Breathe through your nose

In most cases this can be the easiest hack to improve your health and performance.  Nasal breathing is the most effective way to breathe and has numerous health benefits.  For performance nasal breathing helps with diaphragm function.  The diaphragm is the mystery muscle that can be trained and helps with vital functions.  The diaphragm helps to expand the lungs and can help the heart pump at the same time.

The simplest way to train the diaphragm is through a nasal belly breath.  Simply lay on the floor or sit with an upright spine.  Put your hand on your belly button or your chest.  Take deep inhale and visualize filling the "balloon" below your belly button.  Try to exhale for the same amount or longer than your inhale.  Try this for 5-10 min everyday.  

This is so simple yet very challenging.  You will note that your posture will dictate how much air you can get down there.  If you can't sit tall on the floor sit on a pillow or chair. Try sitting as tall as you can without flaring your ribs too much.

I will be hosting a Performance Lab ZOOM class to explore parts of you breathing system, how to feel them and create breathing practice.

---

Performance Lab ZOOM class - Thur July 23 @ 6 pm

---

Check out the great resource I have been diving into to get a better understanding of art and science of breathing.

My Passion... Movement, Strength & Teaching

"My life's work is to understand, apply and teach."

My life's work is to understand, apply and teach.  I endeavour to devour knowledge and put it into context.  There is so much information out there and I try to distill it to what is applicable for my population (Strength, Fitness and Crossfit).  First I have to understand a concept or principle with my head.  Apply it by feeling it with my body.  Understand it more by teaching it to others.

My Movement Practice

"I feel therefore I understand"

To understand a concept I need to visualize it in my head but I don't know it until I feel it.  I try to implement these principles first in my own movement practice and then in my strength practice.  My movement practice is slow bodyweight or lightly loaded movements (i.e. Squat, hinge, lunge, press, pull, deadbug, birddog, bridges).  I do these exercises daily to understand what is going on with my body.  You can call it my strength Tai Chi.  

Focus on the nuances

"Learning the small to understand the large "

The nuances help me understand what are the key aspects of a movement.  I love to dive deep.  The details are where the magic happens.   Discovering the micro leads to the macro understanding (see "making smaller circles by Josh Waitzkin").  Josh eloquently describes this point that is foundational to my learning practice.  In my practice I pretend that I am looking through the lens of a camera.  I try to focus in on the small things and then pan out to understand how the small relates to large.  Discovery, feeling and connecting the dots are the keys to my movement practice.

My Strength Practice

"My strength practice is my weighted movement meditation"

Strength is how I express myself and understanding of movement.   I am fascinated by how a barbell or kettlebell effect my body.  When I get weight on my back or in my hands I try to feel it.  The way my muscles activate differently when I hold different positions is a fascinating experience.  During the Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) course I took, The founder Pavel Kolar said "Position governs activation".  This was a powerful statement that has been burned into my brain.  I try to find better positions to get automatic activation of the system to move weight or my body.

Pavel Kolar the Founder of DNS (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization)

"I want to create new standards for quality.  It's not just about getting the weight up"

In my movement and strength practice I'm always searching for better definitions of quality.  Movement and strength can be so ambiguous.  What is it?  A lot of times we define it by being able to get the weight up.  It should be about more.  What is the movement teaching me?  How does this build on something that I already I know?  These are some of the questions I ask my self to advance my training practice.  I take this principle from Tony Robbins who once said "the quality of life is based on the questions you ask".

How you organize your body while moving is key principle of quality.   My training has become a journey of understanding and feeling movement and strength.   My personal strength lab.   I am always trying to figure better positions under load so I can better convey a principle or position to help someone move without pain or perform better.

My teaching practice

"I teach to increase my understanding"

I challenge myself to be the best educator I can.  The way Tony Robbins views teaching as the ability to communicate and said... "you are only as smart as what the other person understands".  I have been to so many talks and interacted with people who spit out knowledge but can't simplify to the level of the person they are talking to.  I look up to someone like Pavel Tsatsouline (Founder of Strongfirst) who is all about simplicity.  He tries to distill knowledge to the simplest idea but he can dive deep into the science if needed.

