Here’s a riddle for you:

You do this 20,000 times a day, yet it is likely your weakest muscle.

STUMPED?

For something we do 20,000 or more times a day without thinking about, as soon as I ask people to draw attention and connection to their breath, a weird shift occurs. It’s as if they think they’ve signed on for a one-way trip to Hippy-Dippy land where they’re forced to burn incense, ball themselves up into pretzel poses, and spend hours praying incantations to a Buddha statue.

I sense the anxious energy in the room as we spend the first 2-5 minutes just settling in, focusing on the breath in hopes it can let the monkey mind unravel. The boredom and monotony strikes as our brain projects a million reasons to do ANYTHING else but focus on the simplicity and direction of our inhales and exhales.

I acknowledge that they are waiting for us to DO something. To stretch, strengthen, improve mobility and relieve some of the nagging pains that go along with being a human. This is the product that they are promised. This is why they’ve carved out the time to show up for Mobility|Gains.

So a part of me feels like I am not yet ‘selling’ my clients on WHY and HOW we use breath as our foundation and gateway into understanding and manipulating our bodies for better performance.

I think the fitness industry (especially CrossFit) has come a long way in their understanding that you can only be as strong as your mobility allows. More people now know WHY they need to stretch, strengthen weak links in isolation, and re-pattern their horrible movement mechanics. Every year more products pop up on the market about the new bulletproof way to knead out your sticky bits.

There is a whole industry now focused in on injury prevention, self care and myofascial release, but still no one is understanding and preaching the ultimate key to an effective and long-lasting mobility routine that results in improved performance and reduced injury.

The key, of course, is your breath–your life source that feeds you with oxygen, fills you up with space, and keeps you calm in the storm.

Story Time!

Mobility|Gains actually started as a result of complaints the owner at Brick CrossFit (JP) had received after I started incorporating breath work and “Movement-with-Breath” sequences as warm ups while teaching CrossFit. While some people really dug the change, some members were really uncomfortable with being forced to be alone with their breath for 2-3 minutes and find a way to sync their breath to their functional and explosive movements.

The complaints flooded in…

“I’m sorry did I step into a yoga studio or a CrossFit box today?!”

“I’m going for a run…I’ll be back after this whole “meditation” stuff is over.”

And my personal favorite:

“Emylee, now I know you went to Bali recently and love that whole ‘Namaste, shove incense up your asshole stuff’ but CrossFit classes aren’t the time or place for that.”

Clearly they didn’t get it.

So after some convincing, JP let me have a time and place to gauge interest and see if Mobility|Gains satisfied a demand for members at the gym.

I am proud to say that over 30 people showed up to the very first Mobility Gains class (then called CrossFlow) And from that moment on, a mobility monster was born.

Ever since, I have been trying to create a safe space to get connected and explore the inner functionality of your mind, body and spirit, and show you that if you can cultivate power over over breath, it bleeds into every facet of your life–from performance to relaxation.

So just in case anyone has any qualms about “wasting” 5 minutes doing what I now call “Respiratory Muscle Strengthening” (because strength appeals more to athletes than mindful meditation) here are the top 9 reasons a daily breath routine will improve athletic performance and make you a happier person.

…as if keeping you alive and oxygenated wasn’t enough. 😉

1. Last longer with Less Effort

You never think about breath until you’re neck deep in a workout huffing and puffing, wondering why can’t catch your breath to save your life. In terms of exercise, it’s no surprise that the body demands an increase in oxygen as well as breathing ventilation. This requires our respiratory muscles and intercostals surrounding the lungs to contract forcefully and rapidly as intensity increases. A stronger diaphragm and intercostals mean you can slow your breathing rate down whilst getting more oxygen to your muscles. Improve stamina and strength of your respiratory system, and breathing becomes more efficient, requiring less energy—which leaves more energy for you to put into the task at hand. This is a classic example of why it’s always better to work smarter instead of harder.

2. Ditch the Stitch

Cramping in the body is a sudden, involuntary contraction of one or more of your muscles that generally results from muscle fatigue and lack of oxygen to fill up the tissues. Breathing slower increases oxygen saturation in cells, fills up space against constricted muscles, and eases the stitch away.

