“A revolution is simply the changing of the guards.” - Jimmy Carr

When we hear the word revolution we tend to think of bloody battles, conflict, and a struggle for power. Today’s revolutions are far more subtle, and more effective.

Be undeniably better than the current alternative.

When it comes to health the old guard has a set of credentials that leave them with no working understanding of the human body. Principles that have been demonstrated to be outdated or simply wrong are passed down from generation to generation because it’s easier to repeat yesterday’s disproved hypotheses than to update science textbooks at the speed that science progresses.

For example, millions of kids are diagnosed with “disorders” based on a framework from the 1980’s - nearly half a century before we completed the full sequence of the human genome and revealed that variation between individuals is our greatest evolutionary strength and far from a “mental illness,”

The new paradigm of personalized health protocols, proactive health education, and environmental alignment is not around the corner - it’s here.

The parents in our network globally know that DNA differences are not “disorders” - and that health isn’t something you “have.” It’s something that you have to do.

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” - William Gibson

The current approach to health has left a generation of children suffering from rising obesity rates, pre-diabetes, screen addiction, and the normalization of a sedentary lifestyle. When they feel anxious, depressed, and unfocused they’re labeled with “mental disorders” and placed on medication.

The adults in our community are struggling to make sense of the endless stream of noise in the health influencer space. Contradicting information, clickbait headlines, and endless rage bait has made health feel impossible for many people.

The opportunity to innovate and create a new approach to health has never been more necessary or accessible.

It simply takes leaders who recognize that we need to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

Physiology First has been teaching teens and families the foundations of health for over a decade. Health education that inspires, empowers, and changes a culture - one family at a time.

Physiology First founder David Bidler teaching high school students to breathe in 2018.

We teach the foundations of breath, sleep, nutrition, exercise, and brain health. Through a blend of education, experience, and assessment we make health simple, practical, and accessible to a generation of kids and families.

This September 27th we are holding our Level One Certification Program.

Register now!

We are training coaches, educators, and health practitioners who want to be part of a generational change in how we support the health of our communities.

The strategy to create a health revolution?

Aim for excellence.

There is no place for average. - Naval Ravikant

The current model of health is based on a hierarchy of mediocrity. Ask the local GP how to improve your sleep and you may get a bottle of pills. Ask the local psychiatrist to support your child with anxiety management skills and you may very likely find that they don’t have any - pills are the solution because skills are entirely absent from their toolbox.

Our Physiology First Practitioners pursue excellence on multiple fronts:

1.) Personal excellence. We work to maintain our own health through weekly training that produces measurable gains in strength, conditioning, longevity, and metabolic health. This isn’t about becoming an elite athlete. It’s about practicing what we preach, leading from the front, and being able to show our own health progress - something that 99% of the health industry simply can’t do.

2.) Excellence in communication. Our practitioners are dedicated to mastering the art of science communication. The modern practitioner should be a walking encyclopedia of simple, practical, science-based health education. This isn’t about memorizing the minutia, it’s about mastering the simple and relatable. When a teen or parent has a question about sleep, stress management, or nutrition protocols that are science-based, you have a clear, actionable, and well articulated answer.

3.) Excellence in coaching. Whether you are leading a simple restorative breathing class or a personalized training session your understanding of the human body - from biomechanics to biology - shines above the rest of the field, because you respected the clients enough to learn principles instead of simply memorizing protocols

4.) Excellence in assessment. What gets measured gets managed. We aren’t talking about tracking “benchmark workouts” or how much weight gets added to the barbell in each session - we’re talking about measuring whether what you aim to accomplish as a practitioner is working. Lowering morning and evening heart rate, improving breathing rate, and increasing sleep depth are the metrics that help every client in the sport of life. Strength development, conditioning benchmarks, and personalized health support all matter deeply - but they are built on a foundation of physiological literacy and baseline health, not used to mask the fact that this was simply skipped over because the practitioner wasn’t prepared to measure what matters most.

5.) Excellence in community building. Humans are social animals. As the world becomes more connected, yet more isolating, the practitioner of the future is capable of bringing people of all backgrounds together in a community setting to build the skills of health.

Opening day at our Manchester, UK campus.

Building the Practitioner of the Future: A New Approach to Health and Human Potential

Noah, 17, performing personalized nutrition and health assessments at our Freeport, Maine campus.

On September 27th we are bringing together coaches, educators, and health professionals from across the globe to bring the Physiology First Approach to their community.

Over the course of 8 weeks you will learn the Foundations of Physiology First.

• Breath

• Sleep

• Nutrition

• Exercise

• Brain health

You will gain a framework for bringing the science of health to life in your community.

Through strategic partnerships with schools and organizations, direct support for teens and parents, and “boots on the ground” workshops and classes you will be defining your role as the practitioner of the future through focused action that makes an impact.

Register now!

The careers of the future won’t look like the careers of today. They will look like an evolution. The Physiology First Practitioner is the missing link in health - the proactive, inspiring, science-based professional who guides a generation of teens and families to their highest potential.

We invite you to be part of this evolution and join us this September.

