This week’s conversation is with Brian Mackenzie, an expert in the development and application of custom protocols to optimize human health and performance.

His work harnesses and integrates respiratory, movement, strength and endurance-based training approaches to elicit positive results.

His protocols have been used to accelerate and raise both mental and physical performance in world-class Olympic and professional athletes, top executives, and elite military operators, as well as to improve the health for everyday people to those suffering from various chronic illnesses.

Along with innovating the endurance, strength and conditioning paradigm, he has studied altitude, heat & cold exposure and breath work.

Brian co-founded and created Power Speed Endurance (PSE), an online programming, coaching and educational platform that specializes in movement & skill development in sport.

He also co-authored the books Power Speed Endurance, NYTimes Best Seller UnBreakable Runner, and most recently UnPlugged.

“Aerobic efficiency is actually the number one thing that we have for human performance. That is the indicator of how quickly you’re going to recover and and how well you can tolerate stress.”

In This Episode:

• His recent freak accident that left him thinking he may be paralyzed for life
• Why he was able to remain calm in the aftermath of that horrifying situation
• How his family upbringing drove him to be a rebel
• His love for tattoos and what they mean to him
• Wanting to be accepted and that creating problems with alcohol and drugs
• Heading to rehab, AA wasn’t for him, and finding his purpose: human performance
• Training for a 100-mile run and how that led to him helping facilitate a paradigm shift in the endurance world… training with quality over quantity
• The role breathing training plays in optimizing performance
• What happens when you breath through your nose vs. your mouth
• What does his breathing practice look like?
• How does training with cold or heat impact breathing?
• Learning to control your breathing when you’re stressed
• What he’s most hungry for