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founder, Ernie Colling. or go to transcendcompany
.com. Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast.
As always, my name is James Gearing, and this
week it is my absolute honor to welcome on the
show world champion freediver Alexei Molchanov
and founder of The Six, Sonia McVeigh. Now, in
this conversation, we discuss a host of topics,
from Alexei's exposure to freediving as a child,
the trauma of losing his mother, the importance
of cardiovascular training, lung capacity, overcoming
fear, and the incredible work that Alexi and
Sonia are doing together to combine their skill
sets and bring them to the fire service. Now,
before we get to this incredible conversation,
as I say every week, please just take a moment,
go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe
to the show, leave feedback, and leave a rating.
Every single five -star rating truly does elevate
this podcast, therefore making it easier for
others to find. And this is a free library of
well over 1 ,100 episodes now. So all I ask in
return is that you help share these incredible
men and women's stories so I can get them to
every single person on planet Earth who needs
to hear them. So with that being said, I introduce
to you... Alexey Molchanov and Sonia McVeigh.
Enjoy. Well, Sonia and Alexi, I want to start
by saying welcome back to Sonia and thank you
so much for coming on for the first time on the
Behind the Shield podcast, Alexi. Thank you,
James. All right. Well, very first question for
both of you. First, Sonia, where on planet Earth
are we finding you today? I am in Northern California,
Santa Rosa. And we're recording this at 9 o 'clock
in the morning, my time. So it's 6 o 'clock with
you. So I appreciate you getting up so early.
Alexi, what about you? Where on planet Earth
are we finding you today? I'm in Sicily, in Italy,
and getting ready for the World Championships,
which will be in September. And diving, going
to have some adventures. Yesterday I was going
up to the volcano. So training in Italy and enjoying
the local nature. Now, I know you're not Italian
originally, so let's start at the very beginning
of your timeline. I'm going to stay with you
for a bit, and then as we progress through, we'll
bring Sonia in. So, Alexei, tell me where you
were born, and tell me a little bit about your
family dynamic, what your parents did, how many
siblings. I was born in Russia, in Volgograd,
before it was Stalingrad. The city is a relatively
big city, one million people, on the River Volga,
and very strong traditions in swimming in the
city. And I was a swimmer since I was three years
old. My mom was my coach. She coached me how
to swim proper styles when I was three, four
years old. At four, I was already competing.
And at three years old, actually, before four,
I was swimming 500 meters backstroke nonstop.
And it was like my first sort of record when
I was a kid. And I have a sister as well. She
was swimming as well with me. She's two years
older. She's not competing as me right now. She's
not an athlete, but she's more into architecture
and design, etc. But my mom trained me for many,
many years as a swimmer. And when I turned 17,
she was already doing freediving, breath hold
diving, and she taught me freediving as well.
And then we trained together and traveled the
world together to compete in championships for
the next 10 years until 2015. Then there was
an accident. She disappeared in... in Spain,
close to Ibiza Island, Fermentera Island. So
this story was, there was a movie about our story
actually. It was just released last year in December,
Freediver. It's on Amazon Prime and it's on Apple
TV. So there's a story of like me training and
her being my trainer and then competing. And
then now I'm just continuing. continuing training
and competing and sharing with the world this
knowledge about freediving what my mom taught
me and developing the education system well tell
me how your mom even got to into the swimming
world and and talk about the kind of peaks that
she got to because i know that she's revered
in russia as a swimmer she was a swimmer and
also fin swimmer swimming with monofin There's
two types of swimming and she was very good at
the top level in these two sports before she
started freediving and breath hold diving. But
even when I was a kid and it was not even a thing
in the 1990s when freediving was not even like
a sport which was more known. we always did breath
holds and i remember she was doing breath holds
and some dives in the pool try to do four laps
hundred meters hundred meters uh just just because
she was curious i think there are these types
of swimmers around the world that uh some some
hate breath holds and don't like that at all
and some love breath holds even though they don't
know about breath hold diving free diving and
they still do that So she always loved that.
And we would travel to the sea. When I was five,
it was our first trip to the sea. And then I
think that was the moment when I loved this part
of diving, like these adventures and being out
in the nature. And she liked this as well. And
then she did 43 world records when she started
freediving from 2003 all the way until 2015.
What was it that got her into swimming originally?
Were her parents also big swimmers? Not at all.
No, her mother was a doctor and her father was
an engineer. I think it just happened so. There
was a school, a swimming school. She was tested.
She liked it. And that's it. Sometimes it just
happens accidentally. I was tested for violin
when I was four years old, like accidentally,
when I was going with my mom and my sister to
the art school. My sister wanted to draw. She
really enjoyed arts. And there was a school with
music and also with arts. And I was just with
them, like hanging around. And then my sister
was going to the school to see if there was a
teacher there. Teacher was not there, but there
was a teacher for violin. And then this teacher
said, hey, let's go. Let's try violin instead
of arts. And then she was tested. And I was four
years old. And she said, OK, let's go. You will
be tested too. And I got tested for violin. And
then I played violin for seven years because
I actually had really good hearing. I could play
violin really well. So it was just an accident.
Then I had a choice when I was 11 years old or
somewhere there if I want to stay in music or
if I want to proceed and do more swimming. So
I chose swimming. You mentioned, obviously, all
the mentorship with your mother. What about your
father? What was he doing? He was an engineer
as well, and he was a swimmer, also a high -level
swimmer in swimming. That's how they met. My
mom met my father. They both were swimmers. And
my mom continued. She was a teacher, and she
taught kids. Her education was in... sports science
but then my father was an engineer he didn't
continue this uh career he was working and uh
he enjoyed all adventures ocean adventures as
well but my mom was much more into that and i
think that's why she continued and started uh
actual sport when she was 40 years old um yeah
but father father was supporting this but not
as active in the actual like actual sport as
you were going through the school ages was this
something you're already thinking of doing as
a career or were you dreaming of something else
at the time i didn't think i would be a free
diver at all i loved computers i got my first
computer when i was 10 years old and i loved
all this like assembling disassembling upgrading
video cards graphic cards and upgrading like
anything i could upgrade processors and etc and
i Then after school, I went to university to
study software, and I was doing six years of
software engineering. I got a degree in software
engineering, and by the time I finished university,
not school, but when I finished university, I
was helping my mom already a lot with the school,
with the Freediving School, with the Freediving
Federation, non -for -profit organization to
organize events and competitions for amateurs,
professionals. kids and also handicapped people
who have disabilities and then i was doing a
lot of work there and i realized okay i'm just
gonna continue with freediving like continuing
with that as a as work what about when you were
younger when i think of russian aquatic athletes
i think of you know an elite performance and
you know they they do seem to forge a lot of
high level athletes in you know whether it's
gymnastics or Olympic weightlifting, so many
areas. What was the support given to a young
athlete by the country itself to guide them into
the high level of sports? As a swimmer, I got
support. There were sports schools and kids would
get... to train in this like to be trained in
the sports schools and it would you know it would
be no um and it'll be quite inexpensive or almost
no charge at all it was quite like quite affordable
for families to to have a kid being a professional
swimmer so i think that was that there was not
a lot of sponsorship or anything but it was support
with access like just teachers be there like
lanes in the pool being available for athletes
and for their sports schools. So it was this
type of support when I was a kid. And then when
I was 15, 16, there was this boarding school.
I was finishing the last years of education in
the boarding school for talented swimmers who
were on their way to get into Olympic team. So
then it was staying in this facility, boarding
school. There was like... food, education, everything,
training was provided. So that was the support
until I was 17 years old. And then when I finished
and went on to become a freediver, and I was
in university, I was on my own, and my mom was
running school, I was helping my mom, and we
just earned money through education, through
the business, and traveled and did all the preparation,
all the training in freediving by ourselves.
So talk to me about the kind of metamorphosis
of your mother's understanding of freediving.
Because you've got someone who's a high -level
swimmer, who's a sports science major as well.
What were some of the discoveries that she made
that allowed her to be such a successful freediver
herself and then her method be passed on to you?
When she started, it was 2015. Three, four. A
lot of freedivers were from yoga, and there was
not a lot of sports science introduced into freediving,
not a lot of exercises, repetition, load, periodization.
So training properly as an athlete was not there
yet. It was a lot of relaxation, which is a very
important part of breath hold and diving. But
it was not a lot of teachers who would actually
train. students to do that as a sport so she
introduced that methodology even until now a
lot of education agencies in freediving around
the world they would take scuba diving approach
do courses but there is no follow -up there is
no continuous training and that's what she introduced
as well there are courses with theory and with
exams and practice but there is also continuous
training that she developed as a professional
in this area And that was something that helped
her to progress from season to season and win
in each discipline, like depth or pool, static
breath hold, dynamic distance to dive as far
as possible and depth, but also progress, but
also teach students, teach me. And I was progressing
then, not only me, there were a lot of students
who did some high -level results with her method.
Yeah, I think that was the main... new things
introduced. So talk to me about, you kind of
touched on it, all the different areas of competition
within the free diving world. It's depth and
it's pool. In depth, we compete as my main discipline.
We go as deep as possible. And there is a discipline
which is... outside of competition. Something
maybe you saw in the movies in the Big Blue from
Luc Bisson. And that's an old movie. It's like
a Bible of Freedivers, 1988. And there they dive
without fins or without actually kicking the
fins. They have the fins, but they use a weighted
sled, extra weight to go down and the balloon
to come back up. So there's no movement. There
is less energy used. to actually dive and there's
two disciplines there's one which holds no limits
just going down and up with no moving uh not
movement not like wasting any energy at all sitting
on the sled and now it's even forbidden because
it's quite dangerous in the movie the guys were
pushing back in the days 100 meter limit like
330 feet now The latest record 10 years ago was
already 13 years ago was 200 attempt to do 250,
250 meters, which is almost like 800 feet. But
then there was an accident and Herbert Nisch,
one of my friends, he got like consequences and
his dive was not finished according to plan.
And then there's a whole story about this dive.
