PODCAST - how to gain confidence as an athlete with asthma
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host Johnny Ha, an ultra runner endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone a hundred K ultra. I prove them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get started.
It can be devastating when you first get diagnosed with something like asthma, which is why today on the show I'm gonna share with you how to build confidence as an athlete with asthma. This happened to me back when I was four years [00:01:00] old. I absolutely loved playing soccer and running after the ball, scoring goals, playing defense.
All of it. And I loved playing it year round. And I remember sitting down in the doctor's office and them explaining to me that I wouldn't be able to play the sport that I loved, that I wouldn't be able to perform at the level I wanted to. I wouldn't be able to run around on the playground with my friends.
Well, I have multiple episodes on my podcast, on my channel about how. Asthma has become a superpower for me. How knowing that I have asthma has helped me live my life better, but it wasn't always that way. I was initially crushed and I needed to go through a step-by-step process that I have formulated over the years to build confidence again.
To build confidence as a person, as a kid, and to build confidence as an athlete. Well, the first. Step of building confidence [00:02:00] as an athlete with asthma is all about shifting your mindset before we do anything with strengthening our lungs, using different tools to really help our bodies perform at a higher level.
Even with asthma, you and I. Need to start by defining what asthma means to us differently. We need to refrain from what people may have told you. We need to refrain from what the internet may have told you. We need to make sure that we're listening to our bodies and staying safe, and what we really need to do is change this phrase that.
For me, got stuck in my head as a kid. Since I have asthma, I can't do. Certain things. This is what I was told, [00:03:00] and hey, I highly recommend that if you do have asthma or you think you have asthma, or you know, someone that you think may have asthma, you or that person or and that person need to talk to a healthcare professional.
I am not a healthcare professional. I have a disclaimer in the show notes and in the YouTube description below this video. Regardless, I invite you. To steer away. From this statement or any variation of it. Since I have asthma, I can't do certain things. This is a very demotivating statement, a disempowering statement.
So we need to get rid of this and change it to this. I am blank with asthma in my case, maybe in your case, I am an athlete. With asthma. You are not [00:04:00] defined by this, by asthma, by whatever your condition or conditions may be. You can still be whatever you want to be. Now, you may need to make adjustments on how you show up to be to do.
To have the thing, but this is where your power within and the power of living with something like asthma comes from. So step one is I want you to start telling yourself, I am blank. With asthma. I am an athlete with asthma. I am a person with asthma. With is a very important word here with create space between you [00:05:00] and what you've been diagnosed with.
You are not your diagnosis, you are living with it. Step one, shift. Your mindset. Once I shifted my mindset, the rest of these steps unlocked for me. Once I realized that I am still a soccer player, I just also have asthma, I figured out that I could still do the thing. I just had to do it a little differently.
So instead of going to soccer practice and not having my inhaler with me, not. Being aware that I have this thing that can hit me at any time. I was very aware and I was intentional. And I was intentional about how I had lived my life, how I showed up at soccer practice, and that brings me to step two. Be intentional.
What does this mean? This means that I knew that I needed [00:06:00] to do something to strengthen my lungs. I knew that if my lungs were stronger, if my cardiovascular system was stronger, my heart was stronger, then asthma would not affect me as much. So I saw a couple more doctors and I was recommended the following strategy.
I was recommended that instead of. Taking my inhaler before practice that I should definitely have it with me. But I should try practicing for five or 10 minutes, see how my body feels, see how my lungs feel, and then take my inhaler. What this did, it supported my intention of eventually strengthening my lungs to a point where I would no longer have to take my inhaler at all.
Now. I know that your asthma may be worse than my asthma [00:07:00] was. Therefore, if you are listening to this right now and you're like, Johnny, there's no way that I could ever completely stop using my inhaler. I get it. I'm not a healthcare professional, but being intentional means listening. Two, your body. It means that once you set your intention, so for me it was playing soccer without using my inhaler.
Well, I knew that there were gonna be a lot of steps that I would need to go through to get there. I knew that there was gonna be a process that I needed to go through to get there, and step one of my process was. Instead of taking my inhaler at the beginning of practice, I would take it five to 10 minutes in while once you set that intention and you start listening to your body, step three becomes so much easier.
You and I need to start stacking small wins. The key word here is [00:08:00] small. Remember, we've changed our mindset. And step one, you and I are still, you and I, we just have asthma. We live with asthma. That's step one, changing the mindset. Step two. Is being intentional. So what is your intention now that you know you have the thing or that you're living with the thing?
Living with asthma, my intention was I want to play soccer and I don't want to have to rely on my inhaler all the time. That was my intention. So what was next? Well, 10 minutes into practice, I took my inhaler. I did that for about a week. Then the next week I waited 15 minutes. And guess what? My lungs supported me to 15 minutes.
Then a week later, what did I do? I waited 20 minutes. Well, this kept stacking, and every single time I was able to wait even a single minute longer before taking my inhaler. This was a win. It [00:09:00] may have been a small win. This is a win. Now, it's important that you complete step one and step two first, when building confidence for yourself, because we have reframed things.
If we don't start with the mindset and just accepting that we have this thing that we're living with this thing, then you and I might look at, well, I didn't used to have to take my inhaler at all. Here's a new reality now. Now that you have been diagnosed with the thing, our winds need to start smaller.
Well, I eventually after stacking win, after win after win for months, and yeah, I had setbacks where I needed my inhaler five, 10 minutes in, even though my goal was to wait half an hour. But I over time, stacked so many small wins that I was able to complete not only whole soccer practice, but a whole game without using my inhaler.