3. Stand Taller and Lift Heavier

My personal favorite reason to cultivate a deeper breath is that the deeper you breathe, the taller you get. In general, the rib cage should expand in a 3D pattern–top to bottom, back to fro nt, and to the sides. When you breathe, your ribs should expand, creating more mobility and space through the rigid thoracic region of the spine and thereby lengthening it.

In addition, your breathing muscles are an integral part of the core stabilizing and postural control systems. This means when anticipating a load or an impact, it’s best to take a deep breath and then brace the core. Not only will this make us more difficult to knock over, it will also help protect the spine.

4. Relax, Damnit. You’ll recover faster.

Breathing deeply is the fastest way to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, aka the relaxation response, which makes you feel relaxed and jumpstarts your bodies natural ability to recover, restore and replenish.

Stress is at the core of most diseases and really attacks the body’s ability to function and recover. When we breathe shallowly, the body does not receive as much oxygen as it needs and it makes our muscles constrict. You can literally feel this when you are stressed–we wear the weight of our world on our shoulders, in our jaws, and through our hips. The sympathetic nervous system is triggered when we feel stress or anxiety and sends out spikes of cortisol and adrenaline. It is the parasympathetic nervous system which counteracts this. Breath is the gateway for these two systems to communicate.

You can learn to turn the switch on and off with little transition time and use your breathing practice to get back into the gym quicker after a killer workout that straight up shocks the central nervous system!

5. Panting Isn’t Sexy…Nor is it Intimidating.

Nothing is more of a mind fuck than your opponents staring you down with a cool and calm energy while you are hunched over panting like a dehydrated dog.

Panting = Weak

Belly Breathing = Strong

Inside you could be dying, but if you have the secret weapon that keeps you cool, calm, and collected, you will scare your competition and crush the game.

6. Don’t Pass Out

In class, I see people holding their breath. A lot. I always say, How you do one thing is how you do everything, and if you hold your breath in uncomfortable situations, you probably do it instinctively during exercise. Holding your breath increases pressure inside the chest (which is good for stability when explosively executing a lift), but holding it too long can impede the return of blood to the heart and raise blood pressure, causing you to feel light-headed and wobbly.

7. Sharpen Your Focus

Instead of letting yourself be distracted by the clock, the competition, or the myriad of thoughts that flood our monkey minds, when you focus on the simplicity of the inhale and exhale, you begin to clear out distraction and become narrowly focused. When you have total control and connection with your body through your breath, that’s when the task at hand becomes easy and clear, and your ability to adapt to a changing environment is vastly improved.

“Being in a relaxed state is important to achieving optimal performance in any endeavor, not just sports,” says Karlene Sugarman, M.A., author of Winning the Mental Way. “It’s a vital stepping stone to peak performance whether you’re working out, giving a presentation or dealing with your children. The individual that is mentally and physically relaxed and has ‘quiet intensity’ is the one that is going to come out on top.”

8. Breathing is the Simplest Form of Detoxification

Your body is designed to release 70% of its toxins through breathing. Oxygen travels through your bloodstream by attaching to your red blood cells and enriching your body to metabolise nutrients and vitamins. This strengthens your immune system and lessens your recovery time. Carbon dioxide is a natural toxic waste that comes from the body’s metabolic processes and it needs to be expelled from the body regularly and consistently. However, when our lungs are compromised by shallow breathing, the other detoxification systems in the body take over and have to work harder to expel this waste. Why make the body work harder than it already has to?

9. Massage your Organs and Tighten your Tummy

Yep, that’s right. I am arguing that the better you breathe, the thinner you’ll be.

The more oxygen you take in, the more fuel your digestive system has to function properly. Also, extra oxygen in the body will help to burn up excess fat more efficiently. When we are stressed (and most of us live day to day in a fairly stressed state) your body tends to burn glycogen instead of fat. Deep breathing triggers the relaxation response which encourages the body to burn fat instead. When you inhale, your diaphragm descends and your abdomen will expand. This action massages vital organs and improves circulation in them. As you deepen your exhale, you strengthen and tone the intercostals and deep abdominal muscles.