But official record is still 200, I think 14
meters. uh but there is no like it's forbidden
because too technical too dangerous there's a
second discipline which is still in ordinary
competition it's going down with extra weight
but swimming up with your own uh power and it
calls variable weight so my current world record
here is 156 meters which is 510 feet and it's
still something like a feet it's like like a
record no competition too technical still less
dangerous but too technical and then there was
uh four disciplines going down and up with your
own like body without any extra help from the
machines or an extra weight extra weight going
down with monofin going down with biphins going
down swimming breaststroke like no fins at all
and traditional discipline using the rope so
you pull on the rope and it's something like
in old times people would do that to to find
food to find something to like pearls and when
there was no fins, et cetera, like thousands
of years ago. And people were diving to do that
in the last 8 ,000 years. And they would use
rope for that. And then there are pool disciplines.
Hold your breath as long as possible and swim
in the pool as far as possible with fins, without
fins, with monofin, one large fin. That's it.
And there is another one, actually, maybe you
heard just recently. It's more like a Guinness
record. It's not really an athletic record for
like... part not a part of the sport but uh guys
do that because it's exciting and it's holding
your breath with oxygen which can be something
actually you can relate to like like breathe
from the tank and it's pure oxygen 100 oxygen
so five times more compared to normal air we
have 21 but there these guys would breathe 100
oxygen and hold their breath for like almost
forever the hard part there is co2 toxicity carbon
dioxide is accumulated we can exhale carbon dioxide
and this is the dangerous part because even like
recent record where vittimir maricich croatian
guy like one of our top educators my friend he
did 29 minutes then he finished it and he wasn't
hypoxic if you look closely he wasn't like blue
he wasn't hypoxic but it's really hard because
of co2 so that's pretty interesting discipline
I'm glad you went over that last story, especially
because I remember seeing that recently on social
media, a man does 29 minute breath hold. And
I'm like, okay, this is bullshit. There's no
way. But then when I looked in and I saw that
it was using the oxygen, I'm like, okay, now
I understand it a bit more because I mean, what
is the world record for a simple breath hold,
no oxygen assistance? It's 1135. It's the record,
which is, which stands for more than 10 years.
it is the longest standing record nobody know
how it was possible it was done like back like
many many years ago by stephanie suit from france
and uh there are some talented athletes who are
getting closer to this time right now and in
the world championships we see guys do 10 minutes
10 30 almost getting close to 11 but no one is
like nobody did close to 11 35 so far what about
altitude training do do people use that to try
and um you know advance in this particular sport
does it make a difference they try i know a lot
of freedivers me myself i also do some um some
training and i breathe breathe thin air from
the machine i don't really go a lot to the mountains
yesterday i did i did go to 3 000 meters etna
uh volcano in italy and uh 3 000 meters it's
already like it's hard to climb you can feel
there's not a lot of oxygen But it is an interesting
method. Logistics makes it harder to implement.
I know a lot of swimmers or other athletes would
use that, but it's an interesting method. You
just have to be careful about recovery. I think
the only thing which may compromise this preparation
is recovery. Some of our athletes... tried sleeping
in a tent with low oxygen, et cetera, and then
it would feel under -recovered all the time,
like feel tired all the time. So one technique
I liked and I used quite a lot is doing one -hour
session on the stepper, on the bicycle, where
you breathe thin air, maybe 10%, 11%, 9 % oxygen,
and then you recover with normal levels of oxygen
or even... uh higher levels of oxygen so you
have this uh like five minute intervals five
hypoxic five minute hypoxic interval five minute
hyperoxic or normal oxygen interval that's that's
really good i think this really gives your body
this little boost really good for health really
good for in variety of ways and it's not overwhelming
you you can recover pretty well after this session
You mentioned about the rope being used to find
food, pearls, that kind of thing. When I think
about freediving in a more traditional role,
it's that group of Japanese women, female divers
from a certain island. So talk to me about some
of the historic use of this before it became
competition. It was for food. Japanese women
ama are legendary. and they would sing between
the dives. That was a pretty cool technique.
They would sing, and actually singing helps for
recovery because there's resistance, and then
they would use it to recover better between the
dives. I don't think we... I don't know if firefighters
should sing before... I'm not saying that. But
saying this, I was like, okay, if it helped them
to recover, I didn't try that, but it's an interesting
technique. But they were... And doing that, obviously,
you can purse your lips and, like, exhale with
resistance as well to do that. But there's a
lot of tribes around the world in Polynesia,
in, like, everywhere, actually. Like, just Alma
women are more well -known, I think, because
of legends, because of stories. And I think if
you go any country, you'll find these tribes.
And even Dubai is an example. In Emirates. pearl
divers was until 1960s when when they developed
this artificial pearl production before that
it was one of the main business for dubai before
the oil was discovered it was really really important
so it was food it was pearls it was sponges in
greece in greece they used the stone And it was
a family, like, it was an item that was passed
through generations. Scandalopetra is the name.
And it was a pretty cool stone with some holes.
They tied the rope. There was a team of two.
One goes down. One stays in the boat. And there
are some signals on the rope. And as soon as
there is, like, a diver on the bottom finishes,
he pulls the rope a few times. And the guy on
the top, he will... pull the guy up to the boat,
back to the boat. So it was almost like no limits,
going up with weight, going down with extra weight,
and up with the help of another person. And they
collected sponges. That was the story. And they
still have some traditional competitions in Greece,
Skandalopetra competition in the name of the
stone. They used as well the skill for some applied
activities and for military activities as well
to set up, traps in the bay to cut cut the chains
etc so it was like used there was some special
uh like military divers which would learn that
and it would do some something to to protect
the bay or to even uh like yeah just make sure
that the the ships will be like if the storm
is coming there are some stories in greece as
well from ancient times when these divers would
go and cut the chains and then ships get smashed
because of the storm, etc. So there was a lot
of stories like that. Amazing. Sonia, just to
bring you in for a second, what's your opinion
of using karaoke during rehab between sessions
of the fire? Huge, huge fan. Actually, it's on
my waiver for all firefighters. I can tell you,
we used to pipe music through. through the truck
when we were on the way to call sometimes. And
that ended up being as karaoke sessions, but
who knows, maybe that helps our oxygen consumption
when we got there. So firstly, I want to talk
about the safety side as well. And, you know,
the dangers of free diving just before we do
those. So people kind of understand, you know,
the level that you're at now, I know you're a
very humble person, but talk to me about some
of the, the accolades and world records that
you hold at the moment. I have two current world
records. In all these years, I did about 39 world
records, including a few Guinness world records.
And my deepest so far is variable weight, extra
weight. So I'm pulled down with this machine,
the sled, and it is 510 feet, 156 meters. And
I swim back up with monofin. Then the pure discipline
where you just don't have any help and you swim
down and up with fins, my current record is 136
meters. which is roughly 450 feet. And it's going
down with monofin, one large fin, and going back
to the surface. I held bifin record, traditional
two fins record, until the last month. Then one
of my French friends got it away from me. And
it was 125 meters. Now it's 126 meters with him.
So I got to take it back in the next month or
so. But I'm cool with that because he's one of
our athletes. He's our ambassador. He uses our
gear, our fins, carbon fins to do that. So I'm
fine as far as the family in the team. And there
is another record that I'm aiming for, which
I don't have yet, is a no fins, like breaststroke.
So breaststroke is really hard, like a lot of
physical. uh exertion it's really hard hypoxia
is strong it's not as deep 100 to current record
is 103 meters but that's what i'm aiming for
this year but anyway it's another goal then guinness
trackers roaring the cold water so i like diving
under ice and currently i have the deepest dive
to 90 meters which is roughly 280 i think 270
plus 280 feet maybe even more a little bit 290
and it's under ice it's not as hard as it sounds
like it is it's actually cool so i highly recommend
if you like if you never tried ice diving it's
very like beautiful to be under ice so this is
another guinness record in all these years but
the main is depth Do you notice the impact of
the cold on your performance or your ability
to hold the breath, knowing that it does kind
of help lower the body temperature a little bit?
It doesn't help. No, it's harder. If the water
is too hot and you just can't relax in this water
because it's just too hot, then of course it's
hard. Your heart is not slowing down. and uh
you just feel overwhelmed with this heat but
it's only in i think so far i had these situations
in philippines in indonesia sometime like i think
in the hottest time of the year it's too hot
but in general if the water is similar to what
we have in the pool in a swimming pool then it's
enough like it doesn't need to be any colder
it's already triggers some of our receptors and
signals that okay we can with our heart rate
will slow down if we start holding the breath
If it's a little bit colder, like in the lake,
also great. It helps. Like a bit cooler water
will trigger the reaction to be stronger. If
it's ice cold, that's too much. Like for this
water, we need to have thick wetsuits. It's pretty
like thick rubber. And it's more weight, more
gear, more effort. So you just lose energy. Even
if it's a thick -weather suit, you get cold in
20 -30 minutes. So you just lose energy and that
makes it harder. So there is a balance. It's
better to be warmer than colder. Well, you mentioned
about losing your mother. Did you say it was
Ibiza that you lost her? It's next to Ibiza.
It's Fermentera. It's a small island next to
Ibiza, yes. So talk to me about that. I mean,
again, this is obviously a profession where,
you know, you train so diligently, you take so
many precautions and you work your way up to
that point. But in the world of, you know, freediving,
the world of base jumping and skydiving, obviously
you are, you know, skirting that line as well.
you know when you reflect you know what what
was the issue there and then talk to me about
that because this is obviously you know your
beloved mother that was your mentor in this sport
as well and then you know she was taken from
you yeah like you said it's it's um it's nature
and uh freediving in general is very safe sport
and i'll just start from like let me just describe
the difference between the diving in competitions
and just diving in open sea. And competitions
is one of the safest places to freedive and risk
and test your limits because there's like a whole
team. Medics are there and a lot of safety divers
are there. They just, like the team of 20, 30
people just pay attention to your dive and ready
to rescue you any moment. The most dangerous
part of freediving is when you're out there in
the sea and there's no experienced freedivers
around you. And then if you are not aware of
the situation, changed environment, maybe there
was a current. That's what happened with my mom.