We are looking for 12 people who are passionate about community health and committed to bringing a new vision for a healthier, more inspired future to life by teaching the next generation about the power of their physiology first.

Physiology First Practitioners are hitting the ground running in Canada, the US, the UK, Sweden, Australia, and Guatamela this year. We’d love to welcome you to the team to help lead the evolution of health!

-David

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

We don’t “exercise” at Physiology First. We train - for physical health, mental fitness, and performance readiness for the sport of life.

Every training session has one lesson that we are working to teach.

Maybe it’s the benefits of nasal breathing…

Or running biomechanics…

Or how barefoot training not only strengthens our feet and reduces injury risk, but increases body awareness.

In this edition of our Parents Circle Series I share simple tips to get kids to love training their mind and body, along with a fun story about a grape fruit guzzling monkey, and a simple breathing exercise that you can try with your kids - or by yourself.

This weekend we launch The Code of Potential: Our newest program for families and teens. Join our inaugural cohort and learn to build a practical approach to health and human potential into your families life.

Join the Code of Potential

Let me know what topics you’d like to see covered in the Parents Circle Series! Looking forward to your suggestions and to diving deeper into the science of the brain and body together.

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

Get more from Physiology First in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

As September approaches parents across the globe are writing us with questions about how to best support their child’s mental and physical health. One concern that keeps arising?

Will my active, creative, energetic child be pushed towards a diagnosis of an “attention disorder?”

With rates of diagnosis skyrocketing - and no clear conversation on a.) where one should place their attention in the modern age and b.) the physiological foundation for attention I wanted to touch on both topics in this short video.

Please, send questions that you’d like me to answer on the show - and join the live streams right here on Substack Monday - Friday at 12pm UK to be part of the conversation.

We’re excited to dive into the science of human potential with parents across the globe this weekend! The Code of Potential is our newest offering for families around the world. Learn the science of breath, sleep, exercise, and brain health - personalized for your body and made practical for the whole family.

Join the Code of Potential

Looking forward to your questions for the Parents Circle and to supporting you and your family as the school year approaches - and far beyond.

David

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for the next generation.

Get more from Physiology First in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

The health of kids in our community is declining as access to health information is increasing.

This sounds like shouldn't make sense - but it makes perfect sense.

The challenge of this generation will be surviving abundance. Endless information, constant distraction, and a disconnection from our own intuition.

The solution on a small scale is simple.

Every day we hold health education classes for teens and families in our community at our Manchester, UK campus. Families learn together, train together, unplug from technology and reconnect to their physiology.

They learn health skills and life skills in the second oldest setting for education ever created - the community.

The first being the home.

This August we are bringing together parents across the globe who want to bring the health education most of us never received into their homes.

The Code of Potential is our newest offering for teens and families who want the skills and tools to thrive in the modern world.

Join The Code of Potential

Solving the problem at a large scale will require the courage and connection to intuition from everyone who cares about building a better future for our children.

In the pursuit of solving the world's most important problems, we find our purpose.

When we model courage, innovation, and leadership in pursuit of a better world, we inspire the next generation to follow a path to purpose as well.

The health of our next generation will improve not when information becomes more abundant - but when we can distinguish between information, knowledge, and wisdom.

While remembering that courage is its own category.

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David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for the next generation.

In fact, I was talking with Emily one of our incredible students who you’ll find helping to instruct many of these lessons about how insane it is that students in biology class will often dissect a frog or some other member of the animal kingdom without ever learning about their own, diaphragm their lungs with their heart.

When we say learning, we don't mean for memorizing information from a textbook or listening to a podcast.

The only way to learn about our physiology is through experience.

In the exercise above, you will learn to feel CO2 levels rising in your body.

You will learn to decouple the physiology of anxiety from the psychology of worry.

If you followed our previous lessons, you'll be taking a full expensive breath that stretches your ribs from the inside.

You'll feel alive as you learn, and you learn to better live.

If you don't have time for the nine minute video, he was a quick breakdown.

Breathing and Anxiety 101:

• We don't breathe because we're running out of oxygen.

• We breathe because we're experiencing rising carbon dioxide levels in the body.

• As carbon dioxide level levels increase, it can feel uncomfortable and anxiety provoking.

• Many of us have a very low tolerance to carbon dioxide from years or decades of mouth breathing.

• When we get stressed carbon dioxide levels rise naturally - triggering a cascade of responses related to the cycle of rising carbon dioxide and low carbon dioxide tolerance.

• We breathe ourselves into an anxious state by mistaking heighten arousal and readiness for a threat.

By familiarizing ourselves with our own physiology and learning to feel the sensation of rising carbon dioxide - decoupled from life stress - in a fun training environment we can recognize the sensation in when it appears in everyday life.

This helps us understand that our body is preparing us for action - not punishing us by nudging us gently out of the numbness in which we've normalized and forcing us to feel at all.

Trained alongside Emily and feel the anxiety response uncoupled from psychological stress.

Push the limits of your CO2 tolerance and realize that you're safe while feeling the physiology of anxiety.

And when this feeling occurs in life, know that you've been here before - and that you've trained by learned about your Physiology First.

Join us at Physiology First university online and train with us. The only tuition is attention, curiosity, and a desire to learn.

