#395 Breathwork For Daily Practice with Josh Seiler

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, we’re diving into the power of breathwork for daily practice with breath expert and fitness professional Josh Seiler. After a long battle with a mysterious lung infection that left doctors stumped, Josh turned to breathwork and oxygen therapy—and fully healed. Now, he teaches others how to use the breath to regulate stress, improve focus, and support overall health.

In this episode, Josh shares simple, science-backed techniques to shift out of anxiety, increase mental clarity, and even enhance athletic performance. We also talk about how the way you breathe (nose vs. mouth, belly vs. chest) impacts your nervous system, immune function, and energy levels.

Special Offer: Josh offers a free 7-day trial to his online wellness community, where members can kickstart their journey with a 3-day sustainability challenge designed to spark real, lasting change: https://www.skool.com/breathemovebreathe-3218/about

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Why slower breathing = better nervous system regulation
• The “perfect breath” to reduce anxiety and increase oxygen absorption
• Techniques for ADHD, anxiety, and improved focus
• How breathwork boosts performance through CO₂ training
• Why diaphragmatic and nasal breathing matter
• Simple ways to start a daily breathwork habit

ABOUT GUEST:
Josh, a seasoned figure in fitness and wellness, embarked on his journey in 2009. Establishing a prominent Fitness Coaching company in Denver, CO, he encountered a serious lung infection in 2018 that stumped Western Medicine. Turning to breathwork and oxygen therapy, Josh miraculously healed himself and regained his health through focused breathing techniques. This experience propelled him to delve deeper into breathwork, leading to the establishment of a thriving global breathwork company. Now residing in the enchanting Black Hills of South Dakota, Josh continues to share his expertise through online content, teaching engagements, certifications and instructor trainings.

WHERE TO FIND:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshseilerofficial/
Breathe Move Breathe Wellness Collective: https://www.skool.com/breathemovebreathe-3218/about 

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife

SPONSOR:
Thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode! Struggling with dry, cracked hands? Try their Alaska Cod Liver Oil for omega-3s + vitamins A & D to support skin and immune health. Use code LESSSTRESSED10 at JigsawHealth.com for 10% off—unlimited use!

WORK WITH CHRISTA:
I've streamlined my proven method to help you get to the REAL root of eczema and food sensitivities—without the overwhelm. Join the program at christabiegler.com before doors close!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josh Seiler: the intention is huge. Am I using this technique to lower inflammation or am I using this technique to connect to my higher self and consciousness? And some of the techniques overlap in that way, but it's how you enter it that really defines the end result of what you're going for.

[00:00:16] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:46] One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:01:04]Christa Biegler, RD: Today on The Less Stressed Life, I have Josh Seiler. And Josh was a member of a prominent fitness company in Colorado encountered a serious lung infection in 2018 that stumped Western medicine. After turning to breathwork and oxygen therapy, Josh miraculously healed himself and regained his health through focused breathwork techniques.

[00:01:23] This experience propelled him to delve deeper into breathwork, leading to the establishment of a thriving global Now he resides in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he shares his expertise through online content, teaching engagement, certifications, and instructor trainings. Welcome to the show, Josh.

[00:01:39] Josh Seiler: Thank you so much, Miss Krista. 

[00:01:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, we were just chatting offline. People sometimes ask me, where do you find these people? And Josh says, quote unquote, in my backyard. It turns out we have some. Some common connections, but it was actually the magic of the internet rabbit hole that I think connected us in the very beginning because I spent some time where he lives.

[00:01:59] And so I think I caught that on an Instagram handle after attending a training with one of his colleagues and the rest is history. So here we are. Having a chat about a topic that people seem to care about because I've been asked many times. Can you do something? about Incorporating breath work or do some practices.

[00:02:19] Can you do some podcasts? I'm like making this more applicable and just last week I was asked by a couple of past people I went on retreat with and people who I were on a retreat of mine. Do you have any breath recordings? . And so people crave this, but the little catalyst in there was they had to have had an experience and encounter something where they were like, oh.

[00:02:41] I liked how that was. And there's always this thing that like ties us in, right? Because people always change from desperation and inspiration. And a lot of times we all have these desperate stories and yours is no different. So tell us about this crappy situation in 2018 when you had this health crisis with your lungs when you were doing fitness.

[00:03:00] What happened? 

[00:03:02] Josh Seiler: Yeah, thank you. I. We'd love to touch on everything you just said, but we'll come back to it. And so my story and finding breathwork, you mentioned off recording here that people want it to be sexy. And it's not, there's a lot of stuff out there right now to help try to make it look that way because that's what sells.

[00:03:24] But in reality, it's super simple and it should be. That's the way implementation and sustainability happens best. And so in 2018, I had no idea about it. That's not true. I had a sliver of knowledge about Wim Hof and he was breaking mainstream and certain records. And so I had heard whispers of his name I didn't.

[00:03:46] I didn't have any interest in breathwork yet until I was in desperation and I was at home sick. Like I had slowly felt my energy levels declining. My recovery during workouts was declining. I was running a fitness coaching company and I was all over Denver in multiple locations running our team. Plus my wife and I had just become new parents and it was just us three in that area.

[00:04:12] So we felt pretty isolated and it was just our little triad. And Both of us were pushing it as far as, she's full time mom and I'm full time running the company and we're pushing ourselves our nervous system. And so we're stressing ourselves out. She has her own story of what she went through, but for me, I developed a lung infection.

[00:04:35] And I started noticing those signs getting sicker. And then one day I was like, Hey, babe, something's wrong. I think I need to go to the hospital. And she laughed at me because she knows who I am and I don't do hospitals unless it's an emergency. And She goes, no, you're fine.

[00:04:50] And I was like, no, we need to go to the hospital. So we went to the hospital and sure enough, they did some blood work. My white blood cell count was through the roof and they did some chest x rays and they did more blood draws, more blood work. And weeks later of this whole process and two rounds of antibiotics chest x rays, cat scans, all the whole works.

