Increase your CO2 tolerance + what are you willing to sacrifice?
Sam’s bi-weekly newsletter - Edition 11 - April 23rd, 2024
One learning/discovery
As we all know, our breathing rate increases during exercise. I recently learned that it’s caused by a buildup of CO2 in our bodies, which sends a signal to our brain to increase our breathing rate.
Better understanding our breathing allows us to find opportunities for improvement. In this case, since the buildup of CO2 is causing an increase in breathing rate, shouldn’t we try to increase our CO2 tolerance?
That’s exactly what athletes of all levels started doing in recent years.
I’ll share two breath-hold exercises to increase CO2 tolerance in the workout section below.
One question
What are you willing to sacrifice today to achieve what you want tomorrow?
We live in a world where social media fools us into thinking success happens overnight and without much effort. We see widely successful people living what seems like pretty cool lives.
What we don’t see is what it took to get there. And I can guarantee you it took a lot of sacrifices.
The other thing social media fools us into thinking is that success is running 100 miles or owning 3 lamborghinis. Success is different for each and everyone of us. That being said, there is one common theme across all successes: sacrifice.
Here’s a quick example of three widely different scenarios, all requiring sacrifices.
Person A wants to lose 20 lb.
Person B wants to retire at 50 years old with 2 million dollars.
Person C wants to build a billion dollar company.
All three scenarios require sacrifice. The sacrifices vary, but none of these people will reach their goals without sacrificing things they love. It might be cutting out brownies. It might be cutting back on restaurant expenses. Some go as far as sacrificing their families (which I of course don’t recommend).
What is success for you and what are you willing to sacrifice?
One workout
Here’s the CO2 tolerance training protocol and the two formats I use it in:
Inhale (a normal inhale).
Exhale, pushing out all the air from your lungs.
Hold your breath until you feel a strong urge to breathe in. Don’t go crazy here, it’s not a competition and you certainly don’t want to do breath-holds to the point of passing out.
Inhale.
Breath normally until your breathing rate has recovered to its normal level.
Repeat.
When should you do this?
I do 5 rounds on the airbike during my warm-ups, twice per week.
I do 10 rounds while I walk. Not on all walks, roughly two walks per week.
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