She was in a new environment, and it was not
trading. It wasn't like a deep trading. It was
time with some of her friends, which were not
experienced, beginners. I was in another country,
unfortunately. If I would be there, of course,
I would be supporting and providing the safety.
But I was in another country. The story was that
they started diving when it was roughly 100 feet,
the depth, like 30 meters each. And then they
drifted, so the boat, the anchoring didn't help,
so they slowly drifted somewhere a little bit
deeper. It was 70 meters, 200, like 20, 30 feet
deep there. And then my mom probably dove deeper
than she was supposed to, and there were some
currents, and she was preparing very intentionally
for this dive. because it wasn't supposed to
be too deep. And then it's just a few, probably
like not even a few, like three, four things
combined lead to the tragedy, right? It's always
like several things combined. But they never
found the body, so it was not impossible to actually
even look at the computer to understand the profile.
that's that's their theory right and around the
world we have we have um incidents like this
with spare fishers so the guys who dive alone
or have no partner that that's one of the most
dangerous part and if you have a partner if you
communicate with the partner properly you're
informed and the level allows for support like
one is down one is on the surface and he can
like go down and actually bring the second person
up if there is help needed if there's a blackout
or hypoxia then this is like the way to do this
and it is safe so then after this accident it
was just like another accident which highlighted
these rules and it was like some of some of their
dives that i was doing before or some of their
community members did before i stopped doing
and then i don't do anything deep or like relatively
deep without proper proper team around you're
only 17 then how were you able to to start processing
that grief because as you know you mentioned
it's not just your mother this is someone who's
obviously been your mentor this whole way yeah
it was 17 when i started i this happened about
15 i was not i was already 28 It was 11, 10,
10, yeah. So I wasn't as young. Of course, if
I would be 17, it would be much harder. But I
was 28. It wasn't easy, of course. It was a big,
big strategy. And I decided I will continue developing
her legacy, her education system, and I will
train. And I went to train like a week later.
after that and i started freediving and i started
practicing and i think that helped me a lot i
felt like through the practice through the breath
holds through like being in the water being in
the ocean i just do what i love and it didn't
result in me being scared of the ocean or being
scared of this environment i think i think it
was a right thing to do because if if there was
a thing that we did together like i can imagine
that It could be a chance that I would be sort
of like really hurt and angry at the ocean or
the water, like losing my mom there. But I understood
the reason. So I was thinking about the reason,
understanding why it happened. There was no experienced
team nearby. So I was analyzing that and then
understanding what I will change in my approach.
And then it wasn't just some overall. like resentment
or overall like uh non -specific anger or something
it was i it was a very specific things that i
know happened probably happened and resulted
in this incident and then okay i i thought about
it and i didn't allow this emotions and then
this to affect me loving the ocean or loving
freediving and what i do and i went back and
one month later i was competing in the world
championship and i think it was a like a way
for me to like to just get back to the to work
and getting back to work helped a lot i've had
a few people on the show i think don and prime
from deep end fitness are definitely you know
one of the conversations um but i've talked about
how healing whether it's been diving, might even
just be surfing, but certainly immersion in the
water has helped them even on their kind of emotional
or mental health journey. Like there's this feeling
of kind of peace when they're underneath. Whether
it's your journey or whether it's people that
you've trained, talk to me about the healing
element of this sport from a mental health or
emotional point of view. breath hold and and
being in the water is very relaxing for us i
think in general so even starting uh from the
land right before we go into breath hold and
dives when we see the sea water when we see any
body of water the river the ocean just observing
that already helps us to relax i think that it's
just it's something that uh that works right
away so we like to see the water we like to see
fire as well it's actually good there's there's
three things people say we can look like we look
at it definitely right it's it's people work
the fire and they're in the water so they say
so anyway it's a water is is is uh i love i love
seeing the ocean i love seeing water like i can
see it from my window here and uh that's first
step but then when you go in the water if there's
no fear a lot of people have fear and they had
negative experiences when they were kids like
drowning experiences parents pushing them as
well parents just like teaching them how to swim
without being careful without being like without
understanding what are the steps how to be a
good teacher and then they have fear they have
tension in their body then They need someone
to rewrite this memory and teach them how to
do full inhale and not to have tension. And then
they would enjoy being in the water as well.
As soon as you understand breathing, as soon
as you understand what it takes to do full inhale,
and then if you have full inhale, you float.
You can just trust your buoyancy. You can be
on the surface of the water. There is no... fear
that you're going to be sinking or like we sink
if we exhale if we think we don't have full hail
and there's a panic attack or there's fear it's
really hard to do full inhale there's like breathing
is super super important to enjoy the water as
soon as you can do that you are in the water
and you float and you can relax and it's neutral
you're you're you're like in the space you you
can relax so well that you can't really do the
same type of relaxation on the surface And then
when you're underwater and you hold your breath,
there is a pressure element. You're pressed from,
like, it depends on the depth, but you're just
compressed. And we learn how to give up, how
not to resist to the pressure. If there is a
resistance, it's almost impossible to dive anywhere.
Like, if there's tension, our lungs will be rigid
and we'll be just... trying to resist the pressure,
which is impossible. We can't resist laws of
physics, right? If laws of physics tells us we
have to be compressed two times at 10 meters,
33 feet, then there is no way around it. We should
be compressed. And if we resist and we have some
tension, it just makes everything harder. So
we need to learn how to trust our body, learn
how to trust environment, nature. There is some
theory, so we study, we read some. uh like manuals
to understand that as well then we experience
this and we learn how to trust that this process
and this experience theory plus experience have
this healing effect where we connect with our
body much much better this connection feeling
our body this is i think which what misses a
lot in our modern modern days it's like people
don't really feel their body or don't go deep
into your body and understand relaxation what
it means to give up what it means to trust our
body and allow it to save the oxygen and just
provide oxygen to the brain and and redistribute
the blood flow make the blood flow more intense
in the brain and lungs and the heart and then
your arms and legs will be conserving oxygen
by not using this oxygen too much so this is
the process that you just learn how to trust
and learn how to relax and feel the tension in
the neck in the shoulders you just learn how
to get rid of all the tension before the dive
during the dive i think and then there is another
element which is just fear being far away from
the surface being far away from oxygen and there
you need to understand your resources better
and understand, okay, even though I'm far from
the surface, I know my body, I know my resources,
I know my inhale, and even though I'm there,
I can get back to the surface because I know
my abilities. So this is also a very powerful
part of this practice. I think that's the perfect
place to bring Sonia in now as the student initially,
and then we'll progress to how this applies to
a lot of the first responders listening. So Sonia,
from your perspective, what was it that even
interested you in the world of freediving? And
then talk to me about your experiences as a student
under Alexi. Yeah. Well, to be honest, because
I have to be, I fell in love with a diver. So
I'm now engaged as of a couple of months ago.
Congratulations. Yeah. So Stephen Hood is his
name. He is he was a spear fisherman and abalone
diver. Part of Alexi's program does something
called deep week. And I explain it like bougie
why camp for divers. So this man invited me to
something called deep week to dive in Mexico
in the caves. And I had. Never put on a wetsuit.
I'd never put on a snorkel. I he took me out
to the ocean one time before we went and I thought
I was going to die. So, I mean, really, I was
I was following a man around that I had fallen
in love with. And the really I was learning the
basics of how how where Alexi was saying, like,
you know, don't die when you do this. As soon
as I sat and was able to sit with, these are
some of the best instructors in the world that
Molchanov's employees and started hearing about
the science. Obviously, sports science is a passion
of mine. I was intrigued just by that. And then
the second I got in the water, it's really the
first sport in my life that I couldn't muscle
my way through. And you're faced with your own
nervous system in a manner that I had never experienced.
In my life with first responders, there's a lot
of traumatic exposure for me in my listening
as a chaplain. just through work, frankly, through
my childhood. And I'm also competitive. So there's
something called a breathe up where you're just
floating on the top of the water before you dive
down. And I could like feel my panic and feel
myself vibrating and feel my nervous system,
you know, fighting. It's not an area where you
can have control unless you relax. And really
the moment that I. was able to understand the
science because I'm a nerd and also confront
myself with needing to calm down and monitor
my breath. I was able to, this is not deep forward,
Lexi, but for a new person within three days,
get to just about a hundred feet down. And yeah,
everyone's, how did you do that? So there was
a science part for me, but also really it's the
first time in my life that a sport held me. And,
you know, I've gotten a lot of therapy, done
a lot of trauma work, and I've been asked my
whole life, where's a safe space? And I've never
been able to come up with one. You know, at home
wasn't one, a relationship, it is now, but it
was really sketch for me. But the feeling of
being held by the water, even now when I'm going
through traumatic events, I can take my body
right there mentally, and it changed my life.
So I had a very profound experience, probably
one of the most profound for sure in sports that
I've had in my life. And it's had a profound
impact on my nervous system and my health for
sure. Give the people listening that haven't
heard your first episode just a brief overview
of what you're doing now with the first responders.
Yeah, so I founded and own The Six. We do sports
recovery. Really the heart of The Six is prevention.
So we're dealing with how to move well, how to
prevent injury. 4850 is the code we use for workers'
comp. By the end of this year, we'll be upwards
of 1 ,000 hours of first responder service, which
includes physical therapy, behavioral therapy,
and sports medicine per month. so amazing well
alexi back to you for a second prior to meeting
sonia had you been approached by you know the
lifeguarding world the the firefighting world
any of these professions that you know we're
going to learn obviously can definitely benefit
from your training um firefighters it was first
time uh with sonia it was it was uh in in february
i think going on to this uh when there was there
was uh just recent but we did a lot of applied
uh free diving we call it applied free diving
for a variety of activities it can be applied
to a lot of different things but if you think
about like special services we did many years
ago when i was um 2005 i was still a teenager
and all the way until 2015 when my mom was professor
in university A lot of different departments
would come to university in Moscow to do the
breathwork, to dive, to learn about this. How
can they be focused and move efficiently underwater
if scuba tank malfunctions or something happens,
right? And it was different departments, special
forces, and they would go to, it was Department
of Extreme Sports. Then unfortunately, after
2016, 17, it was closed because their dean of
university was also changed and then there was
less support. So it was through like when my
mom was a professor there, then we'd have a lot,
a lot of students. They would come and they would
be from special forces who would study that.
