I’m mendacity flat on my again on Laird Hamilton’s pool deck, perched excessive on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean close to Malibu. I’m surrounded by about 20 strangers, who’re doing the identical. Thick clouds are rolling in off the water, obscuring the close by hills, and Hamilton is pacing between us, calling out instructions to control our respiratory. Breathe in by way of the nostril, out by way of the mouth; sooner, slower, maintain. It’s undoubtedly not my typical Saturday morning, however that’s not even the strangest factor about it: I’m euphoric. My arms and palms are pulsing and tingling, and I really feel like I’m excessive. And all I did was breathe a little bit in another way. I’m at Laird’s home to get an intro to XPT health, the great well being routine he developed together with his spouse, professional volleyball participant Gabby Reece.
Over greater than a decade, XPT has morphed from a method for Hamilton and Reece to remain match right into a full-fledged program for elite athletes, navy particular forces, and anybody seeking to push themselves to a brand new degree of bodily and psychological health. Respiration beside me on the pool deck are former Navy SEALs, an MMA fighter, a former NFL participant, Olympic water polo gamers, and a number of other very match women and men from across the nation.
XPT is made up of three elements: respiratory, shifting, and restoration. In between periods, I caught up with PJ Nestler, XPT’s director of efficiency, to get a little bit extra perception into how this system is structured.
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Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece Courtesy of XPT
Breathe
Breath work varieties the inspiration, Nestler tells me, and there are two causes for that (feeling excessive shouldn’t be one in every of them). First, in case you’re not respiratory correctly and utilizing your full lung capability, you’ll tire extra simply when figuring out. Second, by controlling your breath, you’ll be able to successfully management your psychological state by firming down nervousness and stress, reaching higher focus. In some methods, the psychological recreation is much more vital than the bodily.
“In case your psychology is off, your technical abilities, your information of the sport, methods, bodily ability—all that’s out the window,” he says.
The breath work attracts from quite a lot of sources, Nestler explains. The respiratory session consists of gradual, meditative breaths; fast-paced huffing and puffing; and even Wim Hof Methodology methods.
“The respiratory we’ve developed by way of studying from different individuals,” Nestler says. “A variety of these items’s been round for hundreds of years.”
PJ Nestler Courtesy of XPT
Transfer
The motion side of XPT occurs within the pool. By weight coaching within the water, you get a stable exercise with much less affect in your joints than you’d within the gymnasium. The water helps you as you progress, and gives one other benefit, too: It forces you to work in your psychological recreation.
Nestler leads me by way of a pool exercise that includes a number of varieties of weighted squats and crawling with dumbbells throughout the pool and again. Sounds fairly easy, but when I mess up a squat and don’t break the floor, I don’t simply have dangerous kind; I miss out on an opportunity to breathe. When that occurs, abruptly all my dangerous recollections of seventh grade swim crew come dashing again. The bottom line is to inhale deeply after I come above water, then exhale on the best way down. That method, I harness extra energy to finish the train and I hold my nervousness in verify.
Courtesy of XPT
The cross-pool carries have been additionally an enormous problem. The purpose is to crawl—utilizing 30-pound dumbbells to remain planted on the underside of the pool—throughout and again on only one breath. About midway by way of every rep, that burning, desperate-for-air feeling creeps into my lungs. However by specializing in the duty, I handle to energy by way of. And by slowing my respiratory as soon as I end, I’m capable of recuperate and go for the subsequent rep pretty rapidly.
Recuperate
In XPT, restoration means alternating between a 220-degree sauna and an ice bathtub, or “hypothermic coaching,” as the web site calls it. I normally take pleasure in a visit to the sauna, however this was undoubtedly hotter than I’m used to. After struggling by way of 15 minutes of intense warmth, my group and I took turns hopping into the ice bathtub for 3 minutes. The warmth was robust; the ice bathtub was excruciating. Once more, all of it got here all the way down to respiratory: By specializing in inhaling and exhaling, I powered by way of the ache.
Courtesy of XPT
Whereas research have come to some conflicting conclusions relating to the efficacy of ice baths over time, distinction remedy remains to be broadly utilized by athletes in an effort to hasten muscle restoration. The concept right here is to assist your physique recuperate by way of publicity to excessive warmth and chilly. Ice baths are thought to scale back swelling and tissue breakdown, whereas saunas are believed to spur the discharge of a development hormone and testosterone whereas decreasing stress hormones within the physique. Just like the breath work and the pool exercises, there’s an enormous psychological side to those as properly. By sweating within the sauna and plunging into the ice bathtub, you slowly situation your self to cope with excessive conditions calmly.
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Till lately, XPT was primarily accessible by way of multi-day retreats in far-flung locales or native workshops run by licensed instructors (there are at the moment round 250 XPT trainers). As the group on Saturday illustrated, it has largely appealed to elite athletes and people who find themselves already in prime bodily form. However with the latest launch of the XPT app, which incorporates guided exercises and respiratory periods, the corporate is working to make this system extra accessible to on a regular basis individuals.
“I personally assume that these items is far more impactful for the common shopper,” Nestler says.
A Navy SEAL would possibly attempt XPT to push his psychological and bodily limits just a bit additional, Nestler explains. However the common particular person has much more room to develop, and XPT can doubtlessly do much more for them.
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I undoubtedly appreciated the distinctive challenges I confronted throughout my go to, and walked away with a brand new understanding of how respiratory is usually a highly effective software for rising efficiency. I additionally actually loved the pool exercises, that are a form of train I typically shrink back from. However the largest shock got here the subsequent day, after I went out for a night run. As I ran, I centered on inhaling deeply at a slower cadence than standard. I ended up tying my quickest time for that route and feeling method much less fatigued than regular. So, yeah, I’m kinda hooked.