And 30 [00:10:00] years later, I was able to run an entire a hundred K ultra marathon race without using my inhaler, and I won it. Well, the reason why I was even able to get there is stacking small wins, and it started 30 years. Earlier and now I don't just stack wins with my athletic performance. I don't just stack wins related to asthma every single day I end my day writing down my three wins, and some days I write down moral wins.
But I intentionally remember, be intentional, come back to what are my three biggest wins for the day. And this allows me to build momentum, build even more confidence in my life. So it may start here. It may start with building confidence as an athlete with asthma and building confidence as a human, as a person in your life stack.
Small wins. So that's my [00:11:00] three step process of building confidence as an athlete with asthma. As long as you think it's helpful, I wanna share with you my three tips. To help you unlock your confidence. This is my three step process. When you combine these three steps with the three tips I'm gonna share with you, you're gonna be able to move through these steps faster and really accelerate your confidence as an athlete with asthma and as a person with asthma in your life.
So as you're going through the steps, step one, shift your mindset. Step two, be intentional. Step three, stack your small wins. Here are some things that you can use to help yourself along the way. The first one is progressive overload. Progressive overload is very similar to stacking wins, but this is really more of a tactic, a strategy that you can use to really.
Build your lungs. Build your body. What [00:12:00] we wanna do is slowly, incrementally strengthen our lungs, strengthen our body, strengthen our minds, and we do this in different ways. Can do this how I train for races. I use this to train for distances I've never done before. Before I became an ultra runner, I'd never ran more than six miles before.
Well, the first time I ran 10 miles, I actually walked half of it. This is progressive overload. I progressively got to the point where I could run 10 miles, but the first time I hit that distance, I walked half. Then I walked a quarter, then I walked 10% of it, and then I ultimately didn't walk at all.
Progressive overload. We progressively. Get towards our goal. This is why intention is so important. 'cause our intention drives what we do to get there. Our intention is similar to goals, but it's more of what is your intention now that you know that you have asthma? Well, progressive overload is [00:13:00] a tool that you can use to build your lungs, build your body, build your mind.
The next one is consistency. Consistency has done so much for me. Once you really start getting confident, it is important that you consistently move your body consistently, do the things that make you feel confident, consistently stacking winds. Now your winds may change 'cause eventually you may get to that point where you complete an entire soccer game without taking your inhaler.
This is why we need to think of what other wins we have. And we need to start giving ourself praise for great. I completed a full soccer game. I'm gonna do that again next weekend. Then you do it again, then you do it again, then you do it again. Well, remember, if you take a summer off from playing soccer and then you go back and play soccer in the fall, you may not start where you left off.
This is important. [00:14:00] Very important. You may have to progressively overload again, building your lungs up again to get to the point where you don't need your inhaler as much. That means during the summer, remember, be intentional. If you don't wanna run into that in the fall, you need to join a summer league.
Join a summer camp. Do some running on your own. Play soccer with your friends, whatever it is, we, you keep that consistency and just give yourself grace. If you're not consistent, you may have to restart your progressive overload plan. So it happens for me, if I don't work out for a week, it's very different.
If I don't work out for a day after a week, I may need to take it a little easier on specific. Workouts. I may think about it. If you're sick, you take a week off, you take two weeks off, or maybe you're working out a little bit, but even fighting off a [00:15:00] cold, you may need to start a little lighter on yourself.
So this is why it's so important to consider these things. Then number three, this is very practical focus on your exhales. This. Is a game changer when it comes to actually starting to have a handle of your breath and of your asthma. There's so many different breathing techniques out there. I've tried numerous, and for me, I know that the less that I need to pay attention to when I'm focusing on my.
The better. What do I mean by that? I mean, there's great tools about counting your inhale holding and then counting your exhale. Doing four seconds, eight seconds, four seconds. Eight seconds. Eight seconds. 8, 8, 8. All these different options for me. I want something that I can come back to when things get hard, that's easy to focus.
And what I have [00:16:00] come up with that's really helped me is focusing on my exhales, focusing on loud exhales. The reason why this works so well for me is because it's not just a physical sensation, it's an audible sensation. So when I focus on pushing air out.
I don't even need to focus on my inhale. I just focus on pushing air out,
and what this does is it expels the CO2 from my lungs, opening them up to receive fresh. Oxygen. So I just start focusing on my exhales when things get tough. This has given me so much confidence in playing soccer, climbing fourteeners. This has been huge climbing. 14,000 foot mountains running. When I'm in the middle of a race and I need to catch my breath, I focus on my exhales.
I focus on. Audible exhales, pushing out the air, [00:17:00] and then my inhales tend to follow. This also tends to calm my mind, calm my brain from overthinking. 'cause my brain hears the exhale sound. And this calms my brain, calms my mind, it gives me some control back over my breath.
And then my breath starts getting deeper. I start getting more oxygen in my body. Now, if you want to take this even further, I have my three Pillars of Healthy Living Guide. It is linked in the show notes and in the description. If you're watching this on YouTube, the three pillars of Healthy Living Movement.
Tracking and accountability, I highly recommend that you grab your free copy and start integrating it into your life today. You can go to www.athletewithasthma.com/healthy-living-guide to grab your free copy. In addition, if you want to explore [00:18:00] how you and I can work together, I have links in the YouTube description and in the show notes that you can check out as well.
I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to the Athlete with Asthma Show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. It is about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals, and if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
