Mark Immelman, golf broadcaster, interviews Director of Golf Performance for Neuropeak Pro — Andy Matthews
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ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Andy Matthews is a former Professional Golfer and a winner on the Mackenzie (Canadian) Tour. He is now a Pilot, and the Director of Golf Performance for Neuropeak Pro and he joins us to talk about the importance of good breathing and its influence on overall health, well-being, stress reduction and golf performance.
Andy delves into Precision (Diaphragmatic) Breathing and how it can can help you (1) Relax, (2) Improve Muscle Function and prevent strain during exercise, (3) Increase Blood Oxygen levels, (4) Make it easier for your Body to Release Gas Waste from your Lungs, (5) Reduce Blood Pressure and (6) Lower Heart Rate. As part of the Precision Breathing discussion Andy also contrasts Nasal and Mouth Breathing and their commensurate effects on the Nervous System.
He also talks about how proper breathing can improve Heart Rate Variability (HRV) which is a function of a balanced Autonomic Nervous System. A higher HRV can lead to better Sleep, Enhanced Cognitive Performance, Increased Adaptability and Resiliency and a Better Stress Response.
All of these factors lead to better performance on and off the golf course and Andy talks about how Intentional Breathing can lead to an improved Physiological state and the ability to prepare for both powerful Drives and deft touch Greenside shots.
You have heard countless PGA TOUR professionals and coaches talk about breathing properly under pressure. Thanks to Andy Matthews, and the Neuropeak Pro NTel Belt, you can know how to do so, practice properly and chart your improvement.
***Take advantage of a special promo code to get a 1-Year Free Membership to the Neuropeak Training module with the purchase of the NTel Belt.
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ABOUT ON THE MARK: Mark’s knowledge, insight and experience have made him a sought-after mind on the PGA and European tours. Through his career, he has taught and/or consulted to various Major Champions, PGA Tour winners and global Tour professionals such as: Larry Mize, Loren Roberts, Louis Oosthuizen, Patton Kizzire, Trevor Immelman, Charl Schwartzel, Scott Brown, Andrew Georgiou and Rourke can der Spuy. His golf teaching experience and anecdotal storytelling broadcasting style makes him a popular host for golf outings.
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When I heard about Andrew Andy Matthews from Andrew rice who you originally spoke these coach Camp Andy I was like I’ve got to get this man on I have to introduce him to our Global audience so I’m thrilled to have you thank you for joining our podcast how are you I’m
Doing well Mark thank you I appreciate you having me well as I’d mentioned to before I hit record I’m into this sort of stuff I’m very holistic in in golf instruction and our podcast touches all Corners to help people to get better and and and when I read more I was like well
I’ve got to get the expert to talk about it so before we talk about breathing and HRV heart rate variability and stuff and and what you do I want to introduce you to our audience so tell us a bit about you please sure Mark so I’m the director of
Golf performance at neuropeak Pro um I played professionally for 10 years um after I finished my my Collegiate play at the University of Michigan and spent most of my time playing uh what’s now PGA tour Canada actually spent two years uh down on the sunshine tour in South
Africa kind of chased it chased it up here so I’ve been I’ve been in around the game for for a long time um had the opportunity to play at the highest level for for a while and saw some glimpses of greatness uh but have ultimately found
Myself here at at neurop Peak Pro um being able to help individuals learn how to breathe better so that they can perform Under Pressure you know it’s uncanny I I talked to all these great minds by way of this podcast and stuff and and all of us I I’ll throw myself in
There some we’ve all been in golf and there was a there was a catalyst moment there there was like a watershed where we went into an industry within our great game and and all of us get to look back now and go if only I’d known this when I was playing
Golf am I right have you had this moment too now that you’re doing what you’re doing yeah certainly and um I mean I was actually a client of neuropeak pro when I was playing full-time and so for me um that watershed moment was an introduction to neuropeak Pro um because
I was struggling taking what I would see in practice all the time into the golf course and I was frustrated my instructor was frustrated and um led to the introduction at neuropeak Pro where I started learning how to breathe better myself and you know as life would have
It um now have an opportunity to be on this side with the company helping some of the players I used to compete against um get a little bit better I know it sounds TR um but you know when you see speak of breathing and I showed my daughter yesterday afternoon