So there you have it. 9 reasons to incorporate more breath-strengthening work into your life! So where should you start? Click here to get the Mobility|Gains Beginners Guide To Breathing, a quick + easy way to strengthen your breathing engine.

Click here for more info:

—
Emylee Rose Covell
Health Coach XFlow Fitness
530-383-3178

There’s another Presidential debate tonight. More politicians or wannabe politicians talking about all the things they’ll give us—with others’ money of course. In celebration of this event, (not that it’s worth celebrating due to fact there is only one pro-liberty candidate in the running) I decided to post my top ten books about Liberty. I hope you enjoy and take the time to read some of them.

1. Our Enemy, The State by Albert Jay Nock. This quick read spells out very clearly why the state is a problem for those seeking a free society. Nock also heavily influenced Rothbard and other heavyweight Libertarians.
2. The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo. This work blew my mind and changed my perception of “America’s Best President.” Much of where we stand as a country now, in terms of excessive federal power, stem from Lincoln and his ideas about what government should be. Oh yeah, he was a racist and had no regard for the Constitution. I wasn’t taught that in school.
3. Theodore and Woodrow by Andrew Napolitano. A complete dissection of the roots of progressivism and how evil and authoritarian the followers of this brand of politics were. Forces the reader to rethink what he learned in school about certain Presidents.
4. Socialism/Human Action (Tie) by Ludvig von Mises. Mises is considered a heavyweight in Austrian free market Economics and classic liberalism. Though these two books are difficult to read, the wealth of knowledge given to us by this master is worth the time put in.
5. Man, Economy and State by Murray Rothbard. A disciple of Mises, Rothbard gives epic analyses of how the free market works, what motivates mankind and how government interferes with it. Easier to read than Mises.
6. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Rand and her writings have possibly turned more people to the concepts of self-ownership and entrepreneurship than anyone else. Although she herself was not a Libertarian, and possibly even spearheaded a cult movement, her writings should not be ignored.
7. The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli. This book is the antithesis to Liberty. It promulgates the notion of the “noble lie”. It spells out how to be a dictator. So why read it? Because all modern political parties embrace Machiavellian thought about the populace. It’s vital to understand how the opposition thinks.
8. Liberty Defined by Ron Paul. Paul takes on important issues and offers a libertarian response to subjects like immigration, gun control, war, privacy. Absolutely changed my viewpoint regarding politics.
9. The Law by Frederich Bastiat. This quick read was recommended by Ron Paul for a book all people should read. What is law? It is force. Nothing more, nothing less.
10. For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard. This book is a manifesto for the Libertarian movement. It defines clearly what the state is, and why a libertarian should work to limit or abolish it. Truly groundbreaking work.

Happy Reading!

(Disclaimer: I am going to be very blunt in this article. The aim is not to offend, but rather to get us thinking about uncomfortable topics. I have a degenerative disease, and battle chronic pain. I have had bouts of depression after the onset of my disease. I write from my own experience and from the experiences of hundreds of others whom I’m had the privilege of training.)

“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.” — Jim Rohn

What is pain exactly? Depending on who you ask, the answer varies greatly. For some, pain is merely its technical definition, a feeling of distress or disturbance caused by the nervous system. Usually pain indicates an injury or inflammation. For others, pain is much more. It is a familiar foe–something they know intimately and live with daily. Some have such intense emotional pain that it manifests itself into intense physical pain. For many, this pain is too much to bear and they choose to end it all. Whatever your relationship is with pain, everyone experiences it to a certain degree. It’s inevitable.

In fact, both pain and pleasure determine what we do in life. All of us, as humans, try to move toward what we believe is pleasure, and move away from pain. This trait is inherent in all of us, so it’s a wonder why nearly everyone experiences pain on a regular basis. I believe the reason for this is due to the fact that humans tend to confuse short-term pain with long-term pleasure and short-term pleasure with long-term pain. Some see exercise as pain rather than long-term pleasure. Some see cigarettes as pleasure rather than long-term pain. People use depression as short-term pleasure to either gain attention or avoid going through the discipline of gratitude, rather than living in a great state–something that requires the pain of discipline. Make no mistake, you can only be depressed if you are only focused on yourself. If you are grateful for others and take an active interest in them, depression is not possible. (Stated differently, depression only serves the person who is depressed. It doesn’t serve anyone else.  Gratitude, on the other hand, serves others as well as the person expressing gratitude.)