Join Physiology First University

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a generation.

Imagine molten lava shaping the landscape after a volcano.

Each breath that we take creates changes in our internal landscape. From the position of our ribs to the pressures inside our chest, back and belly our breath shapes the architecture of the human body.

Try the two exercises in this video.

Notice which one seems to have the greatest impact on helping you breathe into parts of your body that you may not have experienced.

The most rebellious act in a culture desensitized to itself is learning to feel fully.

Join us at Physiology First University to discuss the exercise and learn more about your physiology.

The cost of tuition? Attention, curiosity of the desire to better know yourself.

Join Physiology First University

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

Emily is a 16 year old who is passionate about health - and dedicated to sharing what she’s learning at our campus with students across the globe.

Here’s how we taught her to breathe...

First, we contextualized why it matters.

Education without context misses its own point. Learning should create a spark of curiosity - not extinguish it.

Breathing is both automatic and within our control.

So is life.

We’re either on autopilot or behind the steering wheel of our destiny.

Breath awareness is self-awareness.

Breath control is self-control.

First, we had her lie on her back.

The rib cage is not a stiff pile of bones, It’s a living flexible structure. Our ribs are designed to spring into action, rotate, and expand with each breath.

The ribcage melts into the floor as we exhale - and the rest of the skeleton unwinds from the release of tension.

This is an immediate access point to the portal of our parasympathetic nervous system.

It’s the opposite of the dopamine draining digital rat race we’ve normalized...

It’s instant agency and escape from the noise.

Next we had her place her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

This creates the vacuum pressure necessary for a full breath.

Inhalation should create expansion in the upper back, lower back, sides of the body, chest, and abdominal wall - a 360 degree sphere of pressure that stretches us open from the inside.

After inhalation we taught her to exhale every last breath from the body, softly and slowly, until the lower abdominals gently assist to finish the breath.

This completes the breath cycle.

Afterwards she said.,.

“Wow. I've never felt my lungs expand like that before.

It felt so freeing and relaxing.

Like I was in control of my internal experience.”

Most people go through life without experiencing a full breath...

That’s a tragedy. Feeling the breath move inside our body is the foundation for feeling alive.

We teach students of all ages to breathe as a rebellion against numbness, desensitization, and disconnection from ourselves.

It’s a tool they'll always have to reconnect to the essence of themselves.

In our first lesson on the new free tier of our Physiology First University platform you'll learn take a full breath - possibly for the first time.

Join Physiology First University

You'll feel expansion from within into places in your physiology you may not have explored before.

Here's a primer:

1.) Lie back. Shoes off. Feel your body transition from tension to relaxation.

2.) Press heels gently into the ground. Feel your hamstrings become slightly more active.

3.) Scoop the pelvis just enough that you feel your glutes engage. Now you've created an opportunity to stack one diaphragm (thoracic) over another (pelvic.)

4.) Tongue on the roof of the mouth. Inhale through the nose. Feel your ribs rise.

5.) Exhale softly and fully as though you're fogging up a mirror moving slowly away from your mouth. Continue until your abs softly assist.

6.) Repeat. This time prior to inhalation don’t let the ribs rise - use the increased compression of the container to create expansion in the parts of your body where you’re compressed - usually the upper back, lower back, and chest wall.

“Imagine blowing up a balloon in a soda can.”

~ Rob Wilson

We've normalized desensitization and disconnection and wonder why so many teens and parents are stressed, anxious, and isolated.

We invite you into a Reconnection Revolution - to ourselves and one another.

Join us at Physiology First University to learn about your body and unlock your potential.

Join Physiology First University

In this episode of the Physiology First Podcast me and Emily discuss the impact that our approach to breath education has had on her life. We touch on the health benefits of better breathing, the impact on self-awareness, and breath as an analogy for life.

Enjoy the conversation (full podcast episode here) and join us at Physiology First University on Skool to learn about the power of your breath!

Me, Emily, and the team at Physiology First will be sharing a free lesson every day.

The future of learning is learning about our physiology first!

Learn for free!

David Bidler is a founder, educator, and social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for the next generation.

And we’re inviting you to be a part of it.

It’s not another “certification.”

It’s a home for the health practitioner who believes that physiology-based skills and tools belong at the foundation of education for the next generation.

For the past 10 years Physiology First has been teaching teens and families about their physiology through experience.

Breathing classes…

Group exercise programs…

Sauna…

Cold plunge…

Bringing communities together to DO health.

Our Manchester, UK campus

What makes our model different - aside from kids, teens, and families being at the heart of our work - is the inclusion of the latest health technology.

Blood testing…

V02 max testing…

Metabolic asessments…

Sleep tracking…

Looking at physiology from the inside out, while understanding the human body as a dynamic and complex system operating within a dynamic and complex world.

High school student Noah performing a V02 max test after school

The World is Changing Fast

When we build Physiology First health education itself was a scarcity. There were a few podcasts largely focused on biohacking and several voices in the health and wellness simplifying the complexity of our physiology to sell to a mass market.

But there were very few places the curious, science-minded teen or parent could go to learn about breathing, sleep science, nutrition, exercise program design, or brain health.