A clip from Novak jokovic how he talks about showing up in the big moments and he feels like when you get to that Elite level it’s just the ability to show up you know and not necessarily the talent and he spoke of the purpose-driven breathing and stuff and everyone listens
To it and goes oh okay I’ve heard this before blah blah blah Sports psychologists think positively stuff but I’ve contended that breathing is necessary for Life first thing we do as human beings we get a slap in the face and we take a breath and that’s that
Right yet we don’t really know how to do it properly isn’t it a fascinating concept to you given you given what you know now uh 100% And yeah like you said it’s something we do every minute of every day without really ever thinking about it um and until there’s an
Awareness moment where we start to see you know how the way that we are breathing on a day-to-day basis is perhaps getting in the way of us performing at our best you know it’s one of those things that we take with us everywhere we go and there’s an
Opportunity to learn how to do it better and I think it’s really fun when you know you start to get those glimpses we’ve all had them right where we’ve been doing whatever it is that we’re doing I mean whether it be on the golf course or not where you find that sweet
Spot you find the zone you find flow whatever you want to call it um and we kind of do just about anything to bottle it and from my experience playing and now my experience being on this side helping some of these top Elite athletes and Elite performers do it just seeing
That changing the way your breathe can make that big of a difference um not only is it motivating but like you said it’s pretty fascinating you know what’s cool too and I’ve been fortunate throughout my career and after I’ve worked with CBS for a while now you know
When I first began I was a a budding announcer and they hooked me up with a a vocal coach his name is Arthur Joseph and this man is like a he’s like a Doan in my world like a mentor and the first thing he got me on was just my stature and my
Breathing and I noticed for the folks watching on YouTube now I notice when folks are short of breath when they talk and I watch you you so disciplined in how you deliver what you want to say then you pause and I can see the breath taken quickly and then off you go again
I mean is this conscious or is this just some well I guess it’s a function of what you do too right it it is um I’m intentional about it um but it’s also something that that I’ve practiced and you know when I’m working with one of our athletes specifically a lot of our
Golfers you know I always say there’s three things you can’t do and breathe at the same time time you can’t eat you can’t drink and you can’t talk all right we we start to move into you know a situation that might make us a little
Nervous and you know what do we often do we start talking about it you know our mouth might be getting a little bit dry so we take a drink of water and we’re just kind of start perpetuating those feelings of stress just because we’re not getting not
Getting the breath that that we need and you know start that chain reaction through the nervous system and up through the brain that allows us to perform at our best it’s amazing to me how when you take a minute and I’m talking to myself now and you respect
Punctuation which is there to allow you to take a one to take a breath you know between sentences it feels so long and you feel like if you’re nervous you want to get it out of the way but yet it’s so crucial to performance at any level and
This is not not just golf this is just life in general right your comments on that yeah you’re you’re exact exactly right and you know it’s why we’ve been told thousands of times like hey Mark you’re a little stressed take a deep breath and so what do we see ourselves
Do or you if you’re watching the golf tournament on Sunday afternoon and you see someone take a breath you can visibly see it because you see this big high exaggerated breath and the problem with that is that’s you know you’re doing it wrong and we shouldn’t necessarily see
When somebody’s taking a deep breath and I would argue that you don’t need to take a deep breath you just need to breathe better overall so that you have an opportunity to manage your stress response to manage your nervous system so that you’re in control of the situation because you’re a little bit
More in control of yourself you’ve touched on it and you spoke about the the autonomic nervous system and stress and such apart from Staying Alive okay the advantages of proper breathing are list them for the folks please so you mentioned the autonomic nervous system and just to dip into the science for a
Second so that people have a an understanding it’s the part of our body that’s taking in cues for our environment and making adjustments to be able to have what the body necessarily thinks is the appropriate response to the actual situation that we’re in and when we start getting under stress we’ve