So where does this leave us? We confuse pleasure with pain, we live in shitty emotional states and we constantly have pain. Terrible! What do we do about it? We cannot fully escape pain, but there are two antidotes to immense pain, both physical and emotional. The first goes back to our Jim Rohn quote about discipline. Discipline is a pain that must be endured so that we can avoid immense long-term pain. The disciplines of health, physical activity, smiling or expressing gratitude on a daily basis are all necessary to keep away the immense pain of obesity, immobility, and depression. Small disciplines, practiced daily, will result in success.

The other antidote to immense pain is conscious living. Living with intent and being conscious of yourself, your thoughts, and others will stave off the immense pain of depression and fear. This requires that you must decide everyday to live in a great state, regardless of your external circumstances. You may be thinking, “But Sean, you don’t know what type of pain I’ve been through. You don’t live where I live. You don’t make what I do. You don’t have my negative relatives…” C’mon. We’ve all experienced massive pain in our lives both physically and emotionally. The only difference between people who move forward and those who don’t is where they decide to live. Those who carry on make the conscious decision to live in a different emotional space than those who carry pain with them. Whatever has happened in your life, it’s your choice how you let that shape your emotional and physical state. Decide today to live in gratitude and not fear. Strength and not timidity. Energy and not depression.

We cannot escape pain, for there will always be at least the pain of discipline. But that pain is much less than the massive pain of living a lifetime of regret. Decide to live an incredible life regardless of what is happening to you. And remember, it’s not what happens to us, but rather what we do about it, that makes all the difference in our world.

 

The most difficult thing in regards to promoting liberty is telling people that they are going to receive less services. No senior citizen wants to roll back our socialized healthcare or take a cut in social security. These programs are of course funded by tax payers, many of which do not receive any benefits from the programs they are funding. Of course, America cannot fund all of its social welfare programs, so it takes on more debt and expands the money supply so it can pay the debtors with devalued money. See, the average person will not and cannot understand the preceding statements. Nor will they understand that every government program, funded through inflation or taxation is an assault on the liberty of the people.

I like to remind people that government is only a monopoly of force. Even Barack Obama has acknowledged this to be true. Perhaps Friederic Bastiat said it best, “Government is force. Nothing more, nothing less.” I like that quote because it is of course true and it’s blunt enough to remind people that government is not a messiah. It does not exist for any reason other than to organize and legitimize the use of force. Is force necessary and do we need governments? I believe contract enforcement is a useful function of government. Also legitimate government force to protect life and private property rights is necessary. But the leviathans that exist today in the form of nation states and empires is absurd. Why? The larger the government grows, the less freedom exists for the people.

We need to, as a people disregard the Hobbesian theory that man must surrender himself to a central authority in order to have peace. Such a notion is so patently ridiculous, it’s akin to saying “the more free someone is, the more violent they will become.” If this were true, there would be no violence in prisons or gulags. There would certainly never be any government coupes or revolutions because people have subjugated themselves to the government- there must exist a state of peace. I would posit the opposite is true. A free society is a more peaceful society because it has less government force. Stated differently, people become more violent the less liberty they have.

Governments do not exist to take care of people. They exist to provide force against one party or another. They are aggressive by their very nature. They look to expand themselves. And whomever controls the forces of government rarely decide to lessen it’s power or influence. Thus, every time you hear someone propose a new government program, increase taxation, or say “there should be a law for that”, run away. Run and hide because they are after your wallet.
Before you email me with rants that I don’t care about people, or I want the elderly to eat dog food, let me assure you that I do care a great people and the elderly should not eat dog food. Even dogs shouldn’t eat dog food. It’s loaded with cancer causing ingredients.

