792 It Starts with Your Breath with Laird Hamilton

BREATH IS NECESSARY FOR LIFE. They say if you learn to master your breath, you’ll have the strength of ten tigers. So, why don’t we focus more on breathing? We should Breath is energy. When an endurance athlete loses control of their breath, it usually means they’re losing. But it’s bigger than that. Your life begins with your first breath and ends with your last. You exist because you breathe. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with Laird Hamilton where he shared how he has mastered his breath. Laird Hamilton is best known as an American big-wave surfer and pioneer in the world of action water sports. In addition to his affinity for the water, Laird is labeled as an inventor, author, stunt man, model, producer, TV host, fitness and nutrition expert, husband, father and adrenaline junkie. Laird says that people who swim have a different relationship with breathing because they’re forced to realize its importance. He says that there are ways you can work on breathing to bring you both a sense of calm and energy. Get ready to learn all about the power of breath in Episode 792. In This Episode You Will Learn: Why breathing is so important in our lives (1:00) The connection between spirit and breath (2:00) Why swimmers have a better relationship with their breath (3:00) Different ways to train your breath (4:00) Follow me on: Instagram @LewisHowes Twitter @LewisHowes Facebook @LewisHowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:08Lewis Howes?

  A legend in today's sports world. His name is Laird Hamilton and at 215 pounds, at 6'3" inches with an uncommon combination of balance, flexibility and strength, he is truly a larger-than-life athlete and individual. Not only is he the quintessential big wave surfer, Laird is also known as a renowned innovator and guiding genius of crossover board sports, including toe-end surfing, stand-up paddle boarding and hydrofoil boarding.

• 0:43Lewis Howes?

  Why is breathing so important in our, not a lot of answers here, but in our existence, yes, in our lives?

• 0:50Laird Hamilton?

  I mean, and I've been fortunate to be exposed to a couple of different forms of breathing and of course, you know, when you're in the ocean or in the water, breath is an ever-important thing because your, you know, your relationship with drowning. But lately I've been kind of studying under this guy Wim Hof who does all this breath training. But the thing that you realize is that your spirit or your soul is connected to your breath and that when, that when you, you know, like when a baby takes its first breath is when it, the spirit comes into the body, just like when the breath stops, so does the spirit leave. So if you really want to get into like a kind of a little bit, you know,

• 1:34Laird Hamilton?

  deeper conversation, it's a connection to your soul or your spirit. You have a, and then, and then it's, you know, obviously mandatory for life. Breath is the way we get oxygen. Oxygen is essential for living. So it's all about breathing at the end. And then, and then we know through cardiovascular activities and any kind of exertion, it's all about breathing. I mean, breathing is your fuel. That's your energy. That's your power. When you're not, you know, eating food and digesting and drinking water. But you know, oxygen is the, is the thing that ultimately fires every cell. in your body so that's your you know

• 2:12Lewis Howes?

  so have you been practicing breathing strategies or techniques or working on your breath for since you've been surfing and swimming the ocean for your whole life have been doing that or is it more in the last year you said you started to dive in and really practice it now

• 2:24Laird Hamilton?

  well it's been the last year or last year or so that I've really focused on isolation of the breath I've been exposed to some yoga breathing and some types of yoga breathing over the years but I haven't been so disciplined and consistent with it like I have been the last year and a half or two and I indirectly have been doing it anyway

• 2:47Lewis Howes?

  sure

• 2:48Laird Hamilton?

  because first of all when you swim

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  when you're swimming

• 2:50Laird Hamilton?

  swimming is a breathing rhythm being in the water you always have to hold your breath so you have a relationship with your breath if you do any kind of diving or free diving you already have established a deeper relationship than

• 3:02Lewis Howes?

  the average person

• 3:03Laird Hamilton?

  normal people

• 3:03Lewis Howes?

  yeah yeah

• 3:04Laird Hamilton?

  because normally people are they're they don't even think about breathing they're not even they're not even conscious of it

• 3:09Lewis Howes?

  if you want to become a better swimmer or better in the water whatever sport you're doing you have to master your breath at some level

• 3:15Laird Hamilton?

  absolutely

• 3:15Lewis Howes?

  so you're getting better just by practicing it

• 3:18Laird Hamilton?

  yeah it's a byproduct of your of you doing it without even being conscious of it and and and then you know and then when you do some heavy you know circuits or or or other types of of you know intense training you know you know what the breath is all about I mean usually the breath is what what dictates the failure at a certain point when you're out of breath and you're behind you know you look at any endurance athlete or any fighter you know as soon as they start mouth breathing and they like they all like everybody will say they're all they're finished

• 3:48Lewis Howes?

  yeah their body can't

• 3:49Laird Hamilton?

  they're they're yeah they're done they're gonna say they're done