All felt those feels from the muscle tension the cold sweaty hands um certainly faster heart rate those butterflies in the stomach yeah of all of those automatic functions the only one that you can control by putting attention to it is your breathing you don’t tell your pores to
Open up and sweat when you walk outside on a hot day they’re just going to do it they’re reacting to the environment so when we start to look at the importance of breathing it’s important because it’s the one that can influence that stress response that nervous system in return and the analogy
That usually resonates really well with golfers is it works like a metronome we’ve all used a metronome to Pace our putting and the breathing works like a metronome to start to Pace um our nervous system through heart rate through heart rate variability and so if we’re in a spot where we’re breathing
Quickly kind of that rapid ticktock ticktock ticktock sends a signal to the nervous system that we need to be up for something yeah exactly and often that happens when there’s really nothing to be up for when we measure individuals breathing just without thinking about it they’re
Usually in the range of 15 to 18 breasts per minute and that’s two to three times faster than where the body starts to find that that balance and so when we start to slow it down and provide some guidance and some feedback on how to do that properly the more rhythmic tick
Tock Tick Tock sends an equally powerful signal back to the nervous system that even though everything around me is telling me hey I need to be up for this shot this shot feels more important than anyone I’ve hit today I can still be in a spot where I can relax settle in and
Perform that’s cool um I’m not sure if you were featured on it so if in it so if you were do forgive me but I read a fascinating book called Breath by James Nester in fact I finished it it took me two flights one to LA and back basically
On an announced trip and there were so many things that were spoken about in there and and one of them was breathing rates and how you spoke of how many breaths we take in a minute and then the calculations from experts like yourself they’re saying essentially a breath
Every 5 seconds and then when I then I thought about this and then I got a video of someone who was in the ICU and their breathing was basically being done by intubation and I was fascinated then at how much how long the breath in and
Out took but then I’m like golly this is how we’re supposed to be yet most of us are almost panting our ways through our way through life you’re right and you know part of the the reason that we breathe faster is because we’re using the wrong muscles to
Do it you know where we are right now we’re we’re keeping our core tight I’m trying to and it makes it really difficult for the belly for the diaphragm to kind of expand and so a proper breath if you’re watching someone do it when they inhale you should see
Their belly fill up a little bit like a balloon and that takes more time to get that air down lower into the bottom of your lungs into your belly so that it can expand than just breathing say from the chest up that’s why it doesn’t take a lot of
Time to take that proverbial deep breath we’ve all been told to take yeah and just raise your chest exactly yeah it doesn’t it doesn’t take much I love that and you know what I realized too right um back I shouldn’t date this because it’s a podcast but
When brassen went on bren’s trip to be brassen the Basher and it was still during Co and we were out there and so golf courses were empty and we had the call and and it was in Detroit and I’d watch him then big beefy brass and take these really almost
Animated breaths in and out and in and out you know to almost Jack himself up like a power weight lifter and I was like this is cool then I put on a heart rate monitor and I did the same thing and my heart rate shot up and it began
To occur to me that the breath out was almost equally as important if not more so to settle the system down I’d love your commentary there please yeah so it’s interesting you bring up Bryson um Bryson was one of our first clients um from the PJ tour to come to come work
With us at at neurop Peak Pro all right and you know you you take Bryson back to Bay Hill when he’s trying to hit it over the pond right and you’re seeing you’re seeing that animated breathing and he’s doing it purposefully to activate his nervous system maybe get a little bit
More cortisol or adrenaline in the system to perhaps find a few more miles an hour a club head speed so he can send it okay what I think is often overlooked with a situation like that is two things one he’s doing that under control because he knows that’s what he needs
For that current situation yeah and then two as soon as that balls down range he’s backing his nervous system back out using the breath and so you look at when Bryson was doing that you know Not only was he one of the longest players on tour but he was also one of