[00:05:11] Nobody could figure out what was going on. The whispers of walking pneumonia were brought to my attention, but they're like, no, it's not walking pneumonia. And so one day after six months of being sick, Like I, it was scary because nobody knew what was going on. It was one of those moments where I am definitely sick.

[00:05:33] My white blood cell counts through the roof. They're looking for cancers and all kinds of stuff. We're crying in the car. Cause we don't have answers. I'm going to bed at night with. With a fever knowing that I'll wake up in a few hours with uncontrollable chills, but I had to get some rest and so six months of this went by 

[00:05:53] and 

[00:05:53] finally a doctor sat me down.

[00:05:55] And at this point I was gone, like I lost 15 pounds of muscle mass and I don't have a lot of body fat to lose. So I looked sick. He sat me down and he said, all right. We're diagnosing this as walking pneumonia for our records, but that's not what this is. I've seen walking pneumonia on people and this is something different.

[00:06:16] We can't help you anymore. And I was like, all right, so what do I do next? And they didn't have any answers for me. And they just let me walk out of there without ever following up with me. And so that put a fire under my ass to get it fixed because I quickly realized that it was on my shoulders to figure it out.

[00:06:40] And so being in the fitness industry, coaching holistically, I had access to a great natural path in Denver, one of the best in the area. And so I went to him. And found a functional medicine doctor also. And so the functional medicine doctor read the blood work. It was like, obviously it's bacterial. It's deep in your lungs.

[00:07:01] That's why the antibiotics aren't getting to it. And here's what I want you to do. So we came up between my naturopath and the functional medicine doctor. We came up with this simple protocol the functional medicine doctor told me, I want you to do oxygen therapy. I want you to find a hyperbaric chamber and sit in it.

[00:07:19] And for those who don't know what that is, it's a tube big enough to sit in where you're wearing the oxygen on your nose and it's pressurized so that oxygen saturation is higher as if you're at sea level or below it. And so I found one of those, took all that information to my naturopath. He gave me.

[00:07:39] One breath work technique and nebulizer with colloidal silver and between oxygen therapy in the hyperbaric chamber, the nebulizer and one breath work technique. I crushed it, whatever it was, killed it. And in two months, I had regained my health fully back all my weight, all my energy. And at that point, I was like, Holy crap.

[00:08:04] What is breathing properly and how else can I influence my biology and neurology just by breathing correctly? I must have, I don't recall how I was breathing before that, but it must have been super short and shallow chest breathing, not getting oxygen fully deep in the lungs, which is what allowed the bacteria to flourish.

[00:08:27] So I know that my anxiety was high. I know my stress was high and I know I was pushing myself. So after that, I started diving into the rabbit hole of breathwork and I was studying, reading all the books, learning from teachers. And then. A couple of years later, after shutdown happened and everything I shut the company down.

[00:08:47] We moved back to South Dakota to be near family. Then it started that new path started unfolding for me as a career. 

[00:08:57] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. And I have so many questions, so I'm going to go back and ask a little bit about, hindsight's 2020. And I wonder how many times you've replayed. that year in your brain a little bit.

[00:09:10] And you mentioned at the beginning, you had noticed that your recovery was declining, and I think as achieving professionals and humans in this modern world, we tend to maybe realize that we have a decline, but also ignore a decline, and I'm curious if you felt like you were Somewhat ignoring the decline.

[00:09:34] And you were like, I'm a new parent, et cetera, et cetera. And if you were thinking some of that was going on and because hindsight is 2020, I will focus on like the success, but I'm just curious if you have feelings about what happened. And I know I've heard you say, as I was preparing for this episode and looking at some of your videos, that symptoms are always the body's messages.

[00:09:56] And I'm definitely Hanging my hat on that hook a lot right now. And I'm just curious if you have feelings about what was the message your body really wanted to communicate with you? What are some of your hypotheses?

[00:10:13] So first was ignoring the decline. Do you think, or conscious or not? 

[00:10:19] Josh Seiler: It was definitely conscious of it, but. It wasn't getting my attention loudly enough for me to do something about it. 

[00:10:27] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Human stuff. 

[00:10:30] Josh Seiler: Yeah. Human stuff. I was noticing it definitely didn't enjoy it. Cause I loved working.

[00:10:35] I still do love working out and pushing myself physically and It just seemed like a nuisance to investigate, to, is taking my attention away from building a successful company and being a new parent, all that human stuff, as you say. And then my feelings around it and what aspect of that do you, are you, can you target that a little more?

[00:10:56] Christa Biegler, RD: I don't know about you. I like to. I like to look back for context and sometimes like why was this the way it was while focusing being a little more future focused. But as you look back on that time frame, I guess it could be layered however you want to interpret the question. It's do you have feelings about where this lung infection came from?

[00:11:17] I'll never forget a woman that I had. Every time I have a client who's a cancer survivor, I'm like, they're always my heroes. And and very frequently I'll get them after their cancer journey, we'll be working on something else. And I remember this woman, I was working with her on skin, but she had a history of lung cancer, which didn't, we see this much more now, but it's Oh, this young, healthy person, why is this happening?

[00:11:39] And this was years ago. This, this diagnosis was years ago before this big shift in, in humanity from the last five years. And so she said grief is stored in the lungs. And and she had lost a child and I just like never, that hit me so hard. I don't know if I'll ever forget her sharing that.

[00:11:57] Part, and I'm obsessed with like Eastern Asian medicine and emotions stored in the body. So however you want to interpret it, like whatever you look back and think about what do I, and maybe you don't think like that. Maybe you're like, I beat it and I'm focused on like how I beat it and like more so how do I impact that physiology?