"Creating context for the individual leads to understanding"

My teaching method is all about creating context.  In my practice with my patients I try to get to know a person so I can understand where they come from.   Here is another quote from my guy Tony Robbins "understanding is about linking knowledge".  If you understand where a person comes from you can frame any knowledge to their experience so they can understand.  If I have a Crossfitter I can explain a concept through a squat, snatch or muscle up.   To me knowledge is about seeing the connections between ideas.  Teaching is about revealing the links for others to see.

"With feeling comes understanding"

You can see a theme here.  I heard in a podcast that if you don't feel a movement you don't understand it.  This statement is crucial for me.  I work to create an environment to get people to feel and discover a principle of movement or strength.  After my student/patient/client understands how to feel the principle, I teach them how to put it into context.   I try to reveal how the principle is applied to their everyday movements and in their own strength practice.  This way the can learn to fish for themselves.  From there they can reinforce good movement patterns everyday.

"Principles govern my life and practice"

My practice is all about discovering principles.  In 7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey the message is to use principles to guide your life.  Through my 8 years education and 6 humble years in practice, I have learned so many principles about the science of movement and strength.  In the second half of my practice career I strive to develop the art of what I do.   I am on a journey to innovate and discover how we can advance the conversation about how we all experience movement and strength.  

"Change the world"

I hope that you can be on this journey with me to change the world of strength and training as we know it.  

by Dr. Paul Oh

Fountain of youth from Strength

35 years old, Father of 2 boys and Strong

I am 35 years old and feel great.  I am still achieving Personal Records (PRs) and most importantly I feel great about where I am with my body and what I can do with it.  I have not consistently been around or under 200 lbs in 13 years.  This year my box jump went up to 51”, Back squat 385 lbs, Deadlift 405 lbs and Turkish Get Up with the "Beast" (48 kg/106 lbs Kettlebell).  With strength I can do more.  Strength has helped me be a better father.  It is so much fun to play with my son and show him that daddy can climb trees, jump and play with him.  I don’t ever want to say I am getting too old for anything.

Strength is my obsession and passion

I truly believe strength has made me understand how the body works.  I have always been an inquisitive kid who liked solving problems.  My profession as a performance therapist is the perfect journey for my life.  I selfishly want to know how the body works so I can share the knowledge and insights with my community.  Every day is an opportunity for growth, understanding and helping my community.

Strength in Community

Like our mothers used to say "you are who you hang out with".  I have to be strong because there are so many strong people around me.  I’m inspired by all the members of my communities who train and work hard to get the most out of themselves.  I work in so many communities and it has been a pleasure to work with all of them (@Blast Athletic, @CF416, @Academy of lions, @Crossfit Metric, @Michelle Ramsey fitness, @Karen Ko Fitness, @Brash Fitness).  As a performance therapist I help the people resolve their injuries, teach them on how to prevent injury and perform better.

Strength is my teacher

A great man Wim Hof once said “the cold is my teacher”.   Strength is my teacher and I humbly teach the lessons I have learned to others.  I am constantly exploring strength in my training, practice and working with my patients.  To quote another great Dan Pfaff (World class Track and Field coach @ Altis) “You get faster not by horsepower but position, angles and timing (PAT)”.  I believe this is the key to how we use our body.  I am always searching within my own body for better PAT for strength.  With PAT in mind I am looking for ways to move easier, better and stronger.  Stay tuned for a future article about my journey with PAT.  As I learn more I am constantly thinking about simpler ways to teach these lessons and create context for my community.  Teaching is a skill that I am always trying to be better at.

I guess it's in my genes.  Growing up our family business was Tae Kwon Do schools and my dad was a great teacher who taught so many.  I feel proud that I can continue the Oh family tradition of passing on lessons of strength.  Rest in peace dad.