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WHOOP Podcast

Powerful Strategies To Improve Human Performance with Expert Rachel Vickery

WHOOP Podcast

WHOOP

Recovery, Health, Life Sciences, Data, Optimize Performance, Science, Hrv, Fitness, Wearable, Health & Fitness, Sports, Strain, Whoop, Sleep

4.6690 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What separates good from great in high-pressure environments? On this episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance, Principal Scientist, Dr. Kristen Holmes, sits down with Rachel Vickery, world-renowned performance consultant. Having spent decades working with elite athletes, military operators, Fortune 500 executives, and emergency physicians, Rachel has cracked the code on understanding and regulating the nervous system to ensure optimal performance when stakes are h...

Transcript

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0:00.0

It is very predictable what happens to humans when we put them in high pressure, high stakes

0:03.6

environments. But the cool thing about that predictability is that we can train for it. I think we

0:07.9

just have to have more of the conversations. This is why it happens and here's how we train for

0:11.9

it. It gives us a lens to look through when we're critiquing performance, not only focusing on what

0:17.1

went wrong from a technical or tactical perspective. We've got that next level down to go, okay, but why did that happen? Like, why did you fumble the ball? What actually was going on? And it starts to give people the language or the framework or the understanding that they can dig a little bit deeper to the point that they can get to, oh, my arousal state got out of control in that moment, and that that's not

0:37.9

perceived as being a weakness. That doesn't mean you're not cut out for these environments or you

0:42.3

don't have what it takes to do hard things. You just need to train it. Rachel Vickory,

0:48.6

welcome. Thank you, Kristen. Great to be here. Back again. Yeah.

0:57.0

It's because our first conversation was so amazing.

1:00.4

I was like, we need to have Rachel back on and continue the conversation.

1:02.2

So we're going to go deep.

1:04.8

We're going to go into all sorts of areas.

1:10.3

You are a world-renowned, high-performance consultant. And I think you're kind of known as an expert in,

1:16.2

I'm going to say breathwork just because that's what our listeners understand it to be.

1:19.5

But you call it breathing.

1:22.6

Okay.

1:22.9

Yeah.

1:23.4

So we're going to talk about the distinction.

1:25.5

And I think that's what you're kind of known for in some ways. But your expertise kind of spans really a broad spectrum of human performance. So I really want to get into some of the other areas that you are our world expert in. And just some of the work that you're doing currently with military and elite teams. You know, you're doing some fascinating work and having

1:46.9

a massive impact on folks who are trying to manage pressure, trying to manage stress in

1:52.4

environments that are really unforgiving. So we're going to just dig deep. You ready to go?

1:57.2

Awesome. Yep. We're going to start with a little icebreaker. And this is kind of for our social

...

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