The best Putters on tour I think he was making somewhere of was like upwards of 90% of his putts inside 10 feet yeah so Mark and you see this when you’re when you’re on the golf course and you’re walking the fairways with these guys the physiological and the physical state
To be able to send at 340 in the air and make 90% of your putts inside 10 feet are on opposite ends so what are you doing to set yourself up best to be able to manage yourself between those two states and Bryson’s a perfect example of
Using is breathing to be able to manage that and there’s you know there’s more ERS than than you know on tour that are that are using breathing to be able to help manage themselves and becomes a little bit of a of a secret weapon that you’ve got in your back pocket well
That’s the thing I have a number of them on the show and you know professional they’ll give you some but they don’t share all of the tea and then I’m like well what advice would you give the listener the club golfer at home to make that nervy five-footer to win the
Match the first thing I hear from everyone is Will breathe then I can imagine the audience going okay and then they they still feel as nervous and as jacked up over the thing and they’re like oh whatever and they give up on this so I’m glad you’re bringing some clarity to the
Situation yeah it’s it’s become that that next thing you know if you’re if we’re talking about Elite golf tour level golf you know there’s an degree of separation that’s separating these players from a win versus a top 10 versus you know making cuts and keeping cards yeah and you know they all have
Access to the tour trucks and their equipment is dialed in they’re in the gym nutritionists you name it they’ve checked all the boxes and but so has everyone else so where can you find that little bit of of separation and from our standpoint I a
Lot of our clients will hear me say like what we don’t do at neuropeak Pro is Sport psychology okay essentially what we do is we help upgrade the hardware for that software to run up you can have the best routine the best process um but
If your body is not in a position to be able to run that it doesn’t matter how good that software is you’re just going to keep kind of banging your head up against the wall and we’ve all heard and we all know we need to get out of our
Own way we need to trust our swing have fun like we’ve you could list them out but how do you actually do that I know I need to but when the pressure’s on or I do have that five-footer to take a few dollars off my buddies in the Saturday
Game what are you doing to set yourself up to make that you know you have the skill you’ve seen it on the practice putting green but why does that one shot suddenly become that much more difficult to hit it’s crazy you know I’ve long maintained that the biggest wrecker of a
Golf swing or a putting stroke is tension and improper breathing is the Sure Fire way to tension and hence misfiring at the worst or the most inopportune times for your golf swing you know that that choking under pressure and that word choking is essentially you know not proper
Breathing right yes yeah it can be it can certainly be rooted back to breathing because when when you’re breathing faster and we’re sending that signal to the nervous system that we need to be up for something that’s activating our body’s fight or flight response like our natural ability to try
And survive so instead of our body getting into a spot where it can perform it’s just trying to get it over with and that’s why you see routine speed up people talk faster you know as they’re coming down the stretch or when they’ve just got that five-footer yeah because everything gets
Going gets going faster and they’ve lost awareness or don’t have the ability to be able to just to tap the brakes a little bit and bring the body back into a spot where it can access all of those skills that you’ve trained and you know
You’ve got them but you just have a hard time doing it when it matters I dare say correct me if I’m wrong but breathing is is Habitual and this is a personal anecdote here because I look back on all of my days competing and and everything I’ve always done I’ve
Always been sort of ramped up um and now Learning To Breathe appropriately it’s something that has got to be conscious with me I can’t because if I get back to my old ways it becomes short and shallow and and I’m all ramped up and
Then now I get to I hate the sound of it but I get to listen back to myself on TV and I’m like oh my gosh did I actually sound like that yes yeah and I think just like anything else we do you know breathing better is
A learned skill you know we we once knew how to do it if anybody has watched a baby breathe recently you see that that belly is the only thing that’s increasing and decreasing in size so fortunately for us we’ve all done it properly at one point in our lives but