[00:12:12] Which I think is the rest of the conversation, but I'm just wondering if you had any feelings about where that manifested from, right? Like why this young healthy man who's into fitness, where are you getting this lung infection? And of course, maybe your breathing was dysfunctional. Most people's breathing is dysfunctional, but they don't all have a lung condition that, that pair.

[00:12:31] Really also I hear wow, that timeline is a little tremendous, right? That you were going to the doctor for six months before. seen, sometimes we recently had an HBOT episode and actually the guest was Scott Shearer and he's actually from Colorado. And and so it's always, I like love when HBOT comes into the conversation and it's also actually crazy, like how much it doesn't always get utilized, right?

[00:12:53] Like it's got all kinds of off label indications. And so anyway, I'm also just intrigued by that timeline of yours. It's wow, that sucks. It just sucks that it was like, sorry, we have nothing. And then it's a nebulizer with an antimicrobial is nothing like crazy. It's like, why didn't someone give you that before? Like you would think we could have done that mainstream. So I don't know what all the lessons were to learn here, but it's wow, you suffered for a long time. I'm sorry. I 

[00:13:19] Josh Seiler: did. Thank you. Thank you. Nobody's ever said that. And so I love diving down the rabbit holes of energy and interweaving Western and Eastern and thought and depth.

[00:13:29] And so I haven't ever shared this part 

[00:13:32] \ so you're getting the exclusive, but let's see. It was April of that year. Went to a men's retreat and it was with the mankind project. I don't know if you've heard of them, their worldwide organization. And so I did one of their weekends. And it was intense.

[00:13:50] And as a young man, 

[00:13:54] they do them 

[00:13:55] all over. No, it was in Colorado. 

[00:13:58] Christa Biegler, RD: And as a 

[00:13:58] Josh Seiler: young man in society, as a professional there's this one part of me that was in hustle mode from, having been coached with my business coach for years and the hustle mindset, it's part of that, that I was. Using that put me into that burnout place while on the other side, I've got this deep, soulful feminine energy too.

[00:14:19] And so I went to this men's retreat and out of that, like there was a bunch of release of emotion in that and trauma that I hadn't dealt with yet came up and I didn't fully continue the work after that retreat. And so what I feel like happened is that surfaced a lot of stuck energy within me and I didn't fully get that out.

[00:14:48] I didn't fully grieve that process and it stopped. And what then with the combination of how I was pushing myself professionally lowered my immune system and it stopped here in the lungs. And I remember coming back to Spearfish for Graduation ceremony or something in May, and I think that's where I picked it up.

[00:15:13] Took it back to Colorado and it developed from there. And, but what I, I think the trigger point honestly was that men's retreat and that, that release that whole weekend, the trauma work that we were doing, the emotional energetic release work that we were doing that I didn't follow up on truly after that, that needed somewhere else to be utilized.

[00:15:35] And so I think that is where energetically speaking, all that came from, because. To go down that rabbit hole further, what I've learned is that all emotional or sorry, all physical ailments begin at an emotional vibrational level. And if I look at it from that perspective, I can trace it to that experience.

[00:15:57] And the work that I should have continued to do for myself that I stopped. 

[00:16:02] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. I totally resonate with that. And sometimes we just need to hear people's stories in different ways. Thank you for being vulnerable there. And I always think that we can look at something from this triad of emotional Energetic that can be potentially one angle and then nutritional and chemical.

[00:16:20] And then the other side is like structural, environmental, et cetera. And when you were just talking about how things begin as emotions, it reminds me. of this guest I've had a couple of times Dr. David Hanscom, and he's previously was a back surgeon, but now works with pain, and he speaks like a surgeon, so he's very like, technical, and he's the body doesn't know what to do with emotions, so it just presents it as pain thank you for being so straightforward with it, but I just sometimes I can't get people's words out of my head, and so your acknowledgement of that is the unlayering of all the lessons to learn from it.

[00:16:54] It's like there was the superficial lessons of okay, this doctor is not saving me maybe. And I don't know, I'm just putting these here, right? This person's not saving me. And then it's okay, I got to figure this out. Let me assemble other healers. And it's okay, breakthrough. And then through that breakthrough, what do I gain from that?

[00:17:14] Where do I finish that integration? And like that, your story actually hits me a little bit there. Cause I had a a journey experience that I didn't fully integrate from. And so I understand that it's eh, I don't really want to deal with all that stuff. So I understand how that can happen. And your story is important.

[00:17:32] So thank you for sharing it. On these notes, right? Like , you have these few things in front of you coming back to healing, right? A couple months into this nebulizer with colloidal silver, a breathwork technique and H bot, you are your life is right side up again, and so you go into this breathwork deep dive.

[00:17:52] And so this. Maybe consciously or unconsciously lets you tap into, we all have this feminine masculine side and they will say, I want to just talk about that for a moment because we all have that and I understand. With empathy and with also understanding that you went through this business hustle mindset and how you got into this like stress spiral.

[00:18:14] And that happens for women too. And they say in relationship both the feminine and masculine show up, but sometimes people are being both at the same time and then there can be like some dissonance there. But anyway, it doesn't really matter. It's just like a little side note about talking about those things.

[00:18:27] Like we both have those. And so breathwork. I'm just intrigued about how that kind of unfolded for you from there. First, you're like I'm interested. This almost, this really negatively affected my life. How and my ability to breathe. And now I've have this newfound lens through which to look through.

[00:18:46] Okay, now what? So you go in and you start to assemble all this information. And then I think we're at the point where you move back and I'd love to just hear some of those, like some pearls through this breathwork journey over these last several years of like how this has changed, maybe how it's even layered in sometimes we, we reach a point like that that back surgeon when, and I just, I love stories of reinvention, Josh, I guess that's what I'm like listening for.

[00:19:13] And I'm also always. I'm considering reinvention things. And instead of you're just completely taking a left turn and never being the same before I hear that your life is actually a little bit in synergy. Like breathwork is augmenting like the history and maybe there's a little bit of an orchestra happening with all of your backgrounds, right?

