Brian Mackenzie, Human Performance Specialist

Brian Mackenzie (0:00)

Aerobic efficiency is actually the number one thing that we have for human performance.

Like, that is the indicator of how quickly you're gonna recover, how well you can tolerate stress, how well you're going to get back the next day. And when we see these things start to take shape, we start to learn how to play with them. And so, I can recover quicker through breathing. We've seen this time and time again. I can down-regulate myself with breathing. I can change my performance with breathing.

Michael Gervais (0:49)

Okay, welcome back or welcome to, if you're new to this podcast, the Finding Mastery podcast. And I'm Michael Gervais by Trade in Training. I'm a sport and performance psychologist, which means that I spent most of my life fortunate enough to stand on the shoulders of great researchers and great scientists on the science of how the best in the world work. And then been fortunate enough to create and explore the frontier with some of the best thinkers and doers in the world and create an understanding of how people become their very best. And that is part of this conversation, this podcast is to explore how those thinkers and doers work. Like, how do they organize their internal life and their external world to maximize their pursuit in life? And we also want to dig to understand the mental skills that they use to build and refine their craft.

I want to take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I want to pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just want to get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific.

So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training. Whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up once again. That's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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Okay, this week's conversation is with Brian Mackenzie and he's flat out an expert in the development and application of optimizing human health and performance. And he does it through breathing.

His work harnesses and integrates the respiratory system, movement, strength and endurance based training approaches to elicit positive results. And the stuff that he's designed has really been used to help both mental and physical performance with lots of different elite performers that he and I talked about. Olympians all the way through professional athletes, top executives, he's in the military frame as well.