We’ve unlearned how to do it just because of the stressors of everyday life that happen to to kind of build up so just like making a swing change or working on our putting stroke trying to groove a new movement pattern breathing can be approached the exact same way and
So when we start to have some feedback or some coaching to be able to show you what it looks like when you physically breathe this way and what happens to your nervous system or if we breathe this way what happens it creates an opportunity for us to start to learn how
To how to do it better to the point where we’re not out there on the golf course trying to win a breathing tournament we we want to breathe and practice it so it becomes a bit more unconscious so it’s happening naturally and but when we do have
Moments throughout a round of golf where we’re starting to get a little bit uncomfortable or that shot on the seventh T doesn’t quite fit our eye you know you have something in your back pocket that you can go to and help bring your body back into a more
Calm present State okay you’re going to show folks how they can train this stuff and and for golfers listening to this this is not just for golf people this is for life this is for wellbeing you know anyone with health issues and stuff too it’s the first place to be I mean I’m
Seeing more and more maybe it’s the algorithm that’s got me to say you know wellbeing get out and get Barefoot in the grass and get some sunshine on you and and breathe properly meditate I take ice baths which has taught me to breathe properly fast um I think I’ve still got some
Going to go but before we get to that I want you to talk about because you’ve spoken of the diaphragmatic breathing talk about nasal breathing versus mouth breathing too please Andy yeah so we get that question a lot Mark and the first thing I I always say
Is you know we want to get oxygen in right and you know Jame n James Nester talked a lot about it in his in his book um the benefits of nasal breathing over over mouth breathing but if you’ve got a cold or a deviated septum or what
Whatever it might be like we need to get the air in yeah but if we move to the other side of that the ideal is in through the nose and out through the nose Okay the next best is in through the nose and out through the mouth all
Right and the reason the reason for the nasal breathing one your nose filters air it helps slow things down so when we’re already breathing quickly using our two nostrils kind of helps naturally slow the inhale down it’s a lot easier to breathe quicker through your mouth yeah and again dipping into the science
A little bit there’s there’s nerve endings in our nasal cavity um you know you start to talk about the vagus nerve and vagal tone I’m not going to get too far down those weeds but when that nerve gets activated by breathing in and out of the nose it activates our body’s
Parasympathetic response which is the opposite of our fight ORF flight so not only are we able to to breathe um slower but we’re also supporting that nervous system by doing that so it’s a little bit of a of a double dip so that’s that’s the the ideal that I that
I like to see but rule number one is really the nasal breathing helps slow things down amazing I found again personal maybe I’m fishing for advice here before we get to the HRV when I breathe in through the nose out through the nose I’m unable to
Breathe out through my nose as much as what I can when I breathe out through my mouth less resistance okay interesting fascinating okay let’s get to the HRV because your belt uh the Intel Intel belt I hope pronounce that correctly um that measures HRV as well tell folks what
Heart rate variability is and why it’s important yeah so heart rate variability different from heart rate so when you grab the handles on a piece of cardio equipment or you look at your you know kind of standard heart rate monitor you just see like hey I’m at 70 beats per
Minute U what heart rate variability is it’s actually looking at the timing between each of those so even though we may see on that piece of cardio equipment we’re at 70 beats per minute that’s not happening at a consistent interv Atomic base exactly right exactly the heart rate variability is measuring
The variability in those in those Heartbeats And The Wider that spacing can be between heart rates gives your body gives your heart a more adaptability to different situations so when you look at that metronomic very tight consistent be that’s a heart that’s rigid so it doesn’t have the
Ability to flex up or Flex down to meet the demands of whatever that that environment is and so again different from heart rate the heart rate variability just gives us a little bit more insight into what the body’s stress response is and what I’ve seen is that people always
Associate and say a one: one ratio a high heart rate with high stress you can be a little bit more activated and have a higher heart rate but still kind of be in that um that sweet spot or near that sweet spot as measured through heart rate variability okay interesting so you