Interesting. Well, you mentioned February. So
let's go back to Sonia again then. So talk me
through, you know, you've now been immersed in
this free diving world. What was that kind of
aha moment that made you realize that this was
also something that my profession needed? Yeah,
I think that one of the largest struggles about
my job and working so heavily with the fire service
is that we have all these. huge needs. And the
first one, obviously, that comes to mind is cardiac
health, oxygen resiliency, CO2 tolerances are
three, but they're sort of married. And in my
world, the aha was that there was a sport that
answered all of that. And I hadn't come across
that before. The side effects being better sleep
hygiene, addressing nervous system disorder,
things like that. I really knew right away that
I had stumbled into something that was the perfect
training space. I can't think of in 20 years
anything that will match this. I think it's brilliant.
The other thing is, quite frankly, Alexi is...
Brilliant. And so while I was expecting before
I met him to meet, you know, a pro and I had
ideas about who pros were. He explained the science
in a way that blew my mind that I wanted the
fire service to have. So there it really it really,
really felt like magic with all the science to
back it up. And that that really was the moment
I actually when we first started talking, this
is a. This is funny. I was we were in these vans
in the middle of the jungle. And I do manual
therapy as a profession. That's how I started.
And now, you know, I write coursing for sports.
Equalization is a huge deal, right? How do you
dive and how do you take care of your ears? And
I was performing manual therapy on one of Alexi's
partners that I didn't know is one of the top
divers in the world in a van in the middle of
the jungle. And he was able to perform. um, much
better dealt with his issue. And then he, I was
doing a pallet adjustment and I, he, he did the
same thing to a friend of his, um, and called
and said, what the heck did you just do? Who
are you? And, um, we really got to have this
amazing conversation. And so, you know, initially
we were talking about manual therapy and adding
kinesiology. Alexi talked about that being a
special part of what Mulchanovs does that's different
is really come from a sports perspective and
bring that to diving. Um, and then, Because I'm
me, I said, hey, what do we think about firefighters?
And I'll let Alexi talk more about that. It was
pretty cool. Alexi, if you want to add on to
that. So when you heard that, what was your response?
Initially, like Sonia said, we started with manual
part. I already knew how active is Sonia and
how many ideas she has. We started working together
in this area. And then I think the breath hold
and breath work part. uh was was mentioned when
there were fires in the lane february and i think
sony you already knew that i'm working a lot
on this program we talked a lot more about it
later but i think i shared with you that i work
on the breath work for people even outside of
freediving breath work is a big part how we develop
our lungs and learn how to deal with co2 and
hypoxia uh when we prepare for our dives but
then i i see how beneficial is it for anyone
and um even like in my example of working with
this divers before right even the guys who have
oxygen reserves they dive while breathing, but
they still came to me, my mom, to study breath
holes and breath work to be more efficient. So
I knew since 20 years ago that it was really
useful for a variety of services. And then now
we created this program, which is online and
available to anyone. And not specifically, it
wasn't a specific firefighters program before.
But then in February, I reached out and said,
hey, let's go. do breathwork with firefighters
who was on active duty in la and we went and
i loved how it worked and it was really good
feedback from team sony can add on top of that
and then after that we were we're doing another
event in san francisco and then we just kept
building the program after that so i think it
was thanks to sonia thanks to sonia and being
being in very close to this uh to this uh to
to you and just understanding the needs uh very
specific needs yeah we said james um he's he's
talking about those those huge la fires um unfortunately
this year um a fire captain that i was really
close with uh you know worked many many weeks
in a row walked himself into an ambulance at
43 and passed away his name was kyle heard uh
from a department that i'm very close with. It
was a cardiac event. This is a department that
I'd been volunteering for, spending time learning
fire for many, many years. I was also the chaplain
that got asked. I got a call from his superior,
and they said, hey, we can't do the notification
for his young sons. They were three and nine
at the time. Will you come? And I actually didn't
know where I was going. I was in my shop. I heard
a firefighter was down, which happens unfortunately,
often in my line of work. Not this close, though.
Kyle was, if I get emotional, I apologize. Kyle
was a close friend. And it was around the time
that I had been diving and experienced diving.
And, you know, for me, there's, I had written
this post like two days before about how poor
fire health was and how little, you know, local
economies were doing anything. And Yeah, it happened.
And what I knew was that Kyle's particular department,
they talked about the six at his funeral and
how much we had been in there. And I have had
to fight for every moment that I've been in a
department trying to create change. And Kyle
was a champion for that. I mean, this guy was
like fit. He just got exhausted. And the what
I knew was that if we trained. you know, oxygen
resiliency and cardiac health that we could avoid
this. And, um, it drove me to like, how do, how
do I get to like the Alexei Molchanov? It seemed
impossible. And what I thought was impossible
wasn't, he actually came to that department first
and, um, we were able to put him in a firebox.
We were able to suit him up. They were able to
watch him use no oxygen while he's running laps
around the building. Um, and it was, Quite moving.
And then I called again going on strike service
in L .A. And he flew down and did a training
like right on site. And it was absolutely remarkable.
It was absolutely remarkable and absolutely touching.
This is really personal for me. And watching
him dive in and give his time was was pretty
moving. So I've always said that I'm after the
very best. He's sitting right here. Well, firstly,
I mean, that's heartbreaking. And like you said,
it happens all the time. I want to hit one more
area and then we're going to dive into performance,
dive into longevity because he's all tied together.
But Alexi, just before we do, you're operating
at this absolute pinnacle in your sport. My profession
are being worked into the ground, especially,
for example, LA. There was a LAFD. A figure came
out a couple of months ago that their overtime
budget for the last three years was $1 billion.
So that you think about how many extra man hours
are being worked over and above a 56 hour work
week. A big issue that we have is complete, you
know, sleep deprivation under recovery. So just
before we dive into, you know, breath work and
all the positive things that you're bringing,
talk to me about the importance of sleep and
recovery in your sport specifically. Yeah, that's
one of the main elements in being an athlete
or anything, in being ready for anything in life.
Of course, for me, when I'm getting ready for
the record, I pay a lot of attention because
I know if I don't... i'll i'll have consequences
when i'm free diving at the competitions i will
i will i will lose i won't be able to win so
i know exactly what it will cost me if i don't
sleep enough or if i don't eat properly i think
in life it's just harder to see that because
we don't have this like i do have this event
and the world championship and the day i need
to perform like exact day and perform in life
we don't have these days it's like it's sort
of the whole life and especially with services
like it's every day you have to perform right
or like it's a marathon you need to perform the
whole year and being able to recover but because
it's just not exact day we don't pay so much
attention to ourselves to our own health there's
an interesting fact actually i heard recently
that when doctors prescribe medicine to our pets
to the dogs and the cats We follow this, or what
they say to us, exactly as they say, and we take
care of our pets really well. We never take care
of ourselves really well. When doctors tell us
what to do and give us medication, the percentage
of people who follow this is really, really low.
So it just tells us how bad are we with just
being attentive to ourselves and taking care
of ourselves. In sports, they're just there.
The effect is immediate. I see that. And I think
that this is something to think about. We will
see that, but it might be too late and we might
just collapse or have a heart attack or something
if we don't pay attention to our own health.
So for me, sleep is number one priority, of course.
like i'm working on little details how to make
my sleep better quality and it's different details
for different people we there's all the tools
to improve the sleep um but in general like being
able to relax fast and being able to not to keep
the tension into the night is really really important
and there are all the other nuances and usage
of their social media usage of the phone etc
but sleep number one priority proper exercises,
not only free diving. I use cardio. I run a little
bit. I don't do this to become a really good
runner because I'm not a good runner, but I use
this to have basic... health and to train my
heart. So I do cardio for the heart. When I hold
my breath, my heart rate is really slow. It goes
down to less than 30 beats per minute. When I
sleep, it's 36, 38. So it's really low heart
rate. And my main sport, it's all very slow heart
rate. When I do my dives, it's slow. So I do
the cardio to train my heart at 130, 140, 150
beats per minute just as a way to balance it
out and to train my heart. uh i do strength for
overall like overall strength uh so this part
is really important activity fitness maintaining
the fitness level and not just strength like
if you just do strength push like do the push
the barbell squats and deadlifts is not enough
right it should be more complex it should be
more applied to life so strength basic strength
is important but also endurance but also mobility
and nutrition So three elements. Then it's sleep,
strength, overall fitness, and nutrition. Nutrition
is hydration. It's enough protein. It's enough
fibers. Making sure it's enough calories. If
there's a lot of training, sometimes under -eating
is a problem. Not having enough calories. Having
too many calories is a problem because then it's
really hard for our body. As soon as we have
extra calories, just our body struggles. carry
this extra weight, et cetera, et cetera. So those
three big areas. Well, I want to break down these
pillars. The first one, and like I said, being
very mindful of the fact that my profession is
being worked into the ground at the moment, their
ability to find time to exercise, even have motivation
to exercise is greatly diminished at the moment.
And what's exciting is in Florida, and I know
we're going to get you guys here soon. There
finally is kind of a revolution where they're
pushing for a healthy work week. And what's going
to be beautiful about that is alongside that,
we're going to be able to start putting in fitness
standards for the profession. Because when I
talk to ocean lifeguards, the concept of not
having annual or, you know, every twice a year,
you know, testing is insane to them. You know,
I was a lifeguard for a long time, kind of alongside
the fire service as well. So let's talk about
cardiovascular fitness first. In a profession
where the only air available to us during a fire
is strapped on a tank to our back, or if I'm
doing as I was on a station with a boat, if I
am having to dive down to pull someone out of
a car or, you know, someone that fell off a boat.