[00:19:31] It's I still love, I hear that from you. It's I still love fitness. And by the way, fitness is magically better with consciousness of breath, right? It's you want to be better at performance. Then focus on breath and like literally CO2 tolerance. I was just talking to some PTs in the black Hills.

[00:19:49] And I was like, trying to again, make it sexy. And it's this I stereotype you guys as being fitness enthusiasts and, CO2 tolerance is used by. High performing athletes. And so I'd love to hear how this kind of, I just feel like sometimes things get put in our path at the right times.

[00:20:04] Even if they don't, aren't, don't appear that way. So I want to hear how maybe some bookmarks along the way in this journey of Josh as the breathwork stuff was assembling, how have you applied this to your life? Because people may hear this and say I'm not going to be a breathwork coach like Josh, or I'm not going to start hosting things.

[00:20:20] But I want to understand maybe you were in him from his journey, how you started integrating that on a daily basis. 

[00:20:26] Josh Seiler: Yeah. Cool. All of that level of intricacies and like the little Benchmarks that you are noticing here with this short conversation already. So I was blown away at what we could do by consciously breathing and intentionally breathing.

[00:20:42] And so I started teaching it to my team, mostly just stress management stuff. And we started teaching it to clients immediately. And then shutdown happened right before that we moved back to South Dakota in 2019 because my wife is from here and we wanted to be near family. So at this point, I'm still deep dive in breathwork, still studying, reading books, learning from teachers, and we moved back and.

[00:21:08] At the end of 2020, I shut down the fitness coaching company, , in Denver, because the momentum after COVID was just too difficult to get going again with a face to face business, and so shut it down. And I was like, all right, my hands are free right now. What do I do with this? And then I had an aha moment one day, sitting in the kitchen, talking to my wife and I got all this knowledge on breath work now, how do I.

[00:21:36] Put it out there. And so I made a course and put that online. And it's, I've got a few courses now out on Udemy that involve breathwork and the breathwork bootcamp is the bestseller. And so I was doing that. And then I got noticed by a friend from Colorado who unbeknownst to me was building a breathwork app.

[00:21:54] And he saw my marketing on LinkedIn or something like that. And it was like, all right. I need Josh involved with this. So he called me and he was like, Hey, I see how far you've come with breathwork and I'm building a breathwork app. I need somebody to help me bring this home. Do you want to be a part of it?

[00:22:11] So I took some time and looked at it and I was like, yeah, let's do this. And that turned out to be a two year project that I'm still involved with. Just no longer on the business side, we built and launched a breathwork app. But what we did was we spent those two years structuring the company, the app itself, how we wanted to present it.

[00:22:32] And at the same time, contracting with. People from around the globe who are breathwork practitioners like Jesse Coomer, like the breath sources with the name of the company. And we have cornered the market and breathwork. We're still getting big names signing on with us as breathwork contributors. And so on that app is guided breathwork sessions.

[00:22:53] And there's a 2. 0 coming out this year. That'll offer live sessions with breathwork practitioners. So that was a fun project. Hung my hat on that I'm still involved as a breath master contributing content. And so then I started teaching locally, started teaching classes and doing trainings and teaching others how to teach it.

[00:23:12] And along the way, I also understood how CO2 tolerance plays into fitness. And so I was able to then not just be the breath work guy on one hand and the fitness guy on the other hand, but interweave them both over the last year and a half or two to. Marry them in a way that one like breath, I still teach them individually, but breath work can be used to enhance performance on a profound level.

[00:23:42] It is a secret weapon that a lot of athletes still don't know about and not even, you don't even have to be an athlete, right? You can be an everyday person training your system to better utilize, to uptake oxygen more readily. In the body by doing some CO2 training, and you can be performing better as a human in general, whether you enjoy skiing or carrying your groceries up three flights of stairs, there's benefit in that and training your body to tolerate some CO2.

[00:24:12] But as a performance athlete, it can take you to the next level. And since then I've created a. breath work for fitness and performance enhancement course. And I've got a course for breath work that helps with ADHD and anxiety. And so I learned how to over the years, my wife and I jokingly, I would throw breath work techniques at her when she was telling me about something she's going through or someone else is going through.

[00:24:41] And I'd be like, babe, there's a breath for that. So that became my tagline is there's a breath for that because I. Can promise you that given any situation, there is a breath work technique to enhance the well being of the system, no matter what you're going through. And it all comes back to knowing how to navigate the nervous system.

[00:25:04] So the background in fitness and science and anatomy and biology heavily weighted into my understanding of how to use breath to manipulate the system, both. Biologically neurologically, psychologically, and then touching into spirituality as well as it's the ultimate endpoint of that. And the utility of it.

[00:25:24] I have, so I came to again, another benchmark of creating a certification that I call the utility of breath, where, and I teach you how to use. Almost 50 different techniques to integrate throughout your day or take it to another level, but using these techniques to show you that there's a way to manipulate these different energetic bodies the physical body, the mental, emotional body.

[00:25:51] And the spiritual body, and it depends on how you enter the intention is huge. Am I using this technique to lower inflammation or am I using this technique to connect to my higher self and consciousness? And some of the techniques overlap in that way, but it's how you enter it that really defines the end result of what you're going for.

[00:26:13] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, let's totally talk about changing the breath for different responses. There's a couple comments I want to make on some of the things you mentioned, which is, I remembered when you were sharing your story about the app and the breath source, somehow I got on that rabbit hole and that's actually how I found you.

[00:26:26] But the guy who wanted to, I don't know why I heard or where I heard his story, I don't even know his name, but what I remember about him was he was in the construction industry. I don't think it was just real estate. I think it was the construction industry. And Breathwork was his. This is just me bringing it back to it's not just Yogi's doing breathwork, right?

