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This took my breath away…literally!

When I was filming NBC STRONG a few years ago, all of the trainers and contestants were physically beat up after a few weeks of the intense training & competition. Because Gabby Reece was the host and her husband is the legendary big-wave surfer, Laird Hamilton, we went over to their house in Malibu for some “advanced recovery.”

Part of the recovery work was sitting in a red-cedar barrel sauna at 160 degrees. That felt great.

The harder part of the recovery was submerging in a 35-degree ice-bath up to your neck for 2-minutes. That hurt!

If you’ve never been submerged in water that cold, it’s a very interesting experience as it completely takes your breath away and causes you to hyperventilate.

I’ll never forget what Laird and his world-renown cohort, Brian Mackenzie (author of “Unbreakable Runner”) said as they guided me through that “cold-tub experience.”

Laird said, “In life, we are trained to fight everything. Unfortunately, when you are submerged underwater, if you fight, you will die. You must learn to relax your breath when in stressful situations. Whether you’re underwater, in extremely cold conditions, or under extreme stress in life, LEARN TO MASTER YOUR BREATH.”

WOW!!!

This past Friday, we had a Wim Hoff workshop at Fitness Quest 10. Wim “The Iceman” Hoff is a guy I’ve been studying for about a year now and he’s known for his unique breathing meditations and cold-plunge baths. The workshop was awesome.

Part of the 3-hour workshop (kudos to @reedshelger and @reispaluso) entailed a 2-minute ice-bath submersion at 35-degrees. Here is my entire 2-minute experience from beginning to end in the ice-bath…..Brrrrr!!!

Let me share a few things about this experience:

  1. I was not ready for HOW cold this thing was. WOW!!!
  2. When you can settle your breath and go to “your happy place,” you can accomplish more than you think.
  3. It’s good to get outside your comfort zone. This was not comfortable. Even 2-minutes. But a cold-tub immersion actually is physically healthy, despite being hard to do. And mentally, it was great to be challenged to GO DEEP.
  4. There was something sacred about the experience. I’m not sure what it is. You can probably hear it in my voice after the experience. Or see it my energy. I’m not sure it was the music, Reed’s voice guiding me through the experience, the cold-tub itself (or all of it combined), but there definitely was something spiritual about the experience.

This week, regardless of where life’s taking you, please take 2-minutes out a day to BREATHE, relax, and remember that you are always STRONGER than you think.

Much love…much breath…and much STRENGTH.

Todd


P.S. I’m Having a Birthday Party this Wednesday at 12 noon PST/3 pm EST!!!

Folks, this Wednesday, March 21st is my birthday. And instead of getting text messages, FB messages, and calls all day, I’m going to do something different.

I’m going to have the world’s largest FB LIVE Birthday Party Workout Challenge. I will be DOING a short workout and be issuing a LIVE WORKOUT CHALLENGE for you to complete within 24-hours. You will see me complete the challenge and know my score all in REAL-TIME!!!

All you have to do on Wednesday is JOIN ME LIVE and watch me eat cake (whoops, I mean WORKOUT).

And if anyone beats my score within 24-hours, you will be eligible for a special prize that I will be GIFTING to YOU (and yes, it will include a GREY HOODIE)!!!

So here is what you need to do:

  1. Join me on FB LIVE at 12 NOON PST/3 pm EST this Wednesday, March 21st.
  2. Pipe in with your comments throughout the LIVE. I’m going to need ALL the encouragement possible on this one. I’m going to call it #TD’sBirthdayCooker
  3. Complete the Birthday Workout Challenge by end of the day on Thursday, March 22nd and post your scores (I will tell you where on the FB LIVE).
  4. I will announce the winner of my Birthday Workout Challenge within 24-hours after all submissions are in!!

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