Again, the only air available to me at that point
is, you know, in my lungs at that point. What
is the importance of cardiovascular? fitness
in the ability to be efficient with that limited
supply of air it's it's very important to first
of all assess how much air you have if you dive
with one breath we want to go into economy mode
as soon as possible and it's if being rescuing
someone from underwater You want to use your
energy as little as possible, still while moving
and rescuing the person, etc. So having a good
technique is one of the important elements. You
want to be very efficient with your energy and
that will save oxygen. Because as soon as you
start moving with less efficiency, just kick
too hard, move too chaotic and use a lot of energy,
it's not only oxygen that will... waste it's
also will produce a lot of carbon dioxide and
it will give us this burning desire to breathe
this burning desire to breathe comes from co2
affecting our nervous system our receptors and
then it will make us tense and then it will make
us less efficient and we will not be able to
help underwater so it's moving efficiently not
too slow not too fast like just enough for the
task and produce less co2 and then if we do that
it will allow our body to adapt if we use our
resources too fast Our body is not able to adapt
to these changes fast enough. If we use our resources
as smart as possible, then our body will adapt
and it will give us extra seconds to deal with
the situation. When I think about any sort of
high -stress task like that, obviously one of
your enemies is also between your ears. So talk
to me again about the importance of the calm
mind to be efficient physically. You will have
a calm mind. It's hard to be calm when you don't
have this foundation and skills. It starts with
exercises. When we have efficient technique,
that's one. If we have efficient technique, we
know we can use our energy efficiently, use our
oxygen efficiently. We have bigger lungs because
of cardiovascular health as well. If we train
not only specific things, but also... general
endurance, we run, we swim. Cardiovascular health
is super important because we have usually bigger
lungs. If we do breath work, we do stretches,
that'll give us bigger lung volume. But also
if in general we do running and swimming, swimming
helps a lot because of breathing and swimming
usually with inhale, swimmers would... swim like
most of the time while being on inhale and there's
a lot of movement in the shoulder blade area
so that grows like it makes your lungs really
big uh so all these elements all this foundation
will help to be calm will help to uh to just
trust your own body's abilities like it's if
your body is not ready if you don't have a technique
you don't have the lung developed lungs it's
hard to stay calm it helps of course like understanding
the calm understanding how to do this in theory
helps a little bit but you might not be able
to to maintain it in extreme situations to be
able to maintain it it should be practiced it
should be something you do regularly you do foundational
activities cardiovascular activities you improve
your technique imitate the technique that will
need will be needed in this specific situation
and then you trust your body abilities and this
will come economy because you know you can do
this and you trained this many many times this
is what's crazy when i reflect back to oh my
goodness 22 years ago when i went to fire academy
the only time we really talked about breath they
use the term skip breathing so when you do get
trapped in a fire and you're trying to prolong
your tank before you know someone comes and gets
you you can I've used this technique and you
can use it, you know, like if I'm climbing stairs
on the way to a fire, I would try and use that
to be efficient so that then I have more of my
tank left for the high exertion elements. But
that's about it. That's about the only time I
ever really got exposed to anything about the
breath. And just to circle around, like I said,
if I go into a fire, what they call IDLH, the
only air I have access to on the entire planet
is that tank strapped to my back. The fitness
levels, the rest and recovery, the state of mind,
the breath work, the lung capacity, all these
should be front and center. But as I alluded
to, a lot of our profession have been kind of
just treading water because they're just worked
into the ground and performance really isn't
a conversation. As Sonia told that tragic story,
it's just trying to stop us dying less is really.
The strength and conditioning, nutrition, all
these, when you really look at it, they're just
trying to minimize the deaths. Whereas I feel
like as we move through this kind of health revolution
that's starting here in Florida, now we're going
to be able to put performance front and center,
which is then going to create health and longevity
as well. So, with that being said, I'll throw
it back to Sonia for a second. You obviously,
you know, I've got this background in so many
holistic areas, including breathwork. What is
it about Alexi's method that really made you
realize this was so applicable? You know, if
we just talk about being human. for a minute,
which every first responder is, it's natural
when you're faced with a crisis to go into hyperventilation.
And really the most popular breathwork that I've
encountered with people that are pursuing their
health in this space is Wim Hof, which is more
hyperventilation. So when we listen to Alexi's
protocols about training for the dive uh if you're
listening the way that i am i'm listening for
how do we confront uh your nervous system when
you're going into a panic space which is natural
right i don't think that when james goes into
a fire you're like aware you know that you're
going to start having short breath that really
puts you into a disadvantage in terms of that
cot buildup as alexi was talking about and it's
not to your greatest advantage so Every time
I was listening to Alexi, it was exactly what
I wanted to listen for, which was how do we,
in a roundabout way, package up a practice that
addresses, well, I'm human. What is my body naturally
going to do? And can you, in fact, train yourself
the same way you train to play piano or the same
way you train to play football to the second
that your body starts resisting pressure or resisting
trauma? Can you recognize it? And change the
narrative. You know, will your body automatically
start to get into a breath space where you're
calm? You only use the amount of energy necessary
to do your task and you come out for the win.
So that's again, I can't think of a better method
for the fire service. Obviously, there's a lot
of implication in terms of water rescue space,
but that's exactly what we need to be doing.
you know, cardiac health and oxygen efficiency
are not the same thing. They're quote unquote
married, but they're not the same. And I've heard
a lot about cardiac health in the fire service.
I haven't heard that the second it was Alexi
used the term oxygen resiliency. And I was like,
ah, that's it. It was like a eureka for me as
he was sharing about his methodology. Well, Lexi,
let's get you to expand on that then. Talk to
me about the principles of your breathwork, your
training, and then let's expand on areas like
oxygen resiliency. So with breathwork for applied
activities, not for feed areas, it's also something
we use for our dives in preparation. But let's
talk about how it can be used for anyone and
for special. uh also for tasks like in firefighting
what we discussed with sonia when we were building
the program the first element which is very obvious
is training your lungs making sure you can breathe
more with less effort you have your you develop
your lung size and you can inhale exhale ventilate
faster and get more oxygen faster when you need
when uh for uh variety of situations where you
have a lot of effort and if there is no technique
behind it it was some extra tension when we start
breathing full long size we have tension in the
neck tension in the shoulders that just makes
breathing less efficient so working on the efficiency
lung volume and efficiency and to do that we
stretch we make our breathing muscles more strong
but also more flexible as well and understand
different parts of our lungs. How could we breathe
with lower parts of our lungs? How do we breathe
with good technique with upper parts of our lungs,
et cetera? So all the sediments. Their next really
important part, even before oxygen, is dealing
with CO2 with urge to breathe. And how can we
stay calm? How can we rewire? change our reaction
to stress co2 and urge to breathe is really really
stressful and it's one of the most stressful
things in life in general like their reaction
to co2 is naturally stress our heart rate rises
and we have tension somewhere in our breathing
muscles And when we focus on this exercise, we
do something, we can sit still, or we do something
like squats or any activity while holding our
breath. And if we learn how to not react, we
feel the urge to breathe, but we pay attention
to our breathing muscles, to our neck and shoulders,
and we relax attentively. And even though we
do have the urge to breathe, we relax. teach
our body to be less reactive to this stress so
we can maintain calm in the stressful situations
and as well prolong the breath hold as well be
able to use more oxygen from our lungs because
if we don't react our body will adapt and our
adaptation abilities are insane like we just
don't know about our patient abilities it's basically
just getting to know what we are able what we're
able to do we don't know and we never tried and
if we train this skill we will be able to hold
our breath like twice longer without being in
danger so there's those elements like lungs co2
tolerance and oxygen efficiency and being less
reactive and not panicking when we just feel
the urge to breathe What are you seeing as far
as the mobility that's restricting breath? Because
I know, for example, a lot of device using now,
a lot of sitting at laptops is causing anatomical
changes, which the thoracic mobility, for example,
is diminished. So what are some of the challenges
to this in your average person as far as 2025
society? So I didn't really want to analyze.
Start with your experience. So before we really
dove into the fire service work with Melchinov,
this is what we were talking about because I
wasn't seeing a lot of... uh research about their
about this where you were marrying the two um
you know the the second that you have uh thoracic
we call it kyphosis so that lean forward which
is driving which is computer time which is phones
uh you're you know collapsing at the diaphragm
you're collapsing at the atlas and you're losing
you know between 20 and 30 percent uh of your
oxygen like the inhale is just not there so posture
by itself is a huge deal Jaw tense is a huge
deal in terms of equalizing and breath hold.
It has everything to do with it. When you're
looking at a population that has to have gear
on, we're talking about full SBCAs with poor
posture, your oxygen capacity can cut to even
more. So we're talking about already you're going
into a fire or a medical aid or a rescue 30,
40 percent in deficit. Let's imagine we don't
have sleep hygiene, nutrition, or mobility. So
it's a huge problem. It's a huge civilian problem.
But for people that need to be in gear, so there's
added compression on top of posture, it's frightening,
in my opinion. And it answers a lot of the why
behind what's happening to our firefighters.
yeah yeah to support that like if from all the
three areas biomechanics the portion etc biochemistry
co2 tolerance and uh control for our nervous
system the third one so biomechanics is a really
important start and uh when we do full inhale
and we learn how to move while we hold our breath
there are exercises where we do we uh expand
our lungs we we do rotations we do arm swings
arms rotations etc just learn how to move while
on full inhale it helps a lot helps a lot posture
as well uh because our rib cage it's all connected
to our spine so if we inhale and we get this
little last little percent ten percent of inhale
which we usually never do we feel how our lungs
the backside of the lungs work the best that's
usually something like if you try inhaling now
or anyone who listens like try to inhale you
usually inhale just with the front part of your
lungs and maybe like in the movies try to lift
your chest but not with the belly not with a
lower part of the lungs abdominal area so it's
paying attention to the lower part of the lungs
then upper part, of course, is the next step,
but also paying a lot of attention to the back.