Know where you may have seen you know players like we we’ll run sprints and then go try and make their four-footer yeah you’re you’re out of breath your body’s been activated but it’s a different type of stress if you will than what you may see when you are standing over that
Four-footer and you haven’t run haven’t run sprints so when you look at what the Intel belt does from a heart rate variability perspective it helps correlate how your physical respiration patterns what your breathing actually is doing from an in inhale and exhale consistency and show you how that’s
Being um received by your body we can breathe in a way as we’ve talked about in a way that helps activate your nervous system which we typically do every day when we’re not thinking about it but then there’s that way to breathe that helps pull the body out of that
Stressful fight ORF flight State into that that calmer more focused one and the Intel belt gives you that real time feedback to be able to see hey am I breathing in a way that’s supporting my body best for the actual situation that I’m in ah this sounds like the perfect
Segue to you getting the screen and showing off the graph there um folks what Andy is going to do now is he’s going to grab the screen um if you’re listening on audio we’ll try and describe or just go to YouTube and check it out and this is a graphic here um
That’s basically feedback from the Intel built that’s the letter n t t l belt and um it’s basically looks almost like a hard rate beat going up and down but this is breathing right Andy so so describe what yeah this is this is breathing so for those who have um the
Visual in front of them the green line with the circle at the end that’s moving up and down that’s a breathing Pacer we’ve all seen breathing Pacers there’s thousands of them out there that that you can use this one happens to be set at six breasts per minute so a 4 second
Inhale a 1 second hold or transition over the top and a 4 second exhale with a one second transition into the next breath and this iside this is how we can train proper breathing when we do this right exactly it’s you know it’s just like using video or your launch monitor
You’re kind of you kind of know the parameters that you’re that you’re looking for and what’s guiding you towards them and so this is completely customized iable if you want to use a different respiration rate if we want to use a box breathing or a 2X breath we
Spend a lot of time with this symmetrical breath that you’re seeing on the screen right now because it moves the body into that more balanced State um quickest okay when you say balance that’s like stress reducer just get you to your neutral kind of thing yes so
That that balance state is actually um our our term for using one of the the known heart rate variability metrics it’s the low frequency HRV that in real time when you’re breathing more consistently more rhythmically starts to increase in percentage so practicing like this because I wear a a
Whoop for them and and of late I’ve been a little ill so my HRV has been down but if I put on this Intel belt and started practicing my breathing I should see my heart rate variability number begin to improve even though I’m a little ill correct yes yeah absolutely and I think
You know that’s one of the things where the Intel belt designed to be a trainer and not a Tracker like whoop or aura or Fitbit or Garmin name your name your Fitness wearable um the Intel belt helps you kind of close that Gap where you said you’re a little bit ill you know
HRV is down or you’re in that spot where you did everything that you knew you should do yesterday and you woke up today and your your recovery score was 71% but you need might have been 100% of yourself today might have been because I had a couple red wines last night
Too as I look at it moving back and forth I’m wondering is this you right now is it reading or is this just a graphic you had built so this is a screen recording of me breathing they are they are other lines there too you you had the green one
Where you’re supposed to then there’s a blue line that’s moving and a red line as well describe what those are please yes so the blue line is your actual physical respiration so every time you inhale that blue line and that dot goes up and as you exhale that dot comes down
And so you’re goal when learning how to breathe better with the Intel vve is to chase your breathing chase that guy chase that Pacer with your breathing that’s the that’s the one thing that you can control and what happens Mark when we start to look at heart rate and heart rate
Variability our heart which is the red line starts to entrain itself to our breath and so when you start to see those three lines L up we know the body’s moving into that more balanced State cardiovascular makes so much sense now cardio breathing vascular ve yeah
Crazy you know as it was moving up and down for a while while you were describing perhaps me I was listening sort of but I was trying to breathe with that Green Dot moving up and down and whenever I’ve done the de-stressing exercises with Andrew huberman on my whoop app
