“If you can’t breathe as deep as you can then you’re in a slight state of physiological stress.”
In this educational conversation, Tom and I dive into topics including breathing for rehabilitation, the psychology of breathing, the feet-respiration connection, where to start when integrating foot-breath integration, proper foot posture for a deep breath, finding your baseline breath, diaphragm-pelvis-foot real estate, end-of-range of postures (i.e., pelvic tilted all the way forward), the creature of habit conundrum, posture-emotional-respiration parallels, adaptability of the body, looking for WTFF (wide, thin, flat, flexible) shoes, proper heel-toe-shin alignment, the unstable surfaces in our shoes, why we like to “kick our shoes off”, toe splaying for a better base of support and stability, finding physical and psychology stability, foot exploring exercises and practicing, the human toe spreader, palm to sole connections, barefoot running, ideal shoes for supporting proper foot posture, ground up breathing, vestibular eye movement, and pairing vestibular-ocular reflexes (VOR) to function breathing.
ABOUT TOM:
Tom Williams has a passion for helping people breathe, move and perform. He is an accredited physiotherapist and strength/conditioning coach, Oxygen Advantage instructor, university tutor, entrepreneur mentor, foot nerd and overall a dedicated movement practitioner.
In 2019, Tom founded Breath Performance, an education based platform to help athletes and entrepreneurs understand the importance of breathing for performance. He soon realised how vital breathing was to sleep and movement behaviour and began giving workshops, seminars and consultations on how to improve breathing to improve these other pillars of health.
Along the way, Tom linked in with The Foot Collective, a company with a shared philosophy to improve people’s confidence in their own bodies from the foot up. Tom became a dedicated foot nerd and has helped launch a podcast called ‘Restore 2 Explore’, tackling the misconceptions around commonly occurring foot and ankle conditions.
It is through this mixture of experience that has allowed Tom to build his identity as a practitioner. He uses behaviour change strategies, blended with movement practices, which are both built on the importance of the breath. Tom is striving to help people from all walks of life to understand how simple steps go a long way to improving their health and wellbeing.
FOLLOW TOM:
INSTAGRAM: @breathperformance_physio
PODCAST: Restore 2 Explore
Have an idea for a future BREATH TO BREATH interview? Email me!
Live with intention. Move with gratitude. Breathe with purpose.
Live with intention. Move with gratitude. Breathe with purpose.