Can you feel the expansion of your lungs, of
the ribcage, with the inhale, starting from the
low back, going all the way up to the spacing
between the shoulder blades? And when we start
exercising and breathing deeply and paying a
lot of attention to our back, then it increases
mobility and our posture is better. We have more
freedom of movement. Right. Mobility, intra -abdominal
pressure. If you don't get full inhales, really,
you know, we have two diaphragms. We have the,
I call it the bottom diaphragm. In firefighter
terms, the top and the bottom. They need to come
towards and away from each other in order to
give you proper stability. When you consider
what Alexi was talking about, just being human,
right? We're only using really the small percentage
of our lungs. Typically, the lumbar and the sacral
spine. Really don't have a lot of support at
all. And again, if we look at where our firefighters
going out, the soft tissue injury is huge. Sports
injury is huge. I don't know why it's not talked
about more. It's actually like the most injury
is in that space. Really without breath, especially
before. an athlete that depends on it we don't
have the stability just via breath um in our
in our spine so which is called intra -abdominal
pressure so i mean i could talk about we could
learn about this for three hours Well, you made
the comment about being under load. One of the
examples I've used, the very last place I worked
next to me, and this was a place that didn't
really see fire. Usually it protected a theme
park. It was very well protected as far as sprinklers
and extinguishers, et cetera. But next to the
station was a 30 -story hotel tower. And so if
we were to put on the right amount of gear to
go and fight, a fire, you know, one of the top
floors that ended up being a hundred pounds of
gear. So bunker gear, you know, extra hose, some
extra bottles to breathe from and a tool. So
nothing excessive, just a normal strip for high
rise strip, we call it. And then you ascend 30
flights of stairs and then you go to work. So
again, in a profession that has so much load
and obviously the special forces, special operators
would be another example of this. And then law
enforcement talk to me about. the importance
of some of this training to simply be able to
oxygenate the body when there's so much working
against the expansion of the breath. Yeah, well,
you really have to train both. So, I mean, in
the programming that Alexi and I wrote together,
I took all the demand of the fire service. I
call it really rotational load is super important,
meaning can you load my left side and stay heavy
on the right and vice versa. A lot of people
that work out in this program, I call it. row
workouts which is a little bit of a silly term
but it's really these square bilateral movements
that don't help you do things like run up a step
right you're not going to probably carry the
hose perfectly so that each side is equally loaded
so You'll see in our training program, there's
a lot of rotation and a lot of movement. And
then the breath practice is married right alongside
it. So you have to perform both at the same time.
And I'm not shy about saying I think it's necessary,
right? I'm like, no, you signed up to do this
job. It's hard. There's parts in the video, see,
where even Alexei Melchinov is like, whoo, because
we're performing dynamic movement and then some
static movement with drive -through. Often that's
demanding that you stay strong on either one
side of your body or where you're loaded a particular
spot and have to hold everywhere else. And I
just think it's necessary. Again, you know, to
drive home, it's not just cardiac training. It's
it's that CO2 tolerance, oxygen, resilience and
fitness. That is, you know, 20 years of me working
with firefighters, understanding what's necessary
in order to have a long career. Alexi, when you
put on the gear and were put through some of
these evolutions, what were some of the aha moments
that you had? I think weight -wise, I felt the
weight. So just pulling, like carrying gear around
wasn't easy and climbing later wasn't easy. So
I realized, okay, you have to have fitness, basic
fitness to do that, not to feel that. I think
there's like this... moment where you you can
have such level of fitness where you can do all
these things and be almost like almost you want
not to feel that you want to be so trained so
there is no effort and i i realized that it There
is a weight, yes, but I'm in general pretty fit.
I squat a lot. I have big legs to squat. So I
was able to do that. I'm like, okay, there is
weight, but actually I can do and I can learn
how to do this without being exhausted or being
out of breath. So I like this part to start with.
Then the second part was being in the building,
in the burning building. initially it was just
natural reaction me being there first time and
like almost like thinking okay do i have enough
seal in my in my suit do i have it's actually
dangerous i feel that sort of like a panic not
real penny because i had team nearby just next
to me and i thought they probably know what they
do so i'll be safe but uh but i was like okay
did they really make properly is there a good
seal so a bit of panic i felt that and then five
minutes later ten minutes later i was able to
calm down understand how how can i use oxygen
less and i've been told the stories about situations
when firefighters are are in the building like
caught somewhere and can't get out and they need
to wait for for someone to save them like cut
the wall and for them to save them and maybe
it's done quickly maybe it's not and then i was
sitting there and thinking okay how can we teach
firefighters to consume oxygen as well as possible
do very very shallow belly breathing it takes
a bit of practice to get used to it like shallow
breathing is if you overall train and you can
deal with carbon dioxide better and you can stay
calm, you can make your breathing much, much
shallower, like half of what you usually would
breathe. So those thoughts were coming to my
mind. And I think overall, it was just also an
surreal experience. Like being in a building
in my life, I never had this experience surrounded
by smoke. there's a fire in front of me there's
smoke and just you don't have this opportunity
i was i think i was very excited to experience
this being there and understanding i can survive
i have this oxygen it's been like almost somewhere
you know like in somewhere uh felt like out of
other world experience you know it's space but
something completely not belonging in everyday
life I mean, it parallels what you talked about
when you're, you know, 100 plus meters under
the ocean. You know, all you can do is trust
your training and trust your equipment. And it's
the same with us. You know, when we go deep into
a fire, I mean, if we actually took a step back
and thought about it, it's terrifying. But you
don't. You've been conditioned to that. One of
the things that I found in my career, because
I worked in Florida and I worked in Southern
California. So from England, not used to extreme
heat. And then I go and work in some of the hottest
places in America. So whether you're actually
in a fire itself or you're simply just working
in gear, like I said, climbing those stairs,
the heat is another big barrier for me. So when
you said earlier about the warm water in the
Philippines starting to diminish your performance
a little bit. That's one of the things that I've
found. Yes, you're under load, but also our gear
is designed to stop heat from coming in, but
sadly it also stops heat from leaving us as well.
Yeah, and overheating is a problem, like I mentioned
in freediving, yes, but there I can imagine that
being tense and just having extra tension in
your body will be something that will increase.
And if you need to control your body temperature
and it's hot around, you want to be as relaxed
as possible. As little muscles as possible need
to be tense because that will increase their
body temperature. So general body awareness,
relaxation will be useful in this moment. When
we hold our breath, when we do exercises while
holding breath, we learn how to relax all the
muscles that are not engaged in the activity.
Because that's essential. As little muscle, if
we engage as little as possible, we will use
less energy, produce less carbon dioxide, use
less oxygen. And this awareness and just being
attentive to this and being used to this as a
technique, like at any moment, how can I be more
efficient? How can I use less energy? Then you
will be able to then be cooler as well if you're
in this situation. I want to hit one more area
and then go to the course and what you guys are
planning to do as far as in -person seminars.
One of the things that I observed in my own career,
and I did CrossFit for quite a long time, was
if I didn't train regularly and if I didn't periodically,
sensibly put myself through redline workouts
on occasion, it would then... create doubt in
my mind that I couldn't perform at that higher
level. I couldn't perform in that gear with that
heat. So talk to me about the importance, if
any, of regular training, of these deep dives
to keep topping off that confidence in your own
ability. Because I think it's so important in
areas where there is complacency. And like I
said, sometimes it's purely because these men
and women are so overworked. They don't have
the ability to train, but I've seen training
levels dropped and box checking start to come
in. And it scares me because I think men and
women that haven't been put to the extreme on
occasions, you know, if you're not being tested
on a training ground, then what's going to happen
in real life when you suffer an emergency? That's
a really good point. still recover so there is
a balance between training and not over training
then we go back to the recovery topic but it's
absolutely true you need to train you need to
practice it's you don't need to do this every
day like push your limits every day but it's
a really big part like you learn technique first
of all you learn how to be more efficient of
course you gain strength you gain you gain some
skills that are essential but psychologically
you also you can be more calm because you are
you believe in your own abilities so trusting
your body abilities understanding that you're
ready is a big part of it and having doubts and
fear that i'll not be ready is a huge problem
because if you even if you're ready sometimes
we are ready like and that's a problem in sports
like for me like i'm ready but i had doubts and
like okay i need to train a bit more a little
bit more and then it's over training so there's
it's two -edged sword but of course the basic
work should be there you need to do that and
then you'll have this mental like stamina you
know you did it and you need to trust your training
and then you go and do this and there's no doubts
no fear you will be so much more calm during
this event. And then you learn. Every time you
go, you actually need to be analyzing how did
it feel. The moment of reflection is very important.
After you finish your training, after I finish
my dive, when everything stops in the evening
or immediately after, you think, okay, what was
the hardest part? Was it my muscles were tired?
Do I lack strength in my legs? Was I short of
breath? Was it CO2 tolerance? What was hard?
And then when you understand more specifically
what was hard, then you lean into these exercises
more and you practice them more. So you can assign
more time to this specific exercise. And then
in a shorter period of time, you will trust the
abilities more because you just devoted this
time. And then there were some... In my career,
I had a lot of cases when I had a lot of reasons
to doubt my abilities. There was like... at a
moment when i injured my lungs and i was bleeding
for five hours after the dive i did like 128
meter dive in pre -competition and i got dizzy
at the bottom i had vertigo i didn't know where
to go so when by the time i reached the surface
because of a lot of extra effort i injured my
lungs and then the question was okay can i be
ready for the world championship in a week It
was like the diet I was preparing was in one
week and I was breathing for five hours. Like
in the evening, I would just lean over the toilet
and spit and I still have blood in my lungs.