[00:26:47] And he was in this very masculine industry and he would pull out breathwork with his team all the time. It was like his little secret weapon is what I remember of his story. I can't remember his name. But, and the other thing that I was going to mention before when we were talking about your illness, your lung condition and how you came out of it was, I was recently referencing this for the presentation I was giving the small Wim Hof study that put this on the map, right?

[00:27:13] Where Wim Hof's you can influence the immune system with your breath. And to preface, we're not like saying go. do just Wim Hof breathing. But the point is that he convinced a university in his home country to do a study with just him and this other group of people. And then they were like, now let's do it with more people.

[00:27:31] So I think it was like 28 total people. Some were placebo, some did breathwork. They were both injected. With dead E. coli, which is supposed to elicit the same negative gastrointestinal and headache response for 24 hours. So this is makes the health person in me excited. So I'm sharing this story.

[00:27:48] And those who did the breathwork didn't have or had much more mild symptoms of the E. coli symptoms, those who did not had the normal E. coli response, right? The GI distress, the bigger headache, etc. And so this is sometimes credited as the place where it was like, oh. Breathwork got some like attention for this other thing that can happen.

[00:28:07] And so there's all these different mechanisms in which when I read about breathwork, probably just like you, I would fall over. I was like, Oh my gosh, it increases ATP production this much. That means you could heal your adrenals with doing breathwork. And so you just mentioned how you talked about all these different modalities for breathwork.

[00:28:25] And so I want to just highlight a couple of them because people will often ask me, yeah, but how do I do this? And so a couple of big areas that you've mentioned is the topic of anxiety and stress. And then you also mentioned. ADHD and focus. So I think that those are two pretty vastly important buckets and the breath the response that you would get would, it's if you want to improve focus, that's potentially a different breath than if you want to.

[00:28:56] Change anxiety and before I let you riff on this for the remainder of however long you want to do Talking about these different breath practices for maybe these couple of buckets I want to just share something because I run into this every once in a while with clients And I encountered this really recently where someone was dealing with an anxiety attack and she wanted me to coach her on that and I was Like hey, are you doing anything to strengthen your nervous system outside of this because I have experienced with clients that when they're trying to do Exercise things in the middle of this.

[00:29:25] It doesn't matter. It's that's not going to work. Like you have to strengthen outside of it. So you have to practice before you go to war, right? On the outside. And so it's you have to train on the outside to be able to perform during that, like to bring down that anxiety attack. And not that I'm an expert on that, but I just wanted to put that little.

[00:29:44] Like flag there as well. Of how I've seen this transformation in clients where they're like, Oh if I practice this stuff, it totally worked. Yeah, I know. So will you talk to us about. Breath work for different responses that we might want to get let's say I want to improve my focus today, or I struggle with anxiety and stress which I feel like everyone's got stress.

[00:30:08] So what might you share with people for a couple of things that they could do on a regular basis to practice, to improve how they're functioning in either one of these buckets. 

[00:30:18] Josh Seiler: Nice.

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[00:31:34] Josh Seiler: So we'll start with stress and anxiety. The ADHD loop is. If we can manage the stress and anxiety, then that kind of takes care of itself in some ways.

[00:31:43] And so essentially we have, as the sympathetic and parasympathetic sides of the autonomic nervous system. And it's knowing simply that step one, like elongating the exhale. We'll take your tachometer from the sympathetic stress response, more toward that parasympathetic rest and digest. So simply elongating exhales will tell your body to relax and so like I call it the perfect breath.

[00:32:13] So one technique I can give you that is totally safe that anybody listening to this can do. It might take you a little bit of time to get to this point, depending on the state of your nervous system and stress levels, but the perfect breath. Is what science has shown us is the optimal breath rate for a human being at rest.

[00:32:34] And this comes from James Nestor's book breath and the studies that he's done. And that is to back up just a moment. When EMTs, I was trained as an EMT for a while. So we were taught to count respirations as normal as around 16 breaths per minute. Like 16 to 20 is a normal respiration rate. Where the studies are now showing us is that's three times too much.

[00:32:59] And when we over breathe like that, what we're doing is heightening our nervous system, our sympathetic response. The more oxygen we have in our system actually creates more alertness, therefore leading to, over long periods of time higher levels of stress and more inflammation. And on that whole, I call it the sympathetic cascade.

[00:33:20] To combat that, We want to breathe three times less than the normal. If everybody was 400 pounds and that was normal, that doesn't mean it's healthy for you. So the optimal breath rate is five and a half breaths per minute. And that is breathing in for five and out for six. So if you can get into a rhythm of breathing in for five counts through the nose and out for six counts through the nose, ideally and not even ideally, but.

[00:33:51] As an important point in this is to breathe with your diaphragm because that there's a I could go down a rabbit hole there in a minute and I might, but making sure you're doing your belly breathing to initiate that breath so that you pull oxygen deep into your lungs so that you tell your vagus nerve that the environment is safe, that there is no danger in for five seconds and out for six gives you that perfect breath and there's, okay.

[00:34:20] A lot of science to back this up to that little bit of carbon dioxide that you feel building up in the system helps dilate things, helps dilate blood vessels. So blood pressure decreases your oxygen absorption will go up because the, at the cellular level, in order for an oxygen molecule to go into the cell, the carbon dioxide molecule has to be ready to leave it.

[00:34:44] So by having a little bit of carbon dioxide in the system, you're helping that oxygen uptake. So for some people, five in and six out as a little much, if they're prone to high stress and anxiety. So you start with a four count, you go four in and six out, and you work towards really regulating your nervous system towards that five in six out.

[00:35:05] But even before that happens, we have to talk about functional and dysfunctional breathing. Because I can give you a technique that is supposed to calm you down and relieve stress. But if you're chest breathing and breathing really shallow it's not going to help much. You're still going to have a sympathetic response to it.