Today the world is a very different place.

There are no shortage of podcasts, YouTube videos or AI chatbots that can provide general information - often valuable and powerful information - about how to improve our health.

Yet, community health declines every year.

This isn’t due to a lack of information.

It’s due to a lack of organization and alignment in the health and wellness industry.

A New Model for Human Development

Physiology First is creating a new model for health and human development- and a new home for health professionals.

A new professional identity, and a new breed of practitioner.

Someone who trains their mind and body through the Physiology First Approach.

Someone who is ready to bring a data-informed approach to proactive, preventative, empowering community health to life.

A practitioner who practices what they preach and creates the next era of community health infrastructure in their own backyard.

As thousands of gyms close and 91% of boutique fitness studios fail to reach profitability we are seeing the health infrastructure in our communities crumble - just as the societal issues contributing to the health crisis enter a new age of acceleration.

Addictive technology, predatory business models targeting teen mental health, and the normalization of a sedentary lifestyle are all increasing in speed and power.

It’s time for the health industry to organize, align, and create an active resistance by building sustainable businesses, strategic partnerships, and a long-term strategy for health in the 21st Century.

The Physiology First Fellowship was designed to scale a new approach to community health, a blueprint to creating the health businesses of the future, and the sense of camaraderie necessary to take a long journey together and do something that matters.

The Physiology First Fellowship will provide:

• Daily business implementation strategies

• Strategic partnership toolkits - including “done-for-you” professional development offerings to bring to schools, organization, and companies in your area

• A roadmap to building the world’s most personalized, comprehensive, and community-centered approach to health education and optimization to life

Applications for the Physiology First Fellowship are open:

Our founding cohort kicks off this Sunday, June 28th

Send us a message if you’re interested in learning more

Physiology First Seminar, Freeport, Maine, 2023

The future of health is ours to build.

Every model that exists today was created by practitioners seeking to make an impact.

The future of human development requires a fresh, new, courageous approach to innovation, collaboration, and the creation of community infrastructure.

It’s time to teach our communities about the power of their physiology, first.

David Bidler is a social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education and community for the next generation.

Breaths per minute.

Morning resting heart rate.

Nighttime resting heart rate.

Use the exercise above and track your breaths per minute.

Now compare it to those in your life (children, friends, training partners.)

This metric reflects how effectively our body uses oxygen, how we utilize fuel, and how sensitive we are to carbon dioxide levels rising in the body - an important factor when managing stress or anxiety.

We can build personalized health protocols when we have information on our individual physiology.

Without it we are left shooting in the dark.

Health information = personalization.

We want to teach you how to gain the critical information necessary to take greater agency over your health while learning about your body through the process.

Through our new online course Physiology First Foundations we will show you how to improve your breathing to increase mental focus and energy, enhance sleep quality and quantity, and improve your energy levels throughout the day - all by teaching you how to operate your body with a greater level of skill.

Afterwards you’ll start to wonder….why didn’t I learn this stuff in school?

For the past decade I’ve been teaching the science of health and human potential to clients across the globe. Whether the clients was 14 years old or 84 I’ve never met a person who had been given a true operating manual for their brain, body, and breath.

This Saturday a project that has been years in the making will be available. Physiology First Foundations: The Health Class of the Future - a practical, actionable guide to operating your body for better health, fitness, and performance.

From breathing exercises for mental and physical performance, to sleep skills for the digital age, to designing strength development programs for longevity this course will share everything we’ve taught to clients for the past decade in a practical, actionable, way.

A Special Offer to Our Substack Subscribers:

We’re offering 20 pre-order spots. If you pre-order before Saturday you’ll be entered to win a 1-1 coaching experience from our team based on your goals and your physiology.

Pre-order now!

The future belongs to those who understand their physiology.

We’d love to work with you on your personal goals if you win our Founding Member Raffle - and to share a new, empowering approach to teaching the science of human potential through our Physiology First Foundations program.

Pre-order now!

The future of human development starts with learning about our physiology, first. We hope you’ll join us on the learning journey and build the skills of self-leadership and self-knowledge that you can share with the next generation.

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

Here’s how to play along…

I’ll be posting a series of case studies called The Prism of Potential on our Instagram every couple of days. It’s a better platform for real-time engagement, comments, and brainstorming so keep an eye on the page and leave your insights in the comments section.

I’ll be sharing these on Substack as well.

Our paid subscribers will have access to an in-depth breakdown of each case study afterwards. Everyone who participates will be entered in a chance to win Physiology First Foundations: The Health Class You Never Had - our new course offering launching this weekend.

Here’s our first Prism of Potential Study:

A 16 year old soccer player started experiencing anxiety on a regular basis last year. This isn’t just the slight feeling of being on edge that accompanies modern life for most people right now - especially teens.

It’s a deep physical sensation that her body is in fifth gear at all times. A racing heartbeat, a pounding pulse, and a mind that can’t stop replaying the worst moments of the past day - while anticipating nothing but catastrophe tomorrow.

