08/22/2026
My teacher keeps pointing out that most people don't think about their breath on a day-to-day basis.
And it had me thinking — that isn't true for those of us who competed in submersive sports, or at an elite level
I used to swim to compete. On a weekly basis, I performed hypoxic sets — the most painful swim workout there is
Imagine holding your breath and moving through the water as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Then repeating it 20 times, without a single break
Now imagine doing that *after* you've already swum 3-4 miles in about 75 minutes, across different intervals and varying speeds
Would you be surprised if I told you I no longer have asthma?
I believe it was caused by the fumes of the chlorinated pool from the age of 5. The heat stress. The dense air. The severe fight-or-flight drive in the panic of competition — needing to finish first
Gasping for air at the touch of the wall. Raising my head only to see she'd beaten me by a tenth of a second. Still having to admit I didn't win, even though we'd practically swum the exact same race
Maybe you can relate, as we get older we ask ourselves, why did I put myself through this?
For me and some of my clients we have trained to become faster, more efficient, more capable of continuing even when the body said "f**k off", "hell no", "I can't". At the time, in our youth, we didn't have the language to describe everything that was being trained beneath the surface.
Through this I have gained an intimate relationship with the pain body, the idea that I don't have to suffer yet can choose to be uncomfortable in order to expand my human potential through dopaminergic and, reward pathways in the brain.
Now I swim, dive, and immerse myself in water for a different reason.
I still appreciate performance — but I recognize that something much bigger is happening.
You might call it spiritual. You might simply call it a deeply human experience.
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When I enter the water, my relationship with breath changes.
Swimming teaches you to experience the desire for another breath without immediately reacting to it. You begin to recognize the difference between discomfort, urgency, and actual danger
This made me curious: does swimming change how the brain and body respond to breath?
Our bodies are constantly monitoring oxygen, carbon dioxide, and acidity. Sensors in the body communicate with regulatory centers in the brainstem, adjusting breathing, heart rate, and circulation
Swimming brings this unconscious conversation into awareness:
Inhale. Turn. Submerge. Exhale. Wait. Respond.
Many of my clients have agreed that I am not an ordinary trainer giving exercises to complete.
I've spent years inside the lived experience of training — competing, pushing physiological limits, navigating injury and recovery, teaching movement, swimming long distances, diving, trekking through mountains, and learning how breath, attention, and nervous-system state affect performance.
I don't teach this work only because I studied it. I teach it because I have lived it
My athletic background taught me how to build capacity. My relationship with water taught me how to listen. My studies of the brain, metabolism, and nervous system taught me how to connect the two.
That combination lets me see what a workout alone cannot reveal.
So here's what I actually look at...
I look at how you breathe under pressure. How you respond when something becomes uncomfortable. Whether your movement gives you energy or repeatedly depletes you. Whether your training is improving your heart, brain, metabolism, and your ability to meet your life.
This is why training or retreating with me is different.
I will challenge you — but I will also teach you how to hear yourself
We may use swimming, strength training, dance, hiking, yoga, breathwork, or stillness. I'm not attached to forcing everyone down the same path
There are many paths. My responsibility is to help you choose one intentionally — and then gather evidence that it's taking you where you want to go
We can observe resting heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, sleep, recovery, strength, and aerobic capacity. We can also pay attention to energy, mood, cognition, symptoms, and — when appropriate — laboratory biomarkers
YES Data gives us information...
**YOUR relationship with your body gives that information meaning.**
I believe this is what exceptional coaching should do: not make you more dependent on someone else's instructions, but help you become more intelligent inside your own body
More capable of meeting discomfort without abandoning yourself
That is the intelligence I first learned in the water
It is also what I now bring into every training session, coaching relationship, and retreat I lead — including the one I'm currently opening spots for in Nepal, where this exact work happens far outside a gym, at altitude, in community
If any part of this landed for you, reply and let's talk.
With love,
Taylor
www.taylordiepold.com