[00:35:25] And so step one is initiating your belly breathing, that diaphragmatic breathing, where you're filling up your belly first and then pulling the breath into the chest. So that is crucial. And just doing that will relieve stress and anxiety because by just relaxing your belly enough to use the diaphragm there's so much benefit from doing that alone that I'm sure you could riff on a little bit as well.

[00:35:52] Do you have any insight from your end on diaphragmatic breathing alone? 

[00:35:56] Christa Biegler, RD: My main thing that I like is that the lymphatic system doesn't really have a pump. So I think of when you're breathing properly, you're pumping the lymph, which is the under recognized ocean of Immune and drainage. And so those are huge for tons of other symptoms from pain to skin, to morning awakeness, to anything.

[00:36:19] So that's like my favorite thing to think about when I'm thinking about diaphragmatic breathing. I'm like pumping my lymph without it. 

[00:36:26] Josh Seiler: Yeah. And 

[00:36:27] where's one of the largest nodes in our body located for lymph nodes? 

[00:36:31] Christa Biegler, RD: Right here. Yeah. 

[00:36:32] Josh Seiler: At the sternum. 

[00:36:32] At the diaphragm. Yeah. So exactly. We're literally moving limbs by just consciously breathing with our diaphragm.

[00:36:39] And not to mention like there are tons of lymph nodes throughout the chest cavity. And to do then other again, there's a breath for that to purposefully and intentionally move more lymph than you would normally. Knowing the system and the biology and the anatomy of the body, you can hack into it in a way we're using these breath techniques.

[00:36:58] And so the perfect breath is. A really great technique for stress relief. And it also on an anxiety level, anxiety is in the mind and future cast it. And so focusing, giving the mind something to focus on, like a count five in six out relieves that anxiety. I noticed, so in the fitness industry, we're taught to keep tight, right?

[00:37:23] Like even gymnasts, I've talked to gymnasts before, too, who are taught to keep their core tight, their midsection tight. And what that does is it layers on tension in the midsection. And if you do that over a prolonged period of time you're keeping that tension in the midsection, which might be great for core stability, but it doesn't allow the diaphragm to fully do what it needs to do.

[00:37:44] And so step one, if you just relax your belly. Just let the belly fall out and relax it. That alone can relieve tension and anxiety. And I found that out because in the, again, the fitness industry taught me to stay tight, which I, after figuring all this out, I realized how high my anxiety levels were and just those tiny little, those nuances of techniques can alleviate layers and layers of anxiety one at a time.

[00:38:12] And it's not sexy. It's not. And relaxing the belly, breathing with your belly. It shouldn't have to be sexy to have people to buy into it. But it helps I guess for sales and marketing. And again, 

[00:38:28] Christa Biegler, RD: It depends on what you think is sexy, right? Lymph pumping in me is really sexy. Healing the ATP.

[00:38:34] To me, I'm very alerted by this. I'm very excited. And I'm over here thinking about you. With that unconscious stress that you're carrying around. And I'm thinking about how athletes use up so much nutrients and there's some testing we do and I would guess that you would be like one of those types that like spin runs through nutrients a lot because they're like always totally and like really tight and we call that so they totally deplete all their nutrient their minerals because minerals are dumped under stress and when you don't have minerals and enzymes can't function so basically stuff can go wrong every once in a while but this is it just I only bring that up just because we talk about like this health conscious population And I find that athletes always need this extra little piece because they're burning through nutrients so fast.

[00:39:21] And so when you're optimizing your breath, then maybe you'd be burning through nutrients a little less fast cause you're going to be, so just another little just putting more stuff in the results column. 

[00:39:32] Josh Seiler: On that note, yeah, I'm going to grab it or a dovetail off of that because mouth breathing versus nose breathing.

[00:39:38] The nose is for breathing. The mouth is for eating and for speaking. Otherwise you should be nose breathing. And by doing that you increase your vagal tone, right? If you mouth breathe, chronically mouth breathe, you heighten your sympathetic response. And that stacks up over time. And so switching to only nose breathing and I like to have people wear a bracelet or put a, paint a nail as different colors, some sort of anchor cue.

[00:40:05] That's the only reason that's there is to remind them to nose breathe. And so training your nervous system and your subconscious to only nose breathe is going to alleviate stress and anxiety all on its own. And then your breath will get slower. It'll get deeper and you'll start to realize how quickly you can alter that nervous system state.

[00:40:27] And one fun technique that labs did a study on was what they ended up calling the physiological sigh. And this is great. Have you heard of this one? 

[00:40:38] Christa Biegler, RD: This is like the premise of any breath work that I do personally, which I didn't even share that. But so it's my favorite breath.

[00:40:45] Josh Seiler: So all you do, right? Initiating the breath from the belly. Step one is take a deep nose. Inhale all the way. And then at the top, that last 2 percent of 3%, you force in a little more and then you hold it for just a second. And then you open mouth, sigh it out. So like 95 percent in force that extra 5 percent open mouth, sigh it out.

[00:41:09] Now they've shown over with studies that immediately reduces stress. If you do that over and over. So if you're doing a double inhale, single exhale, it's called shamanic breathing, and I'm not suggesting anyone go do this because. It will then eventually elicit all the contraindications that I need to warn you about feeling tingly and tetany and like conscious altering states of consciousness, but to do it once alleviates stress in the moment.

[00:41:39] Right now. 

[00:41:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. And then you keep doing it and then you're on a journey. Don't be driving. 

[00:41:44] Josh Seiler: Exactly. 

[00:41:45] Yeah. 

[00:41:47] Christa Biegler, RD: Actually I wanted to ask you should keep going, but I wanted to have you also mention, I remember being on this cruise once and I did yoga with the yoga instructor and she was like, constantly telling us to only breathe in and out through the mouth.

