How pro hockey players recover between shifts, and what it means for your workday

A shift in professional hockey lasts about 45 seconds. Players go all out, come back to the bench with their heart rate through the roof, and get a minute or two before they go again. How fast they settle decides how much they have left for the next one.

When I work with hockey players, a lot of time goes into that minute on the bench. Roman Kinal told me that learning nasal breathing techniques helped him lower his heart rate after a long shift, so he felt more recovered and ready for the next one. Nick Cicek said it helped him recover between shifts and calm himself down and focus during intermissions.

Your day has shifts too

You probably do not play hockey. But you have your own version of the shift: the hard call, the tense meeting, the drive home after a day that took everything. Your body does what a player's body does. Heart rate up, breathing fast and shallow, attention narrowed. Then the next thing starts before you have come down from the last one.

Most people never come down. They stack one shift on top of another all day and wonder why they are wired at 11pm.

A simple place to start

This is the most basic version of what I teach. It takes two minutes and works anywhere.

1. Sit or stand comfortably and close your mouth. Breathe in and out through your nose.
2. Breathe in slowly for a count of four.
3. Breathe out even more slowly, for a count of six to eight.
4. Keep going for ten breaths. Let the exhale be longer than the inhale every time.

The long exhale is the part that matters. It tells your body it is safe to shift out of fight or flight and toward rest. Try it after your next hard call, in the car before a meeting, or before you walk into the house at night.

If you have a heart or lung condition, check with your doctor before starting a breathing practice, and stop if you feel lightheaded.

Where it goes from here

Breathing is one piece. In coaching we build a set of practices around your actual days: what you do before pressure, how you recover after it, and how you sleep. I call them Performance Enhancing Practices. They are the same tools I have used with professional athletes for 20 years, fitted to the life you are living.