So how do we take care of people currently on government programs? The harsh truth is that many of these people can and must begin to take care of themselves. It’s no secret that many of the people on disability are not truly disabled. Many of the people on food stamps are not starving. Many of the people given student funding for college could actually afford to pay it themselves if tuition was not inflated through government involvement in the first place. The same goes for medicine and health care. The presence of the government in these industries has made sure that people will be forever dependent on assistance programs because of regulations laid down by the government itself. The answers are clearly spelled out for anyone who has the guts to implement them.

Now, we are down to the truly needy and disabled. How do we take care of them. Let me state clearly that if you are in need and I can help you, I owe it to you as a human to help you where I can so long as it doesn’t harm me or my family. That’s called charity or contribution and it’s a basic human need to give beyond ourselves. However, I have no right to go and take from someone else so that I can give to you. That’s called theft. But when the government does the very same thing, it’s called taxation and it is somehow patriotic to have your finances be drained by the state. There are many programs, privately funded for those truly in need. Good people give whenever they can. I would argue they would give more if they were not taxed so heavily. Instead, people assume the government will take care of those in need. So people who could and would give under freer conditions do not because the State has said it will fill the role.

What about social security? A total scam. An absolute Ponzi scheme where new taxpayers are funding those who are no longer the system. From day 1, social security has never been paid out to the recipients solely from funds (they involuntarily) contributed. Retirement is the individual’s responsibility, not government’s. But try telling that to someone who receives the program money.

Which brings us back to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to persuade the nearly 50% of the American people they need less government. Indeed, nations around the globe have done a marvelous job distracting people from the truth of what government actually is, by paying them money or subsidizing their living. But there is no free lunch. Everything must be paid for either through taxation (force) or through inflating the money supply. Who pays? We do. The businessmen and women. The employees. The home owners. In fact, everything government does is done by taking money from one group of people and giving it to another. But don’t call it theft. You’re a bad person if you do that. Call it assistance, or EBT or whatever other name it has been given. But the truth remains.

Got Pain? F%ck it!

By Sean Covell

Pain is a part of life. There’s no way to get around that. As the over-used saying goes, “it is what it is.” So what do we do? How do we cope? I think after 16 years of daily, consistent, unrelenting pain, I’ve found the answer. The key is to focus on the pain. Where in your body does it hurt? Why does it hurt? Breathe in and out deeply for 10 full breaths. Hold the last breath in and while exhaling, say out load, “fuck it.” I refer to this as the Fuck It Theory of Pain, which will be abbreviated to the FIT theory.

The FIT theory is based on the premise that you will always have some sort of pain in your life. If one part is healed, another will be injured. If you’re kicking ass and taking names, eventually you’ll fall and hurt yourself. That’s not a bad thing. Pain lets us know that we are alive. Besides, what would pleasure be without pain? We think as humans that pain is part of what drives us. We seek to avoid pain and seek out as much as pleasure as possible through our lives. My theory? Fuck it. There will always be pain. You can try forever to avoid risk, avoid pain in life but you will not succeed. Instead, embrace the FIT theory of pain, breathe deep and say “fuck it. I’ve got pain, but not as much as many do and I’m going to move forward with this skin sack that I’ve been gifted as birth and make my life stand for something.” (IF THERE IS AN UNDERLYING CAUSE FOR YOUR PAIN, BY ALL MEANS FIX IT! If your arm hurts because you broke it skiing, don’t be an idiot. Go to the hospital and get it fixed. I’m not talking about that pain. I’m talking about the daily aches and problems in life.)

If you embrace the FIT of pain, you’ll notice after sometime that your mind will begin to ignore the pain. It will no longer stop you in your tracks. You will have conditioned your mind to accept the level of pain your are experiencing and raise your tolerance to it. Wim Hoff, the Dutchman who climbed Everest in shorts sat in icewater for over 80 minutes has shown us that we can adapt and increase tolerance to extreme temperatures. (For a great time, google Wim Hoff the Iceman or Youtube search him.) The same is true with pain tolerance. You can increase your tolerance to pain through your mind. But first, you have to be willing to say fuck it! Don’t run and hide from pain. Don’t overmedicate yourself. Don’t abuse drugs to mask it. Dig deep inside yourself and move forward. The FIT theory of pain will help you move past the pain and start to really live again. -Sean

How bad do you want to be free? Oh, you do want to be free! Congratulations, you’re the only one. Nobody else wants you to be free. Not your partner, not your parents, not your government. The world does not want you to be free. It wants control. People want control over others because it makes them feel comfortable. The actions of others become predictable.  Uncertainty goes hand in hand with liberty. Free choice is a scary proposition because people might make the wrong choice. So what should freedom -loving people do?