[00:42:00] And it was at the beginning of my breathwork journey and it was driving me a little bit crazy And I never really figured out I heard like little murmurings I think there's just it's just a breathwork technique, but I was like, I don't know what this one is And it was making me crazy. So if you have any inference on that, feel free to put that in there too.

[00:42:16] Josh Seiler: Did she lay you down and take you through a mouth only exercise with breath or was it during yoga? 

[00:42:21] Christa Biegler, RD: It was like at the beginning or the end, it was years ago. So I'm trying to remember, but she was like, just pretend you're zipping up your body with your breath in and then unzipping it down or something like that.

[00:42:32] I remember. And I was like, I'm going to breathe through my nose. 

[00:42:34] Josh Seiler: Yeah. So 

[00:42:38] there is intention there again. All each technique has utility. Like I consciously and intentionally use mouth breathing for certain situations for creating more alertness for heightening your stress response for if, performance reasons or something like that, or for altered states of consciousness, mouth breathing done.

[00:43:01] Consistently or circularly is what I wanted to say will eventually induce an altered state of consciousness. So there are techniques out there like rebirthing and holotropic that are all mouth breathing because at some point the pH of the body rises and Consciousness alters and you go on these journeys.

[00:43:21] And so that's at the far end of the spectrum of learning first, how to breathe properly, because even if you take yourself there, ideally a good practitioner would eventually at the end of that, bring you back into homeostasis with slow, low, and deep sort of technique. 

[00:43:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Cool. 

[00:43:41] Josh Seiler: So 

[00:43:42] there's utility there for sure.

[00:43:43] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Okay. So we're talking about. Anxiety. I'm just like bringing us back. 

[00:43:48] Josh Seiler: Yeah. We're talking about anxiety. 

[00:43:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Yep. We're talking about ADHD and anxiety. So we talked about the perfect breath. 

[00:43:53] Josh Seiler: Yep. 

[00:43:54] Christa Biegler, RD: It was in through and you gave us this beautiful fun story about how what's considered optimal may not be optimal.

[00:44:00] Maybe three times optimal. And so you talked about in for five and out six through the nose. Talked about the physiological side. In and out and as our in common colleague who's been on the show before jesse coomer says I just will never forget this. He's like sniff poof That's what he calls it And i'm like, I remember when he first said that I was like I can't get that out of my head.

[00:44:24] No, thanks. I can't get it out. Did I miss any other ones? Okay, cool. 

[00:44:29] Josh Seiler: Belly breathing, diaphragmatic breathing are fundamental, right? Establish that first. Yeah. Thank 

[00:44:35] you. 

[00:44:35] Christa Biegler, RD: That's good. I want to make sure we underline and highlight that in five out six doesn't matter if your shoulders are rising and falling and you're not expanding through the belly.

[00:44:44] And I just want to mention this light comes up for me. I think we all have subconscious blocks and I think that I could imagine where subconscious blocks could occur in women and maybe men around, I don't know if you would think of this, but like I think about women and body image and I can imagine that when you said Oh, relax your belly, like feel, I could imagine some tension or I could imagine there's some resistance for some people cause maybe they've always hated their belly, or something like that. And so I just want to acknowledge that I, 

[00:45:23] Josh Seiler: yeah, it comes to mind. 

[00:45:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. I just want to acknowledge it could happen. And it's really just, can you be radically honest with yourself and say, cause sometimes I'll be, this hasn't happened a ton, but every once in a while I'll be in the presence of someone who's breathing in and out of their shoulders so much.

[00:45:40] I really want to do an intervention. I'm like, hey, can we go over here in the corner and talk about this? I'm so worried about you. I'm just worried about your stress in your chest, and actually, even my mother, after she was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, that could dramatically not allow her to breathe crazy enough.

[00:45:56] And swallow. Crazy autoimmune condition. I remember Trying to teach her breath work stuff initially. And it was very similar. It was like up and down. I was like, okay, how do we refocus this around the diaphragm? So it's not easy. It's nothing as easy that you've never practiced. And when you, I don't remember how many breaths we have per day, but if you've always been doing them.

[00:46:19] And not really through the belly, then that's your only, that's the only thing you need to know today is right there. That's what you need to know. And if you think you're breathing out of the belly, maybe the second thing is I'll never forget that the first assignment I got from my functional breathwork coach years ago, he's just walk around for a couple of days with your mouth shut.

[00:46:37] And I couldn't get it out of my head and you said the same thing, but you had an anchor point and I just couldn't get out of my head while I ground with my mouth closed. Got it. 

[00:46:45] Josh Seiler: Beautiful. 

[00:46:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Which I, by the way, I need it. I need it. I wasn't. 

[00:46:48] Josh Seiler: That was a good 

[00:46:49] lesson. 

[00:46:49] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, I had to, I think you don't know what you don't know.

[00:46:52] I remember my husband. Literally, you know how significant others after the honeymoon phase, like wears off initially, like they may be more honest with you. And so I remember my husband, when we were dating, he's like, why is your mouth open? I just remember him because no one had ever said that to me in my life.

[00:47:07] And so who knows how much I'd been walking around mouth breathing before that. I don't know. So 

[00:47:12] Josh Seiler: yeah. And man, breath by James Nester uncovered so much. biologically that cannot be altered just by nose breathing. And it's a really cool read for anybody listening that wants to dive it down that rabbit hole.

[00:47:27] So we can't even come to understand or not even understand, but get to all the points in this conversation. So nose breathe, bottom line. Belly breathe, nose breathe, step one. I spend time also teaching students. So I go into that, the, I've been in grade school, high school, college level, teaching breathwork to students and also to the higher education educators, I guess we'll just leave it at that.