She started going to Starbucks with her friends after school to study for exams…

She is a slow metabolizer of caffeine - possessing the genetic variation of the CYP1A2 gene which slows the processing of caffeine in the liver. You don’t know this - and neither do her parents or local health practitioners. But not knowing how the body works does not stop it from body from functioning exactly as it is designed.

This is why we assess physiology, first.

Her morning resting heart rate is 84 beats per minute. Her evening resting heart rate is 96 beats per minute. Her breathing rate is 22 breaths per minute. You don’t know this either - but you can assess it easily. (Hint, hint)

She is experiencing no issues at home or school outside of the chaos of modern life, the normalization of screen-dependency, and the insanity of being a 14 year old girl in the digital age.

She loves soccer - but her coach doesn’t teach breathing, recovery protocols, or state-management skills.

You have 8 weeks to work with this young woman.

Her parents are on the verge of having her assessed for an “anxiety disorder” and possibly put on medication. Keep in mind that not a single physiological metric has yet to be assessed and the most basic self-regulation skills have not been taught.

You have the opportunity to help this young leader gain skills before pills.

What do you do?

A.) Program a random combination of burpees, kettlebell swings, and box jumps and hope it all works out. Movement is medicine!

B.) Assess breathing and heart rate at the start. Incorporate breath training and recover into intelligently designed training sessions that show her how to operate her physiology with agency. Show parents the data afterwards - and let them correlate the shifts in her physiology with what they notice in her overall anxiety levels.

C.) Everything in option B while assessing caffeine intake and taking individual genetic pre-dispositions into account.

D.) Absolutely nothing. Doctors are always right - even when they put teens on medications with no assessment of their physiology.

Leave your detailed answers on IG and describe the exact approach you would take.

Winner gets the Physiology First Foundations online program when it launches this weekend - or $100 off our Professional Development Program. Your choice!

Looking forward bringing critical thinking back to life together while building a new model for community health that begins with learning about our physiology, first.

David Bidler is the founder of Physiology First. His mission is to put health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

Spotify link of you want to listen on the go.

David Bidler is an endurance athlete, speaker, and entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for a generation.

I’m in Manhattan for a couple of week. It’s my favorite city on the planet. Each of us is pulled to certain environments based on our genes - something we’re going to dive into in this podcast episode.

We’re called to places that bring out the light within us. In more scientific terms, we’re pulled to the places that trigger positive epigenetic expression and support environmental alignement.

Epigenetic expression refers to how chemical modifications, influenced by environment and behavior, turn genes "on" or "off" without changing the underlying DNA sequence.

Our environments literally turn parts of us “on” or “off.”

Ideally, the parts that we turn “on” are those that make us distinctly, uniquely, and powerfully ourselves.

Every one of us has a unique genetic blueprint for optimal health and performance. Unfortunately, our modern environments are rarely built to trigger this expression of our genetic potential.

And lately the mismatch between environment and genetics is creating a tidal wave of diagnosis and labels - particularly for our next generation.

In the episode above I present a new view of human potential. One that transcends the self-limiting and scientifically flawed concept that a mismatch between genes and environment constitutes a disorder.

Listen to the full episode here:

Ever Wonder Why Birds Don’t Have Mental Disorders?

Manhattan is filled with pigeons. They are everywhere. Pigeons are so ubiquitous in the city that we stop noticing them at all.

When we do take the time to notice something incredible happens…

We recognize that “pigeon” is a name given to a type of bird that existed long before the label. They are characterized by the traits they have in common.

• They have plump bodies, short legs, and broad, pointed wings designed for strong, fast flight.

• They possess small heads with slender bills and a distinct fleshy, white area at the base of the beak.

• Usually feature reddish-orange eyes, often with a slightly “taken aback” appearance.

These are the traits that make them similar.

The traits that make them unique?

Some are highly energetic, others are less so.

Some are born leaders, others are followers.

Pigeons have a unique social hierarchy built around their individual characteristics.

Some pigeons are highly social, others are introverts.

They are just as unique as children in many ways.

So why is the individual behavior of children labeled as a “disorder” and the individual behavior of pigeons, other animals, or all of the natural world not?

Because no other species has created an arbitrary list of “normal and abnormal” behaviors based on morality and cultural conformity along with a labeling system to diagnose expressions of individuality that aren’t compatible with institutions of obedience and control as “disorders.’

Pigeons don’t have mental disorders because pigeons don’t have psychiatrists.

There is only one species that diagnosis differences as “disorders” - and it’s us.

The Science of Attention, Focus, and Movement

Every child has different movement, nutrition, sleep, and social interaction needs based on their genes. They have environments that are in alignment with their physiology, and ones that most definitely are not.

Today every parent has the opportunity to understand their child’s physiology through a DNA test - and the ability to either put them in an environment that is in alignment with their potential, or to fight for changes in the existing environment that create a greater probability of environmental alignment.

They have another option as well - to ignore their child’s physiology entirely, force them to fight their body and mind until they become disconnected and numb to both - and to have them labeled and medicated for basic DNA differences that happen to be inconvenient for institutions built for the Industrial Age.

Today millions of kids are labeled with disorders for responding exactly as their body was designed to in environments that were never built for their biology.

