The first thing you do when you enter the world is breathe and the last thing you do when you leave the world is stop breathing

So literally it's fundamental to being alive and it's something we do subconsciously around 20,000 times a day

So for me, it's like let's try and optimize it because you're gonna perform and think and feel and be a lot better within yourself

If you optimize what that thing is that you're doing so many times a day

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, Emily Abadi here. You are listening to another installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle.

A wellness focus podcast where I connect with everyone from your favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about their highest highs, toughest moments and everything in between.

We all go through hurdles in life and my goal through these conversations is to inspire you to better navigate yours and move with intention so that you can stride toward your own big potential

And of course have some fun along the way.

You know the funniest thing about that intro is that I gosh I've been using it for at least three seasons now and I still up until recently needed to read it.

I finally got it down. You are welcome. Hurdle moment this week. We're talking about all things breath with my friend Michael Watts. He's a human performance scientist who focuses on human optimization, aka this man is a wealth of knowledge.

We're not just talking about breath work, you know that box breath that you might do every morning to really come into your body and your feelings.

We are talking about how you can optimize your breath for everything that you do from navigating stress and better digestion to how you perform during your workouts when you're under pressure.

Getting optimal sleep and so much more Mike is the guy to give us all of the know how and really shed some light on how we can be giving ourselves a little bit of a leg.

We hear so often about the supplements and other things that we can intake to better our situation, whatever that situation might be, but turns out according to Mike that breathing could be the secret sauce to get you exactly where you want to be.

I really enjoy this conversation and I always love connecting with someone who truly is just such an expert in their field at the end of this conversation Mike talks about a new project that he's working on I encourage you to listen to the end because he's got a really cool opportunity for some of you.

If you reach out to him in the DMs again all that information at the end of this episode make sure you're following along with hurdle over on social it is at hurdle podcast.

I myself am over at Emily a body I want to thank all of the herdlers that came out to last week's herdler huddle in New York City we had oh my gosh such a blast it was so great to connect with all of you IRL I promise more in person events coming this fall.

And way more workshops coming in the new year so stay tuned on that last but not least I am running low on listener questions and I know you have them because you are in my DMs all of the time so if you could just do me a solid if you love getting hurdle in your feed week after week which I know that you do click on over to the show notes and click leave me a voice message help me help you and with that let's get to it let's get to herdling.

Today I am sitting down with Michael Watts he's a human performance scientist he specializes in human optimization and that sounds jazzy how are you doing today.

Yeah I'm great thanks Emily excited to talk all things human performance and hopefully really diving to breath work.

Yeah for sure now you and I have known each other for some time we met while you are working at under armor give the herdler some insight into your career journey so that they can know the guy that's about to school them on all things breath.

Right absolutely so it's a longer journey as I get older so bear with me but my my career within I'd say performance began sort of in the early 2000s and I was given the opportunity to go and work as a performance coach with a professional soccer team out in China.

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