[00:47:55] But what we see, what we've done some surveys and what we. What keeps coming back for students that they struggle with is sleep anxiety. And focus 

[00:48:07] and 

[00:48:08] there's a, no, this is, it's a sick loop that if you can't improve one, the other gets worse. But when you start to improve one, the other gets better. So sleep is obviously maybe not obviously, but sleep is the, where you start, because for me sleep hygiene is going to help knock out improving your sleep.

[00:48:28] Hygiene is going to improve your quality of cognition during the day. When I'm in there teaching students basically what it comes down to for anxiety and ADHD. There's a couple of different routes. We could take this one, the medication for ADHD, the two neurotransmitters that it stimulates release of is adrenaline and dopamine.

[00:48:52] And there are ways to breathe that release adrenaline and dopamine. And then you layer in an anchor point to help enhance the focus after those have been released. So this would be like a training session, as you mentioned earlier about training in the dojo or in the Separately so that when you're at school, you know how to apply it automatically.

[00:49:13] So I always like in a breathwork session, even in fitness to a separate session, it's its own session separate from the workout. You can integrate them both, but if you want to really perform at your best, you do. Your breathwork session separate from your workout session, lots of reasons there. So with focus and ADHD we can release adrenaline.

[00:49:36] We can release dopamine with breathing techniques and then use a focus mechanism to enhance that loop. But in short, what we can do are things like box breathing. You've probably heard of box breathing. That one actually gives me anxiety. So you also got to test a few of these for yourself to figure out which one works best.

[00:49:59] Something like triangle breathing is different and can be softer on the nervous system. So box breathing for those of you listening is I always start with a four count. So breathing in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four and hold for four and then repeat. Triangle breathing, we just drop one of those edges.

[00:50:20] We breathe in for four out for four, hold for four in for four out for four, hold for four. And the triangle breathing, you can flip on its head too. You can breathe in for four, hold for four out for four. And again, the intention comes into play with, do you want to create more alertness or more chill mode and holding inhale holds?

[00:50:43] Increasing oxygen in the system will create more alertness. So ADHD. Sometimes you're too hyperactive and we need to decrease that stimuli. So you go for more chill mode. You put the hold at the bottom, or if they're not paying attention, or if you're, you notice your focus is a little low or you're a little lethargic, you flip it and you put the hold at the top to enhance alertness.

[00:51:08] And create more alertness. So it depends on the intention and what's going on. But again, you got to play around with a few of these to figure out what works for you. So with ADHD, I like using things that give the brain something to do. So we'll do like alternate nostril breathing is another technique that I'll leave here with you is super great for balancing out the brain hemispheres, because what we're understanding is that the right nostril is correlated to the left hemisphere of the brain, which will.

[00:51:43] Enhance your sympathetic response and the left nostril to the right hemisphere, which enhances your parasympathetic. So if you bounce back and forth between the two, inhaling through the left, exhaling through the right, inhaling through the right, exhaling through the left, and you do this for three to five minutes at a time, you're gonna level out a lot of that hyperactivity or that lack of alertness and attentiveness.

[00:52:13] It's going to begin to balance itself out. And just like brushing your teeth, it's a holistic practice. You got to do it more than once and keep doing it. 

[00:52:26] Christa Biegler, RD: I don't know what you think. I think you can see a difference right away and that you should do it for three weeks and then ask yourself what that difference is.

[00:52:34] I was finding like three weeks is a good catalyst. 

[00:52:36] Josh Seiler: Nice. 

[00:52:37] Christa Biegler, RD: It's a really good thing. I don't know if you have any feelings. I feel like you could get it much. 

[00:52:40] Josh Seiler: I'm going to 

[00:52:40] add to that. 

[00:52:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, please. 

[00:52:42] Josh Seiler: Yeah, breathwork instantly can alleviate stress and anxiety. So let's take that three weeks and I'm going to add three minutes a day for three weeks because three minutes is minimum for getting the effect out of a breath technique, if you will.

[00:52:58] So three minutes a day, pick a technique, three weeks and ditch it if it doesn't work for you. And if it does, you'll never forget it. 

[00:53:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Josh that was fun. What are you excited about coming up for you? 

[00:53:13] Josh Seiler: So currently I've taken all my focus and energy and put it towards building an online community.

[00:53:19] And in that online community, I have integrated my fitness background, my breathwork background, all of my knowledge and studying. Into this community where I teach people how to live a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. And so that is where I'm housing all of my content, all of my teachings and my most all of my energy and focus as well as is finding my people to join me in that, that wellness collective and learn how to live sustainably because it's possible and I want to teach you how to do it.

[00:53:56] Christa Biegler, RD: We'll have that link in the show. Now it's called the breathe. 

[00:54:04] Josh Seiler: Yes. Breathe, move, breathe wellness collective. 

[00:54:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Awesome. And you're going to do something and you've got a, there's a DJ that does like yoga and breathwork music. What are you doing with him this year? 

[00:54:14] Josh Seiler: Oh yeah. DJ Taz. Thank you. So DJ Taz Rashid is this world renowned DJ that I met through building the breathwork company.

[00:54:25] He provides a lot of the tracks for the breathwork. Guided breathwork sessions we use in there, but he and I collab really well together and we've done some work outside of that, that we're like, yeah, let's keep working together. So he has created his own app with his own, everything's. Tailored from him.

[00:54:45] It's all his flavor of music inside of there. And he's gathered people in the wellness arena, yoga teachers and meditation teachers and breathwork individuals to be on that platform with him. And so DJ Taz Rashid and I are collabing. Inside of there, I'm providing a lot of the breath work tracks in his app.

[00:55:06] He's also come back to me and been like, Hey man, do you have any workout videos? Cause I want to get some workout videos in here as well and put my music on them and make you the workout guy in this app. And so we're doing that together as well, which is a lot of fun. 

[00:55:20] Christa Biegler, RD: Cool. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on today.

[00:55:23] We'll have the link in the show notes and 

[00:55:26] Josh Seiler: yeah, 

[00:55:26] thank you so much for having me.