In this episode I cover the differences in dopamine and norepinephrine metabolism alone challenge the entire notion of ADHD- the most common diagnosis quickly being applied to every child who can’t sit in a stiff plastic chair for 7 hours and needs movement, sunlight, and intellectual engagement in order to learn effectively.

Every child metabolizes dopamine at one of three speeds:

Fast: Think of a sports car that burns through fuel more quickly as it is capable of reaching higher top speeds.

Moderate: Most people are not Lamborghini’s. Most people are not groundbreaking artists, musicians, or entrepreneurs either. In a society that rewards the middle ground we have to a.) celebrate the DNA differences that contribute to a healthy social equilibrium and b.) recognize the beauty of a simple life where everyday pleasures are enough to satisfy the soul, while at the same time recognizing that extraordinary people are “extra-ordinary” by definition - and that we can’t afford to label and medicated the next generation of geniuses for the genetic differences that make them the extraordinary people that they are.

Slow: This person is more a Toyota Prius - a fuel efficient hybrid car - than a Lamborghini. They may prefer a stable, quiet environment and more instruction on how to navigate it. This person may be more risk avoidant. They play an important role in society as well - this is not about good vs bad genes - but the dynamic environment of a startup company, a busy city, or a lifestyle on the road may not be the environmental alignment this person is going to perform at their best in.

None of these people are “disordered.” None of these genotypes are “good or bad,” Just as nature does not mass produce anything - there are no two trees, animals, waves, mountains, or drops of rain that are exactly the same - nature certainly doesn’t mass produce minds.

Moving From Disorder to Environmental Alignment; The Future of Personalized Health

Just as the classroom of the early 1900’s was a product of the Industrial Age the notion of “disorders” is a product of a pre-scientific era. We only completed the first full sequencing of the human genome - mapping roughly 99% of the human genome's gene-containing regions with 99.99% accuracy, in 2023. We are at the infancy of understanding our own potential. But we are a long way from labeling the natural DNA differences that make us who we are as “disorders” - and the practitioners doing so should know better.

The following DNA differences represent only some of the way that we are genetically unique. Imagine a world where the needs of each child’s brain, body, and mind were met instead of ignored, pathologized, and often, sadly, medicated away.

COMT influences how quickly dopamine and norepinephrine are broken down in the prefrontal cortex.

Children with faster dopamine metabolism may:

• crave more movement

• seek novelty

• struggle with long sedentary periods

• perform better with physical engagement

Children with slower metabolism may:

• tolerate stillness better

• become overstimulated more easily

• be more stress sensitive

DRD2/DRD4

Impacts dopamine receptors, novelty, and motivation

Associated with:

• novelty seeking

• motivation

• rewards sensitivity

• exploration tendencies

• engagement styles

Environmental alignment ideas:

• experiential learning

• adventure and exploration

• challenge-based education

• movement

• hands-on engagement

• reduced passive screentime engagement

MTHR affects folate metabolism and methylation pathways involved in:

• neurotransmitter production

• detoxification

• cellular repair

• nervous system development

Environmental alignment ideas

• folate-rich foods

• B-vitamin sufficiency

• reducing ultra-processed food load

• sleep and recovery

• minimizing chronic inflammatory burden

CLOCK/PER

These genes impact

• chronotype

• sleep timing

• alertness windows

• recovery quality

Environmental alignment ideas

• consistent light exposure

• morning sunlight

• reduced nighttime blue light

• matching learning demands to alertness patterns

• protecting sleep duration

This is only a glimpse into the beautiful complexity of human individuality. Our needs for novelty, social stimulation, movement, specific nutrients, and personalized health protocols vary based on the unique combination of genes, environment, and behavior that each us us must navigate.

In an upcoming book I call this navigational challenge the Puzzle of Potential.

Keep in mind that none of these differences in our genetic code are taken into account in the vast majority of instances where a child’s individuality is labeled as a “disorder.” In all honesty - I don’t know of a single instance where this is the case. Because if we actually assessed physiology we would know that variance is a function of nature - not a disorder - to begin with.

Physiology First provides the most comprehensive and personalized approach to health education and health optimization for kids and families on the planet. When we recognize the power of our individuality - and we take health seriously enough to assess - not guess - when guiding parents and teens on the path to thier highest potential.

"The day you teach a child the name of a bird, the child will never see the bird again."

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

Most spiritual traditions recognize our tendency to categorize, label, and create separation, as opposed to recognizing the harmony, dynamism, and beauty of individuals living in unison, as the consequence of an untrained mind. Science recognizes the same principle in a different way - variance is the nature of the natural world, and only those unacquainted with the scientific method equate “different” with “disorder.” Unfortunately, the practitioners labeling and diagnosing kids by the millions for being the unique, exceptional and powerful individuals that they are do not recognize science - they capitalize on superstition in order to enhance their business model.

Physiology First is creating a health revolution in communities across the globe by teaching the science of human potential. We have our Spring Certification Program kicking off this Sunday - and we’re looking for passionate leaders with a strong desire to share the science of health and human potential to join the team!

Register now!

The age of labels is fading into the dusk as the scientific revolution ascends on the horizon. Every child has a unique prism of potential - and they simply need their physiology to be fueled by the right inputs in order to shine like they were born to.