And then I was trying to recover, like breathing
oxygen every day and doing breath work, like
a little bit of stretching, a lot of sleep, a
lot of rest. And then I had to build this confidence
in a week and this with micro steps, like recovering.
testing my lungs, diving shallow to 20 meters
and understanding, okay, I can deal with this
next day 40, next day 60. I understand that my
body just have, I never tested my body ability
to recover as fast. And then I tested it and
I was able to recover really fast and I built
this confidence fast with these specific elements.
It's thanks to this reflection. I did certain,
I did the dive. I thought, what can I do to recover
as fast as possible? And I did some homework.
exercises, et cetera, try it again. Things are
better. My lungs are better. I'm recovered, right?
So this is part of the process, like always continuing
training, always continuing recovering and being
more aware and attentive. You just reminded me
of something. During COVID, it's funny, my dad
was even talking about this. He was a veterinary
surgeon for a long time and he was talking about
respiratory training. and the ability to clear
the lungs of anything, whether it's, you know,
the end of pneumonia, whatever it is. And that's
what was, you know, an issue in COVID specifically
was simply people were dying because they weren't
able, they didn't have the underlying, you know,
fitness to begin with, and then they weren't
able to get rid of the gunk that was on their
lungs. You mentioned before we hit record about
going to visit this volcano where you are at
the moment, and then the dust and debris and
using... breath work to to kind of you know move
things out of the lungs so talk to me about that
and if you i don't know if you want to reflect
on covid or or you know respiratory diseases
but when you have a fit respiratory system what
is the ability to actually clean the lungs as
far as anything that's actually in them specifically
like this volcanic dust or or covid yep um And
what helped, actually going back to COVID, I
got COVID and I had to compete two weeks later
after COVID. And I had a lot of stuff stuck in
my chest. And I was actually, I realized that
if I have a bit of vibration, like I exhale and
I resist and I hum, like have a humming sound
and feel the vibration in my lungs. More like
traditional things like that help me to cough
things out, cough things and clear my lungs faster.
But just feeling my lungs better, understanding
the volume, understanding their ability to inhale
deeper, ability to exhale with more force. I
think that this training, the basic fitness,
the lung fitness, I helped a lot. I felt how
my lungs are functioning and what helps and what
not. and then i was like like humming and coughing
out everything was what is there faster of course
i was taking medications etc but just mechanically
clear my lungs better helped then and i competed
two weeks later and i was fine i did i did good
performance uh and yesterday i was climbing and
i was i was worried if i'll be able to dive today
just before the podcast i did 125 meter dive
um and i was thinking okay like will will this
dust from volcano will be like will do sort of
harm on performance. And I did some forceful
exhales, deep inhales, empty lung breath holds
to increase the blood flow to my lungs. When
you hold your breath for a little bit of time,
a series of short breath holds, the blood flow
increases. And there's an increase of blood flow,
being able to breathe deeper. I think all these
like help to clear my lungs better. When I think
about the group that you work with in the LA
fires, we're not wearing SCBAs in wildland fires.
And even though, sadly, there are still some
horrendous things that are burning in there,
even if it's just the brush or the woods, there's
still that kind of choking smoke. And I can see
how this would be a great tool, especially for
the wildland community, just to kind of offload
some of that irritant that they've been breathing
in for days and days and days. yeah how to clear
lungs agree yeah well sonia let's go back to
you then so you mentioned about um doing some
training in california what is the goal now as
far as bringing alexi and his work to the firefighting
population yeah i mean i'm i'm a dreamer so i'm
like let's let's create a a national and a global
um repair of a broken system. You know, my team
goes out and runs clinic like in firehouses.
And, you know, I realized that we have to have
training that's accessible on a mobile platform,
which Alexi has, which I have now. I want to
get the practice of this in the hands of as many
firefighters as we can. You know, obviously there
are applications, like you said, for various
first responder groups. But with this one right
now, there's a method to my madness. You know,
I think that if we can get access to pools, that's
really fast to do breathwork training and to
work on this collaboration that we did. Budgets
are getting cut. um at least where i am um so
it's you know i've been feeling like it's two
steps forward one step back two steps forward
one step back uh breath work travels really well
and you don't need a lot of equipment so um this
is you know my response the deeper and deeper
i get in is going okay um how can we do something
that's accessible how can we do something that's
affordable how can we give them the best um i
i would like to see this breath practice be a
mandated part of training for every firefighter,
frankly, and the breath practice alongside the
cardiac and the strength health. We have to put
prevention in play. We just have to. And that's
what I'm after. So it's accessibility. And then,
you know, anybody that works in this industry,
we just it's about not quitting, frankly, and
going again and going again. And then, you know,
I've watched you do it, James. It's like. walking
through tragedy after tragedy after tragedy and
showing up. For me, being able to bring Alexi
as a game changer because he's, you know, of
the best in the world at what he does. And the
collaboration of this allows voice in a firehouse
with 20 years of experience and allows voice
globally with fitness because of who Alexi is
and what he spent his time doing, which is being
the best. When you talk about the budgets being
cut, I just want to put this in quickly. As we're
seeing this revolution in Florida, what is happening
is this profession in itself is a beautiful calling.
It really is. And a lot of us are doing the fire
and the EMS combined. And by not addressing the
things that were broken, for example, the work
week, that has then... that compounded the retention
and recruitment crisis, we have ended up with
vacancies all over the place. I forget, someone
told me, I think LAPD, for example, is something
like 25 % understaffed. So that means that the
rest of those men and women are having to work
all those extra days. And now young people are
looking, let's go back to fire, 56 hours a week,
80 hours a week with one overtime, not to mention
the fires and all these other things that come
through and create so much more. And that comes
at a cost. There's a financial cost to that.
The departments here that have announced or even
transitioned to already, the 24 -72, young people
are looking at that going, well, that sounds
really healthy. And now they have no overtime
spots available. And they've saved millions and
millions of dollars. That then is available to
start investing in programs like this. And now
you're doubling down on the health and wellness
of your first responders, which saves. hand over
fist on workman's comp claims and medical retirements
and lawsuits because we make mistakes. So the
money is there. And this is a really important
message. The money is already there. But as Desmond
Tutu said, we spend so much time pulling bodies
out of the river, we forget to go upstream to
find out why they're falling in in the first
place. And that's exactly it. We don't need more
money. We don't need more tax money. We need
to obviously, you know, front load that. So that
might require one budget year of more. But the
money is just being wasted by breaking first
responders and its initiatives like yours and
some of the other ones I've had on the show that
are then going to amplify not only health, but
performance to make sure that that first responder
can make it 30 floors up and get to your child
before they die. Yeah, absolutely. It's I mean,
I can't tell you how many times I've sat in.
And talked about that from the perspective of
why it's exactly that, like we're spending millions
and millions of dollars on workers comp when
most of these programs are a fraction of that.
So there's really a narrative change. You know,
I can say I haven't been the most patient when
I'm sitting in front of HRs and councils telling
that story, because I don't think it's that,
you know, the science isn't me being smart. It's
just it's just the reality. And, you know, I
can tell you that I've done work for. Six dollars
a head. And I can tell you, I mean, my my shop
is is well into the six plus figures with scaling
service just to be able to get in there. You
know, my new narrative has become wildly successful
and prove it regardless of where the politics
lie. You're absolutely right. Money's totally
there. You know, getting getting the changeover
for one season. We're definitely ready for. Or
we just compete. And I'm sitting here with Alexi,
so I think we're doing pretty good. You know,
it takes people with heart like him to care about
this task and to be equipped for it. And I know
that we are. I'm really excited about this season.
I'm really happy that I didn't give up. And,
you know, like the other people that you have
on these programs, it's pretty special. i'm definitely
ready to take the the world on for for my community
for sure well alexi i know you mentioned that
you've done some programs in california i know
we're trying to get you over here to florida
now um for people listening what would that seminar
that workshop look like if you came in person
we spent some time covering some basics in theory
so explain a basic idea behind urge to breathe
co2 hypoxia And this knowledge already helps
because there is a lot of myths and illusion
that prevents us from performing properly. So
there is a bit of theory, not too much. Most
of their class will be on us doing practice,
doing breath work, focusing on biomechanics,
like how to breathe better, focusing on changes
in our body, biochemistry, what happens when
we... accumulate more co2 when we don't breathe
out and when we when we spend our resources energy
and oxygen as well so that and we do this element
by element so there'll be exercises where we
do just breathing without breath holes then we
do breath holes then we combine them with exercises
which sona mentioned where we do some specific
exercises so there are the steps and in san francisco
it took us like up to three hours to go through
the class. And it was two groups, three hours
each, so it was a full day event. That's what
we plan to do in Florida as well. And depending
on the facility and availability of maybe the
pool is there or some additional elements are
there, we can make it longer. But it's usually
a one -day event, like several hours event. And
for people listening that want to look at the
online platform, talk to me about the overview
of what they'll find there as far as training.
On the platform, we recorded classes with different
intensities. And there is an exercise for the
very beginners, very simple version of exercise.
There is the same exercise with longer breath
hold duration. And we guide people. from the
very entry level all the way to like expert level
and then it can take them a month to do the whole
program maybe it'll take them a couple of months
to go from the easier level to the hard level
uh but there is a list of videos they they switched
on on their computers or their the phones and
they just follow follow me there is a count seconds,
inhale, breath hold, exhale, breath hold. I show
the positions and then it's very easy. Just follow
me for each class and session and there is no
need to think about anything else. Just follow
my instruction from the screen and listen to
some theory, listen to some additional information
in the class. That's the idea and that's the
starting point. After the program is finished,
We will be also looking to provide continuous
training as well. So when people understand all
the exercises, they learn technique, they can
make it even harder and we'll be guided by our
community of trainers. That's our next step after
they finish the course. I'm totally taking a
tangent here, but I meant to ask you earlier.