My stress level goes up and then it says at the end perhaps you were breathing too fast and it’s it’s amazing how I’m looking at this going I have to get one of these things because it’s uncanny how quickly you can learn appropriate habits and to me folks this is more this is
More important than fixing your golf swing because this is who you are as is who you are yeah and and that’s that’s the whole whole premise of why we develop the Intel belt is we know breathing it’s been around for thousands of years in terms of how people have implemented
Into their lives to help manage stress find calm like you you name it but nobody really knew how to do it properly yeah and to be able to provide that real time feedback that says hey when I breed this way I can elicit this response out of my out of my body
Becomes really really really powerful and like we were saying it’s a it’s a learn skill it can become a habit it can be something that you do without ever having to to think about it but now you know you know that you’re physically breathing well and if you were thinking
That you were following that breathing Pacer on Pace and it said perhaps you were going too fast well with the Intel belt you can actually see are you going too fast or are you right where that that Pacer wants you to be and we can measure that those that
Are seeing the screen you see in the lower leftand corner that consistency score it’s pinned at 100 I said I’ve spent more time breathing and breathing with the Intel belt than arguably anyone right so I have the ability to control my breathing very well 100 is a good
Score it’s a zero to 100 scale and so it’s this platform is recognizing that my respiration rate is staying the same and I’m hitting the same tops and bottoms of each breath that consistency is there because our heart thrives on that consistency okay and then that number on the right side that balance
That’s measuring um how balanced our Nervous System is using that low frequency HRV metric also a score out of 100 if you’re above 80 you know you’re you’re pretty much out of that fight ORF flight state if you’re 60 to 70 it’ll turn yellow and you know you’ve got a
Little bit of room to improve or if it’s red and you’re below 60 you know you’re you know you’re pretty stressed and to make it a little bit more interactive we know some people have had a hard time just sitting still and making time for themselves or or
Perhaps have tried meditation it’s like I can’t calm my brain down yeah um we’ve gamified breathing a little bit and so the higher that consistency score is and the higher that balance score is the higher those points that you’re seeing in the middle accumulate you can see now it’s at 90 929
9300 the goal on a daily basis is to start to work up to about 10,000 Intel points per day takes roughly about 10 minutes to do it and what we did is we leaned into that understanding that knowledge that 10,000 steps a day helps lead to Better Health okay our experts
And the way that we designed the algorithm was 10,000 Intel points helps lead to that better autonomic nervous system balance and when we hit 10,000 points you get a nice got it you just got it feedack and there and there you go and like cool I checked I checked the
Box um for the day and like you said Mark like we can talk about this in the context of golf and how some of the best players in the world are are using this but the positive spillover effects into just your everyday life at home or at
Work or with your with your family like are are just as are just as powerful yeah think of the medical benefits and everything and you you made a point earlier I just want to camp on this you can close the screen if you want um the
You you said to the effect you know I can’t calm my mind down my mind is loud you there there’s a lot going on and then you’re right the sport psychologists will talk about you know visualization and stuff but if your systems all jacked up it’s not happening
Because you say the hardware is not working and so the software is is going to be all Haywire as well and that’s where this is fascinating and it almost makes me think why aren’t why isn’t everybody using this it just it makes so much sense to me
Yeah like I was saying there’s there’s more players across sport um and in SE Suites and stay-at-home parents and students that are starting to use breathing to help um just manage themselves better in whatever it is that they’re doing um you know there’s more than 60 players on on tours around the
World that are that are using the Intel belt to practice their breathing we’re in 18 or 19 NHL locker rooms um Kurt Cousins Minnesota Vikings he was in the Netflix series quarterback episode four you he his work with us is is highlighted so this is something that people are are