It’s time to appreciate the differences that make each child who they are, and honor those differences in ourselves. In the world of artificial intelligence and robotics being uniquely human is our greatest strength.

It’s time to teach the next generation about the power of their physiology, first.

David Bidler is a social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for the next generation.

I recorded a short webinar earlier in the week to send to all of the incredible mothers in our community.

The Prism of Potential:

For most of modern history, we have treated children as though they were fundamentally the same. The same schedules, the same classrooms, the same teaching styles, the same expectations. If a child struggled to focus, struggled to sit still, struggled to regulate emotion, or struggled to learn inside that environment, we often assumed the issue existed entirely within the child.

But biology is telling us a far more interesting story.

Every child arrives with a unique genetic code - a genome built from billions of pieces of biological information interacting in ways we are only beginning to understand. Embedded within that code are variations that can influence everything from sleep timing and stress sensitivity to dopamine regulation, movement needs, metabolism, attention, motivation, and learning style. Not in a deterministic sense, as though genes are destiny, but in a probabilistic one. Biology creates tendencies and environments shape expression.

This is where the conversation becomes truly fascinating.

Two children can sit in the same classroom while having profoundly different physiological experiences. One child may naturally thrive in structured, quiet environments. Another may require movement and novelty to reach an optimal state of attention. One may wake up neurologically prepared for a 7:30 a.m. class. Another may have a chronotype that shifts their peak cognitive performance later into the morning or afternoon. One child may process stress calmly, while another experiences the exact same environment as biologically overwhelming.

The old model often interpreted these differences as discipline problems, motivation problems, or disorders to suppress. The emerging model asks a different question: what if many of these behaviors are signals of environmental mismatch?

Modern genetics and neuroscience are increasingly showing that attention, mood, energy, and learning are not simply products of willpower. They are deeply physiological states shaped by sleep, movement, nutrition, stress, social connection, light exposure, and the interaction between genes and environment. Even dopamine itself - one of the primary neurochemicals involved in motivation and attention - is regulated differently between individuals based partly on genetic variation. Some nervous systems appear to require greater stimulation, movement, novelty, or physical activity to achieve an optimal state of focus.

Then there is epigenetics, perhaps one of the most important scientific discoveries of the last century. Epigenetics revealed that genes are not static blueprints operating in isolation. The environment influences which genes are expressed, amplified, or quieted over time. Sleep deprivation alters gene expression. Chronic stress alters gene expression. Exercise alters gene expression. Nutrition alters gene expression. Human beings are not fixed machines. We are adaptive biological systems constantly responding to the conditions around us.

This changes the entire conversation around education and human development.

Perhaps the future is not about forcing every child into the same mold more efficiently. Perhaps it is about creating environments that recognize biological individuality while helping children understand their own physiology. How does your body respond to stress? When does your brain focus best? How much movement does your nervous system require? What inputs help you learn, recover, create, and thrive?

A prism takes a single beam of light and reveals the entire spectrum hidden within it. Children are no different. Inside every child exists an extraordinary range of potential, but that potential is expressed differently depending on the environment surrounding them.

The future of education is not standardization.

It is environmental alignment.

A New View of Human Potential:

Research on genes involved in dopamine regulation, attention, circadian rhythm, and stress response is beginning to paint a remarkable picture of human individuality. Variations in genes such as COMT, DRD4, DAT1, CLOCK, and PER3 have been associated with differences in novelty-seeking, movement needs, stress sensitivity, sleep timing, motivation, and attentional regulation. Again, not as destiny, but as tendencies. One child may naturally require more movement, stimulation, or challenge to achieve an optimal state of focus, while another may thrive in calm, predictable environments. One nervous system may become dysregulated by constant stimulation and screen exposure, while another may actively seek it. Even something as simple as sleep timing appears to vary biologically between individuals, raising important questions about standardized school schedules and the assumption that every brain should perform optimally at the exact same hour of the morning.

What becomes increasingly clear is that attention itself is not static or universal. It is personal and supremely dynamic.

It is a physiological state emerging from the interaction between biology and environment in real time. Movement alters neurochemistry. Sleep alters neurochemistry. Light exposure, stress, nutrition, exercise, social connection, and even time outdoors all influence the systems involved in focus, mood, and learning.

The implication is profound: the future of helping children thrive may not lie solely in asking them to adapt to standardized environments, but in designing environments that better align with the biological diversity already present within them.

Potential may not simply be something hidden inside a child waiting to emerge. It may be something shaped, amplified, or constrained by the conditions surrounding them every single day.

Agency, Environmental Alignment, and the Future of Human Potential

Perhaps one of the defining questions of the next era is whether human beings should continue forcing themselves and their children to conform to environments that ignore biological individuality, or whether we begin using information, education, and agency to build environments that better align with how we are actually wired. For most of history, adaptation meant surviving the environment we inherited. But for the first time in human history, we possess enough scientific understanding to intentionally shape our environments around human physiology rather than endlessly suppressing it. The future may belong not simply to those who work the hardest inside outdated systems, but to those who learn to create conditions that allow their biology, cognition, creativity, and health to fully express themselves. In that sense, the ultimate form of education may not simply be teaching children what to think, but helping them understand the environments in which they are most capable of becoming who they truly are.

