities for you um so yeah what what are you what are you working on now we talked about your practi has evolved and and you've got your athletes for yoga I know you've got like coaches on there and athletes who do so it's not just you teaching yoga it's other people as well that you've got partnering with you in there but if you want to tell us a little bit more about that and anything else new that you're working on as well that'd be great sure yeah so athletes for yoga we um recently launched our coach training um which is an online course just to designed to um you know guide people don't have to be yoga people I find kind of more athletes have who are not um trained yoga teachers have been drawn toward it um it's about teaching uh yoga and balanced contextual practices to athletes um and it all really comes back to you know the mission of athletes for yoga which is um it's athletes for yoga it's meant to be athletes guiding athletes really creating that context um that's so key and so you know we're with that we're inviting people to take the course and get some grounding you know in in our approach and um if they so choose become compensated members of our coach Community um so that's been well received so far and it's just so great to to have other athletes um on there sharing you know um what they're really using um I think that's really you know Al creates a more valuable entry point for athletes than you know um the yoga lady talking about yoga I I'd be more Curious oh how is my favorite pro Runner using yoga what does she do like you know what helps her you know I I think that that's a lot um that's quite compelling and it's great for example we have um Stephanie how who's a pro Trail and ultr Runner um she did some videos for us recently all filmed just on her Trail in context oh I just finished my run this is what I do right when I finish my run before I Transit as a transition before I get on with my day so then again it gives you you know more example and inspiration for you know the concept of yoga for real like you don't like have to do your workout and then go to a yoga your run I've got to get my I've got to have my mat and all this stuff yeah your run and then like you don't even have to leave the trail and do this five minute hamstring stretching routine so um so getting more voices uh involved um leading by example um is something that we're really excited about I mean that's really the whole purpose of what athletes for yoga is athletes leading a athletes so um so that's been really exciting to to um and personally I've started a new a new offering um called balance practice which is my newsletter over on substack um where I explore just the themes of balance and practice a bit more broadly um with a weekly offering of you know writing prompts gestures Sometimes some yoga and meditation experiences designs to kind of inspire and support um balance so that's another thing to to check out oh awesome yeah I'll put the links below um and make sure that those are in the show notes for everybody so that they they can find you and and connect with you because you got a lot of valuable information and loads of cont content that that's really helpful for people I really like that idea of you know having things put in context of your training day because like you say it's otherwise people don't always understand how how do I do this where do I do this what do I do how long does it need to be so that's that's amazing and I remember doing your bike you know using the bike as a kind of oh sure yeah you know like to do hamstring stretches and things like that and just seeing it there and I use that some of those stretches I was doing like a weekly Zoom turbo session so we do that off at the end of it just like a little reset there and and I get people to use their breathing to kind of calm them down and and and that kind of thing so you know and breathing that's something that you can do tune into whenever and you know if you've got that in your head as as a kind of tool to noticing it's another thing that helps you kind of tune in isn't it to your body it's like okay what's what's my breathing doing can I check into that and have you got breathing exercises in your we do there's a whole section of um there's meditation and breathing they're all around five minutes so oh that's amazing yeah for how you can really use you know your breath your most powerful and accessible yeah and for like pre-race things that's I I quite often suggest breathing techniques to people for that because it really does make a difference it helps a lot of people there's um just I know I'm conscious of time but just tell a quick story I was walking down to a the first time I did Iron Man Wales and um you know everyone's like really nervous and I was going just breathe in then just go really long breath out like that just do like a few of those and uh I noticed everyone started like turned and looked at me and kind of like everyone kind of like chilled out a little bit once I start it was just me doing it and some other guy and the sort of energy changed a little bit it was like wow just just by mentioning it or people sort of seeing us doing it was was affecting that and people seemed a bit less kind of I bet oh that's so good yeah yeah interesting to see if you're breathing really well really deeply um even maybe slightly audibly it's you can kind of notice how sometimes those around you will kind of pick up on that interesting even like when I teach yoga classes I've always found it's like you know at the beginning you know people breathing's kind of all over the place but as you kind of get going you can actually sort of feel and hear this Collective um deepening um of the breath and um it's incredibly calming and yeah yeah the energy just shifts doesn't it by the end of the session it's like oh can you feel how different that feels it's very different yes that's awesome um okay there was something else I was going to say now I've completely for okay that's all right it doesn't matter it's probably not important but yeah it's been really nice to talk to you um and yeah I'll make sure that we've got the links below I know you've got a code as well for the podcast so I'll pop that in which is do you want to explain the the code right so um yes I've given a a promo code that you can use for a free month of athletes for yoga video so you want to go um online to video. athletes yoga.com and you can apply the code there um and after you've done that online then you can use your login credentials um to use the free app if you'd like oh that's amazing thank you very much um yeah been great to talk to you and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day and take care thanks you too don't worries thanks for listening today have a great day take care bye for now[Music]