Integrating and usually it was their sport or their day job that led them to us or this type of training but they all quickly realize that you know this has this has more life benefits than it necessarily does even even Prof professional benefits if you will it’s
Going to lower my blood pressure hey um quick question you wear the belts as simple as wearing a heart rate monitor around your thorax or is is that out worn yeah that that’s exactly it um it’s worn just like you would a standard heart rate monitor the chest strap has
The heart rate pads on the back the difference being that the sensor of the Intel belt is able to pick up the movement and speed of of your of your belly as as you’re breathing and it will will show you if you’re breathing well or if you’re still getting a little bit
High in in chest it’ll also it’ll also show you that so it’s really it’s non um it’s pretty non-intrusive you know you throw it on for for 10 minutes a day and and just carve out that time to breathe and um it’s really you know it’s exciting to see how that the cumulative
Benefits start to start to stack up and it’s not just you know in the moment I’m stressed I’m going to breathe better but it’s something that you practice and you build up over time so one you add in a little bit more adaptability and resiliency if you will to those
Inevitable stressors that we know we’re going to encounter but we’re never going to train the nervousness or all of the stress out of you there’s still going to be things that get you excited or you know kind of get all those feels going but then you know you’ve got a tool in
Your back pocket that you can pull out and do it at a moment’s notice pretty much wherever you are sounds to me like I’m going to get one of these things and wear it around myself when I’m on the air for CBS three hours every week every Saturday Sunday
Okay well that begs the question for folks that have now seen this going yeah sign me up how do they do that please where do they go yeah had to neuropeak pro.com it’s NE o p e a k pr.com and you’ll see in the upper right hand
Corner there’s a buy now button um the Intel Bell that retails for $199 so it’s not a it’s not a massive lift for what we think is the benefits that that it can bring and the app set up in a way to to walk you through the learning process
The same way that I’ve sat down across the table from you know Jordan Speed Zach Johnson mateline sagstrom some of the best players in the world to be able to do that and so we set up the learning to go through those same key fundamentals posture muscle control the
Respiration rate and then ultimately for our golfers there’s a coaching coaching pack in there like how do I take this to the golf course how do I start to implement it into my game and um I think the the listeners will will find that even just carving out a few minutes a
Day for yourself taking a deep breath or a few of them but doing it the right way you’re going to feel something that you may have thought you were never going to be able to find again because I think we’re all really good at being stressed
We’re all really good at going fast and um having a tangible way to learn and be able to influence your nervous system away that you can perform the way that you know and you want to becomes really fun I couldn’t think of a better way to
Start the day and end the day uh just just to spend 10 minutes just working on this you’re you’re right and I’ll I’ll honestly say one of the first things that we hear back from from those who start training with the Intel belt is they notice a change in their sleep um
Especially those who who add that session in kind of nearer their bed time because you know we’ve all had those nights and sometimes they happen more often than what we we ever want them to where we’re replaying the events of the day um anticipating the events of
Tomorrow the would a couldas and and that’s not the spot where we want our body to be in that’s not the optimal state to be in to help get a good night’s sleep and so just leaning back into what we talked about of slowing the breath down letting
That be a cue to help slow the whole body down you know we want the body to be slow so that we can get a good night sleep and so sleep is one of the the big things starting the day like you said is awesome you know just kind of sets the
Tone but like here we are you and I have been talking for for 45 minutes um you know there’s nothing better to do slow down than slow down Andy this has been f fantastic perks go get yourself when it’ll be well with you well your golf game and your overall well-being can
Folks follow you are you interested in that sort of stuff if are you on social media and they like yeah I would direct them to the the neurop peak Pro uh socials um on Instagram on Facebook it’s just neuropeak Pro um a lot of the content you’ll actually be able to see
Some of the some of the other athletes and that we work with and how they’re starting to to implement it into their games as well appreciate your time um this is great and I’m so glad we got you on it’s been awesome thank you very much thanks Mark
