Health and Wellness, Fitness and Exercise, Stress Management, Mental Health, Nutrition and Diet, Sleep and Recovery, Science and Research, Wearable Tech and Devices, Lifestyle and Self-Improv
Devon McGregor
Heart Rate Variability: The Key to Unlocking ...

  • Understanding HRV: The difference between heart rate and HRV

  • The implications of low HRV and its connection to age

  • Identifying a "good" HRV and personal baselines

  • Strategies for improving HRV: lifestyle changes and monitoring

  • HRV's role in understanding stress response physiology

  • Choosing accurate devices for measuring HRV

  • Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System for better health

  • Early illness detection through accurate HRV readings

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has gained significant attention recently as a powerful tool for monitoring overall health and well-being. Understanding the nuances of HRV can help you unlock your body's full potential, improve your recovery, and manage stress more effectively.

Heart Rate Variability: The Key to Unlocking Your Health Potential
Wellness, Wellbeing, Health, Exercise, Training
Devon McGregor
Breath Taking

When I first started teaching my clients about the importance of breathwork, it was a tough sell. While some immediately embraced the concept, others outright rejected it. After all, it's always there: whether awake or asleep, we take 20,000 per day, or 14 to 20 breaths every minute. Still, the pandemic has taught us that this is an opportune time to take every breath seriously.

Breath Taking
Wellness, Wellbeing
Devon McGregor
THE GUILTY VERDICT FOR DEREK CHAUVIN

“I am angry. It is illegal for me to be angry. Remember: Don't get angry. It is illegal to be a black man and be angry. Right. Got it. I will remember this next time.”

Kara Lee Corthron, “The Truth of Right Now”

On this day, the former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted by his peers of three charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Today, a rare thing happened when a white police officer was held accountable and will be punished for murdering a black man while a small group of people - young and old, white and black, man and woman - watched, frustrated by the hopelessness of it all.

THE GUILTY VERDICT FOR DEREK CHAUVIN
Devon McGregor
THE FORCE OF NATURE: KOBE BRYANT

"When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself, 'You are a failure,' I think that is almost worse than dying."

Kobe Bryant

THE FORCE OF NATURE: KOBE BRYANT
Devon McGregor
Tell me what it’s like. You mean being black?

Tell me what it’s like. You mean being black?

Over the recent weeks, that direct question naturally keeps being respectfully asked of me from well-meaning friends. And I’m appreciative for the genuine interest.

I must candidly confess my immediate thought is firstly an internal question: Is that the first time you’ve had that burning curiosity? You don’t have to satisfy me with an answer to that. Allow me to respond to your question, though.

We’ve been masking for a long time. All people of color have had to wear masks to conceal our authentic voices, faces, emotions and thoughts for much of our lives. And, the clever woman of color, her mask is her foundation. She carefully applies makeup atop her mask.

Tell me what it’s like. You mean being black?

Executives

The Senior Leader and the Athlete

 Executives and elite athletes share much in common.

The Generalities: They both must perform at a consistent high level in persistently and routinely stressful environments, often standing close to the ledge of their capabilities; Mistakes are measured in fractions and judged harshly, and; Posture is key.

There is, however, one unfortunate and unnecessary difference: Athletes spend, by far, more time practicing to improve their craft than they do competing, and they clearly understand the value of rest and nutrition for recovery. Conversely, business leaders reside in a competitive environment where stress is often a benchmark for success, fatigue is common, and nutrition is often an afterthought.

Why it Matters: In a nutshell, there’s much that a business leader can learn from competitive athletes:

  1. A rested body and mind allows you to return to your work refreshed, bringing clarity. It is now common for sports teams and athletes to employ Sleep Coaches to better combat travel schedules and aide in recovery.
  2. Physical fitness is used as a tool to make tasks easier.
  3. Mindset control is essential to better manage groups of people, and unpredictable audiences or environments.
  4. Small margins can impact and determine success or failure.
  5. You are judged by your posture. Slumped shoulders implies weakness, poor self esteem and surrender. Athletes and business leaders who move well, with ease and purpose are a joy to follow. There is no skill that is not enhanced by better movement.
  6. Pattern recognition and recall allow athletes to quickly and repeatedly extract and sort information that is often coming at them at a rapid, if not unpredictable rate. The development of this skill enables high performers to anticipate and predict possible outcomes. Thereby making them better decision makers.

Movement makes us smarter and enhances creativity. Athletes have learned that practicing movement helps them to solve problems faster and improve concentration. Modern movement science has shifted us away from high-volume training and towards higher-intensity training, instead. “How much and for how long” has been replaced by more focused, deliberate work in shorter bursts with greater allowance for rest and recovery.

Business leaders faced with the constant demands of constant work schedules, travel, self-imposed cortisol hormonal injections caused by constant stress causing damage to cells and disrupting our ability to metabolize sugars and fats can in a similar way benefit from these techniques employed by athletes.

Summary: I’ve condensed decades of work with senior leaders, athletes and their teams to these simple lessons, tailoring them to the individual. While there are obvious differences between athletes and business leaders, the similarities are too myriad to ignore. There is no question that executive teams and their boards can increase the performance and success of their teams by learning to doing the same. You can increase your rate of success by training the athlete in you!

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