Like I said, I was a lifeguard and I've worked
with people of all kind of shapes and sizes.
seem to be an absolute stone when it comes to
buoyancy. Like if I hold my breath, I can kind
of stay above the water, but my legs will sink
immediately. I had friends that I did lifeguarding
with that were a little overweight that would
float effortlessly on the water. So talk to me
about buoyancy. Has everyone got the same level
of buoyancy or does, oh my goodness, what's the
word I'm looking for? Body composition factor
into it. Body composition factors definitely
change the buoyancy. We all can float. It's only
a few people I saw that are negatively buoyant.
If there's no fat at all, they're just all muscles,
bodybuilders. Bodybuilders would be very heavy,
but it's quite rare. Still, if you train your
lungs and you can inhale deeper, you will float.
But then if we learn how to deal with our buoyancy,
then we can still move efficiently in the water.
And we just need to know how much energy it will
take us to go back to the surface. If we're negatively
buoyant, it will take more energy to get back.
If we're positively buoyant, it will be more
energy to go down. So there is a way where we
see all sorts of divers around the world, like
skinny, heavy, bigger divers, a bit more buoyant.
uh but managing to dive super super deep so just
adjusting technique and dealing with it we there's
definitely no restriction with any body type
you can you can move efficiently in the water
and mastery buoyancy beautiful yeah like i said
if i exhale i go straight to the bottom when
i've done diving in the past and they've given
people several weights on the belt i usually
had like one so there's definitely an element
of negative buoyancy i think Yeah, I do the same.
If I exhale, I'll go straight to the bottom.
I'm pretty heavy. But if I inhale full lungs,
then I'll be pretty buoyant. Beautiful. Well,
for people listening, let's start with your online
platform and let's expand as well. If people
want to get into the sport of free diving specifically,
talk about all the resources that are available
there. so after like we talked a little bit about
the firefighter program it's a program online
with the elements of practice elements of theory
with their very specific sizes there is a more
generic course a breathwork course that is for
people who want to learn about breathwork and
not necessarily about freediving just yet and
there is even like more Static breath holds and
more exercises that will be less specific for
firefighters. A lot of exercises sitting while
we sit, like working with tables, breath holds,
box breathing tables. Also additional mobility
exercises and also additional elements of theory,
understanding theory behind that even more. And
the next step after dry breath holds and breath
work will be trying it in the water. if you manage
to hold your breath for a minute or two minutes
even like pretty much every beginner can hold
their breath for three minutes if you practice
a little bit if you understand your abilities
three minutes is not a fantastic number we can
see that people do three minutes four and five
sometimes some somebody who is doing five minutes
in a matter of month for somebody it will take
maybe a few months three months but five minutes
is not something unreachable Then you go in the
water and you try to hold your breath in the
water, try to do some dynamic swims, how to move
efficiently, how to kick fins, how to swim without
fins. And then the next step will be trying depth
diving, and that's how to be calm, how to deal
with pressure. And that's the hardest element,
but it's very, very rewarding. And on the same
platform, besides the firefighting, There is
Bradford program, and there is a map with all
our schools around the world, all our instructors
around the world, where you just travel. You
can't do freediving alone. It's very dangerous.
We talked about it earlier. But where you can
travel, and you can get physical interaction
and class with one of our instructors. Currently,
we have 2 ,000 instructors around the world,
and we work on growing the number so people can
train in more and more cities around the world.
It's both pools and open water. Beautiful. And
for people listening, where can they find the
website? And then also, what about you on social
media? Me, it's Alexey Molchanov. It's the same
Instagram. And the company is Molchanovs. It's
plural. It was founded by me and my mom. That's
why it's S in the end. So Molchanovs. And the
logo, if you look at my logo, it's on my T -shirt.
Two tails, whale tails, and it's a bigger M,
and it's also two Ms. Basically, it's my mom
and me. That was a story behind the logo, so
M and M. And that's smallshows .com website.
There is a part devoted to gear because we produce
gear for the beginners and professionals as well,
but there is a community platform and educational
part of the website as well. So look there, and
there is a map that will help you to find the
best teacher. Beautiful. Now, we lost Sonia for
a second, so I'm hoping we'll get her back. But
in her place, if people listening want to bring
you to their department and teach their firefighters,
where are the best places to do that? Reaching
to Sonia, Sonia is great with organizing events.
She knows. a lot a lot more about firefighting
and firefighters because she just works in this
area every day when i get messages on social
media like dming me is great way to reach out
and i will get the message my team will get the
message we'll work with the message so social
media dms and that'll be probably the easiest
start beautiful i'm going to throw some closing
questions at you quickly and see if we get sonja
back in the meantime The first one I love to
ask, is there a book or are there books that
you love to recommend? It can be related to our
discussion today or completely unrelated. There
are some freediving books and there is Book Breath
by James Nestor. It's a book which was written
some years ago. It was written in early years
of freediving. So there are some elements that
already evolved. uh some elements where he described
freediving but it was in early like 2010 around
these dates but in general it's great book to
read it it has good ideas about breathing the
importance of breathing of course um it's a not
scientific book but it's very good read as well
right so i think some some elements are already
like a little bit different nowadays like more
and more studies are there but it's a great read
um there is um there is a book about some champions
free divers that i can recommend if you're interested
in about free diving there is a very big book
from herbert niche the guy who suffered this
incident i mentioned trying to do 250 meter dive
800 feet dive with any discipline there's no
limits and that's book by herbert niche and It's
the quest of... It's a longer name, but it's
Herbert Nitsch and a dive to 250 meters. I will
send exact names so we can maybe post it later.
This is the book. Other than that, as for general
books, I loved... Principles by Ray Dalio. I
think it's one of the books that is not specific
to sports, but just in life, I think this was
very, very good read. I read it a few times.
So very applicable to life and to be focused,
to understand what is strong at, what is not
strong at. So this is another one I would recommend.
Brilliant. And what about films and documentaries?
Well, historical, like one of the earliest movie
about freediving, Big Blue. by Luc Besson. I
think it's still a very beautiful picture. Even
many, many years later, it's an amazing story.
I love this movie. I watched it many, many times.
And The Freediver, the recent documentary, I
think this is one that tells the story about
the sport really, really well. And it's really
beautiful done. Director did an amazing job and
the crew operators. And it follows one of my
latest seasons where I tended to break five world
records. And it tells a story about my mom. And
there is interaction with sperm whales, with
the wildlife. So it's one of their, I think,
really, really beautiful movie about freediving,
The Freediver. Beautiful. Well, the next question,
is there a person that you'd recommend to come
on this podcast as a guest? to speak to the first
responders, military and associated professions
of the world? It's a good question. If I would
think about our team, our scientists and doctors,
we have very experienced medics, which... make
sure we are safe during the competition and i
could think of i think in u .s in florida actually
in tampa there is juani valdivia who is new resurgent
and he's a freediver he's national record holder
and he understands uh trauma very very well what
happens in freediving so he can and he's a doctor
in general neurosurgeon so he can i think he
can do like do a lot of parallels how can how
can we what can we do to recover after traumas
and talk about lungs a lot that'll be one person
which who's right next to you Yeah, absolutely.
Brilliant. Well, thank you. Well, the last question
before we then go to Sonia, make sure we know
where to find her because we've got her back
now. What do you do to decompress? Which sounds
like a strange question since we've been talking
about that the whole two hours. But are there
any other areas that you use to decompress these
days? Well, I like to... I have a lot of action
in my life. I don't take specifically like a
full week off or a full... like days of myself
i think what i i'm really good at and i'm training
a lot i do a lot of things i work i train but
i introduce i recover really well so i'm making
sure my sleep is good i do power naps so if i
have half an hour i will sleep in the middle
of the day i'll do that and then i don't really
find myself in the need of like the compression
or like uh like i need a week off i i never do
so i i i have a lot of different i i do switch
activities sometimes it can be competition season
i focus on deep dive and then i switch it's a
pool season and then i have a season where it's
more work related and i work a lot so i i didn't
i'm just i think just maybe me been training
for my whole life since i was three years old
but i don't like to rest i cannot rest i can't
just be somewhere and like rest i love What I
love is I love to go to saunas and hot tubs.
I love that. So if I have some time to go with
friends, I would go and spend three, four hours.
Cold plunge, hot tub and saunas, I will do that
for sure. Brilliant. Well, Sonia, just going
back over to you. For people listening, firstly,
where can they find you and the six? And then
we were also talking about if firefighters or
fire departments are listening, how can they
bring the two of you to their area? Yeah. So
my website is www .the6 .us. So you can find
me there. We're physically located in Santa Rosa,
California, although we travel quite a bit. We're
up for driving and flying. So all over our state
is pretty easy. In terms of this. program. It's
very mobile. So the heart of what we're after
in terms of departments wanting to work with
us is that it's a collaboration and that we are
able to bring seminar and courses to different
departments. Those hopefully will be live. Alexi
and I can bop around pretty easily and fly. And
then continuing ed and certification will be
on Alexi's website. He has an app coming out
called Move. It'll be on that app as well as
his main site. There will be hyperlinks where
you can explore breathwork more on the Molchanov
side and where you can explore the prevention
and sports and behavioral side on my side. This
is definitely collaborative. I realize I keep
saying that, but I think that both is imperative.
In terms of a department trying to locate us,
either of our websites will work. Emailing is
great. If you're in the state of California,
I think every single firefighter has my cell
phone number. That might be a little overwhelming,
but an email is just great. We do do a ton of
workers' comp. I get asked that a lot. I know
that's the first thing. Do you take it? Yes,
we do. I'd love to become workers' comp at some
point someday and just revamp that whole system.
So that is a huge part. And then we also will
contract with departments and cities, bringing
this collaborative work to them. Well, I want
to thank you both for such an amazing conversation.
We've been through so many different areas. Alexi,
thank you, not only for what you're doing for
our population now, but also for the storytelling
and your vulnerability in this as well. The application
of this is just so obvious to me, not only, like
I said, on the health and wellness side, but
also on the performance side, which is what we
should ultimately be talking about in this profession.
So I want to thank you both for being so generous
with your time and coming on the Behind the Shield
podcast today. Thank you. That was great. Thank
you, James. Thank you very much. Great questions.
Loved to be here.