In a word, PUSH. You must push back against those who would rob you of your freedom. And you will find those people all around you. In fact, if you think about it, life is all about pushing towards a desire and the resistance that comes along with you reaching your desire. Push, push push. Push everyday and don’t stop because the satisfaction level you achieve in your life is the direct result of how free you become. Freedom offers choices. Slavery offers certainty.  Your choice. Keep pushing for freedom.

I would suggest liberty is out of fashion. Who fights for it? Few do. How many prominent leaders or politicians are touting self-reliance and privacy? Almost none. In fact, most of today’s so-called thought leaders and elected officials are preaching income equality and trying to ban cash instead of reducing taxation and promoting freedom to transact with anyone. The answer to the problem of a weak economy and income disparity is not more restrictions on individuals. The answer is not more social welfare programs. It’s not more stimulus or extending credit to the large banks via the Federal Reserve. The answer is more liberty.

There is an innate desire in humans to believe they are in control of their lives. Study after study shows that true happiness for a person comes when they believe they free to shape their own destiny. So this begs the question, why do we continue to elect people who expand government? All government is, after all, the opposite of liberty. It is the antithesis. So why does it grow if people want to be free? One word: fear. People are afraid of many things, but mostly they are fearful of each other. James Madison, architect of the Constitution, famously stated, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” True. Mankind is not angelic. Watch any news channel for five minutes and you’ll know this is true.

So, we decide to surrender our liberties to another entity for protection. We delegate our right to self-defense to a third party. We delegate charity to a third party. We allow a third party to rob us through taxation in the name of fairness. We allow banks and government to regulate how much legal tender we can have and deposit without being molested. We allow our privacy to become extinct through mass data collection by government agencies. Why? Because we have been groomed to be afraid: afraid of drug dealers. Afraid of terrorists. Afraid of wild gunmen. Afraid of the greedy rich.

I would argue that most of all we are afraid of the free market, of self-reliance. Providing value in the marketplace through voluntary transaction is a scary proposition. (It’s much easier to know that we have a net to catch us if we fall. A net to protect us from the bad guys.) But as that net grows, it blocks the rays of liberty that cause all living things to grow. I urge you to embrace the fear of self-determination. Self-reliance is a virtue, not a dirty thing. The next time your hear a politician talk about keeping you safe, eliminating cash because of “illegal” transactions, providing a safety net for the poor, free education for all, or the need for “NEW LAWS”… run away as fast as you can. Think scam artist. Their intentions may be pure, but the consequences will be diminished liberty. Diminished self-determination. Diminished happiness.

So if you are faced with the choice of comfort versus freedom…choose freedom every time. No one can make you safe or comfortable except you.

What if everyday you woke up with terrible pain? What if it took you a scolding hot shower just to get mobile? What would you do if you had to keep moving to keep the pain down? What if the drugs recommended by doctors would kill your gut and immune system? What if you are an athlete and could never let the pain show? What if you’re a parent? What if people depended on you being strong?

What would happen if people knew there was a chink in your armor? How would they see you? What would they say? Why do you need to be strong all the time? Why do you need to hide the pain? What if you knew that nothing lasted forever-including pain? How would you act? What would you do?  What if you knew that you are the cause of the pain? What would you eat? What would you do?

What if you needed pain in your life to make you grow? What if you are really a superhero? What if even Superman and Thor are not invincible? What if they felt pain just like you? What if you could ask them what to do? What would they say? What would you do differently? What would you do differently if you knew those whom depended on you could know what pain you were in? What if pain isn’t always physical? What if it’s part of the human experience? What if we need pain in our lives?

What if life was about the struggle with pain? What if it’s part of the game? How will you win?

-Sean