Breathwork with XPT
I admire and follow many people on social media – always in search for an inspiration – and whenever I see some of them come to NY, I almost jump up to the sky at the prospect of seeing them live. I went to listen to Simon Sinek and Tim Ferriss in person. I recently missed Ryan Holiday (damn it!). I saw Laird Hamilton being interviewed after the premiere of his documentary film – and many more. And am planning to do more stuff like that, because the truth is that most of those events are… free. Yes, they are.
The same applied to the XPT class I went two weeks ago. XPT (Extreme Performance Training -xptlife.com; @xptlife – I highly recommend checking them out) was founded by Laird Hamilton (a surfer) and his wife Gabby Reece (former US National Team volleyball player) and it’s all about cutting-edge fitness focused on breathe, move and recover. They offered a free breathwork class in Manhattan led by one of their coaches (PJ Nestler @coachpjnestler) whom I’ve been following on social media for a year now (let me just say that I like him a lot…well, to be honest – I want to be his girlfriend…).
I signed up as soon as I saw the ad and took my friend Jamie with me. It was held in a great sport facility called Chelsea Piers (you can do almost all sports out there, including golf; it’s impressive) on a hot summer night with a great Hudson River view. The class was over an hour long, was only about breathing and was followed by a short lecture about the breathwork and mistakes we’re making – especially when we work out (yeah, we can’t even breathe the proper way). I learned that I should always breath through my nose, that breathing through my mouth is neither good nor healthy for me. After the class we felt amazing – like our lungs expanded and as if we got way more air into our bodies. I used the tips I learned the next day during my swimming and must say that it was the first time I didn’t feel this weird pressure in my head that I always feel after I leave the pool. I also felt that my lungs got much bigger. Breathing was so easy. And all I did was inhaling through the nose only (which was difficult at the beginning and I almost drowned). After 20 laps, when I finally got the gist of it and didn’t die, I felt like a completely new human being. Still, afterwards I asked coach PJ (on Instagram) about swimming and nose breathing and he said that swimming is mostly about mouth breathing (but he added that if that worked for me, I should do it). All I know is that swimming was never as easy for me as it is now, so I have to explore the topic.
Everyone thinks that they can experience great things only when they get rich. It’s not true. Great things are everywhere, on a daily basis, regardless of your bank account. And they’re usually free. Just look around. I bet you don’t have to be in NY to experience them.
