Breathing Your Way to Olympic Gold

In our book "Perfect Breathing" we spent a lot of time writing about the many ways that top athletes and performers use breathing techniques to elicit the absolute best from their minds and bodies. This week, when it's all about the Olympics all the time, we've come across a couple of great examples from the frozen (or slushy) slopes of Whistler.

First up, Alexandre Bilodeau, the moguls champ and winner of Canada's first gold medal, was part of a Top Secret performance improvement program that taught him and other Canadian athletes how to use breathing techniques to focus their minds and identify and eliminate the anxiety and tension that were holding them back.

Bilodeau learned to identify his unique tension profile through a process called bioneuralfeedback and then learned breathing techiques that specifically addressed his tension points. "Breathing through my shoulders, breathing through my legs and breathing through my mind, it helps you to let it go and bring your focus into the present moment," he said. "The hardest thing for an athlete in any sport is to stay in the right now." Read the whole story here.

In another post from Canada's Times & Transcript, Jim Foster zeros in on the breathing techniques that Olympic biathletes and other marksmen us to put a hole in a bulls-eye from 150 meters at various times during a 20 kilometer cross-country ski race. Not only does the breath play a role in quickly calming the mind and body so that you can make any kind of shot, but the breath has to be used to actually control the shot - if your lungs are full that increases your excitement level and the shakiness or your hands (I'm guessing that's bad), while holding your breath causes fatigue and negatively affects your vision. There are several techniques, but taking the shot during the pause between the exhale and the next inhale seems to be very effective. Read the whole story here.

In every contest we've watched, it is obvious how having control over your mind, body, and emotions can be the deciding factor (except for perhaps curling) and the breath is the most powerful source of control we have over them all!

Relax and quit smoking!

It's a bit mystifying, but people still smoke cigarettes. The health risks are well known and documented, but the nasty habit persists.

To be sure it is a personal choice (except for when we have to breathe the nasty second-hand smoke). But we're certain many who still smoke would love to stop.

WebMD's "Stop Smoking Support and Tips by Gina Shaw, however, shares a few relaxation techniques that might help those who would like to quit smoking kick the habit for good," writes TestCountry.com. "The article does mention that there are no hard-hitting scientific facts and observations – not yet, anyway – to back up how effective these techniques are in helping people stop smoking, but the American Cancer Society’s Vice President for Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, Michael Thun, M.D., concurs that these approaches might be of help."

These techniques are held together by a common factor: all involve deep breathing. The reason why these might help is that smokers are generally used to breathing deeply while sucking on a cigarette, and this might be a practice that they no longer do once they try to quit. Forgetting to practice deep breathing may lead to an increase in tension levels, which leads to that “fuzzy,” “grumpy” and “out of sorts” feeling that smokers who try to quit sometimes get.

The techniques include practicing deep breathing, guided imagery, tai chi, meditation and yoga. If you're even thinking about quitting, these are worthy of investigation. Read the full article here and be sure to visit www.perfectbreath.com for more info on mindful breathing. You'll be glad you did.

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