The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You

by Patrick McKeown

Sport has always been the great love of Don Gordon’s life. He loved everything about it—the sweat, the competition, the adversity, the triumph. Growing up, he attended many races and football games with his father, watching his favorite competitors and aspiring to be just like them. Nothing compared to the atmosphere of a good game: the excitement of the fans, the shouts of encouragement (or profanities, according to the progress of the game), and always the belief and the hope that one day he would be just like the athletes he idolized. As a teenager, cycling was Don’s sport. He spent hours training on his bike, but he could never quite keep up with his fellow cyclists. He tired quickly and more often than not found himself breathless, watching from a distance as his friends rode their bikes farther and longer than he ever could. As time passed Don reluctantly gave up his dream of competing like the athletes he so admired as a boy. He finally accepted that there was no place for him in the world of competitive cycling. Twenty years later Don had become director of European operations in a leading American technology firm. While on a trip to Europe, he happened across my Oxygen Advantage program. Because Don had tried so many things before, he was skeptical, but decided to give it a shot. He got in touch with me, and in our first session together I gave him the crash course I gave you in the introduction to this book. He had never considered the relationship between physic...