Story Follow-up: Overtraining vs. Following a Training Program

By James Wills
January 14, 2022

This article was written by Ani Williamson as a follow-up on her breath training journey. She wanted to respond to some of the skepticism she has seen online and share more details of her experience. Click here to read more about Ani’s story.

Provision of Data

It breaks my heart to see ‘nay-say’ Comments about Airofit from people who have neither bought nor used it. In October, we discussed if I could help by documenting my Airofit journey; but I looked at the Customer demographic and thought I’m ‘too old’ now for young sports people to listen. Even for the medical area, would I be viewed as ‘too old’? But … maybe with age comes wisdom.

I’ve seen comments from Sports Trainers, Sports people, professional musicians, who show a tremendously poor understanding of how important breath is to what they do. And these are professional people. It’s like seeing F1 Drivers talk about how great the paint color is, how great the tires are, what amazing suits they have but when someone says ‘what’s the engine?’ they laugh. So, I think what they need to see is Data.

Sean Coakley told me something important about why Airofit changed the training model:

“…if the training isn’t targeted/specific, the brain will simply revert back to old bad habits and not make changes permanently.”

This first graph from Apple watch stats proves this.

My cardio-fitness levels were ‘Below Average’ pre-Airofit. In Feb-Mar we were in lockdown and I decided to make myself run – it was a terribly painful fight with my lungs, who didn’t want me to run at all. In March, my levels had tracked into the ‘Above Average’ band, but when we returned to work in April and I was still running but not as much, my levels drop back to exactly where they were previously. They stay like that until May-June … when I bought my Airofit.

From May-June, I was using my Airofit as I described to Sean – like a child in a sweet shop! I was doing every exercise going (even Golf, when I’ve never played) and was training for 45mins to 1hr each night. Yet … whilst things did start to take an upward turn, my cardio-fitness (how well my body processes oxygen) remained in ‘Below Average’. But then the October update happened … let’s look in more detail.

This is now looking at a ‘weekly’ view, from the start of October.

After what Sean had said, I decided to be totally disciplined and only do the daily exercises Airofit recommended – no more crazy training. Sean had said if the more controlled regime was followed, the brain would make the breath changes permanent. And look what happened …

Ani’s Conclusion

In his book ‘Open’ Andre Agassi recalls a meeting that revolutionised his tennis – in meeting his new Fitness Coach and taking him through his old training regime, he was told “So: in tennis, there’s a lot of call for running up/down bleachers with weights on your back is there?”

His Coach moved him from building static bulk muscle, to training fast-switch lean muscle. It revolutionised his career.

Airofit is at that place of revolution – people just need help to believe.

Ani also included a little message for Airofit that we wanted to share with everyone:

“The more I feel the amazing benefits of Airofit, the more I can see people it would benefit. Many Comments ask to see a ‘real person’, not an athlete – I’ve been both those people. I totally understand the athletic world of Coaches/high performance, but after my illness (and now my age!) I’m just an ‘ordinary person’ people may relate to.

You really have created something incredible. If I can help you overcome negative Comments/feedback by documenting a journey and providing Data you can use in publicity, I’m more than happy to do that. You are peeling tens-of-years of health back for me, and giving me my life back. That’s how important Airofit is – never forget that.”