Enroll in our Physiology First for Parent’s program and help your child explore their prism of potential.

Enroll in Physiology First for Parents

I’ll be meeting with parents, coaches, and health professionals in NYC over the next few weeks so if you’re in the area feel free to reach out.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend - and an inspired new lens into your child’s prism of potential.

David Bidler is a social entrepreneur dedicated to putting the health of the next generation first. David is the founder of Physiology First.

The word “health” refers to biology. This is important. When we use the word “health” describe our subjective opinions the doors are open for individuality to be labeled an “illness.”

A person’s political leanings can be labeled “unhealthy” if they fail to mirror ours.

A book, film, or painting can be labeled “unhealthy” if it doesn’t match our tastes.

And millions of kids who are nutrient deprived and experiencing the only possible outcome to reduced blood flow, oxygen delivery, and nutrient transport to the brain - anxiety, depression, and lethargy - are labeled “mentally ill” for their physiology operating exactly as designed.

Metabolic Health, Mental Health, and the New Language of Human Potential

This week we are training parents across the globe in the Foundations of Nutrition.

They are learning:

• Brain structure is built from nutrients. Neuronal membranes and myelin rely on fats. Inadequate intake leads to suboptimal signaling efficiency. Takeaway: Food literally build the hardware of the brain.

• Neurotransmitters come from food. Amino acids are precursors to dopamine, serotonin, and GABA production. Vitamins and minerals act as cofactors for synthesis. Takeaway: Mood and focus rely on the nutritional building blocks available.

• Micronutrients are essential for brain function. Low levels of B vitamins, iron, zinc, magnesium and other critical micronutrients lead to slower brain signaling, fatigue, and low resilience. Takeaway: Micronutrient deficiency causes friction in every essential brain process.

• Blood sugar stability leads to cognitive stability. Spikes create crashes, causing irritability and poor attention. Stable glucose leads to sustained focus and mood. Takeaway: Energy swings lead to behavior swings. This is physiology 101.

• Blood flow feeds the brain. Nutrients support vascular function and circulation. Improved blood flow leads to better delivery of oxygen and glucose. Takeaway: Without a delivery system for nutrients, oxygen, and glucose our brain’s performance is extremely limited.

• Oxygen delivery depends on nutrition. Iron is critical for hemoglobin and oxygen transport. Low iron leads to poor concentration and fatigue. Takeaway: You can’t think well without oxygen.

• Hydration maintains brain volume and signaling. The brain is 70-75% water. Even mild dehydration alters neuronal function. 1-2% dehydration leads to a measurable drop in cognitive function. This causes reduced attention, memory processing capacity, and increased fatigue. It makes the brain work much harder than necessary. Takeaway: Small deficits in hydration lead to real performance loss.

• The brain shifts under stress and poor fuel. Poor hydration and nutrition lead to a higher stress load on the brain. Reduced function in the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for focus and empathy leaders to increased reactivity. The brain is on high alert instead of operating smoothly. Takeaway: Fuel quality shapes how the brain behaves under pressure.

The Ultimate Catch-22: Expecting Kids to Perform When Their Brain Isn’t Fueled

Millions of kids are malnourished and running on fumes. We wouldn’t expect a car to run without fuel. Why do we expect our children to do the same?

• 1.2 billion people worldwide suffer from deficiencies in key vitamins and minerals. Children and adolescents are among the highest risk group due to rapid growth.

• 373 million young children already show micronutrient deficiencies

• 188 million children aged 5-19 are globally obese

• Hidden hunger impacts millions of kids globally. This means they they are eating diets that are calorically high, but nutrient low. They may have more calories than needed to fuel their activity levels, but still be low in iron, zinc, Vitamin A, B vitamins, and magensium.

• The average teen in the US consumes nearly 70 pounds of aded sugars per year.

As a generation of kids are labeled with “mental disorders” with no health assessment or nutritional analysis we are building the most comprehensive health education and health optimization program for kids and families in the world.

Assessing each students nutritional needs, metabolic rate, and goals allows us to create personalized nutrition plans that build each student’s the brain and body.

This June we are training our next cohort of health mentors to teach the latest science of health and human potential Register now and be part of the movement to evolve the health of our next generation.

Register now!

We need new language to describe the impact of lifestyle and behavior on our physiology. It isn’t a “mental illness” to feel exhausted, anxious, and depressed when we are malnourished, sedentary, and screen addicted. It’s a sign of health. Our body is signaling the need for change in the only way it can - by making an unhealthy lifestyle feel like crap.

We need to put health at the foundation of education for a generation is we hope to see them thrive and live into their highest potential. It’s time to teach the next generation about their physiology, first!

David Bidler is an endurance athlete, speaker, and social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for the next generation.

Learn about our upcoming Certification Program and how our campus works

We started Physiology First in 2019 with an ambitious plan. To change how we approach youth mental health by building accessible, engaging, empowering health programs for teens and families around the world.

A place the world had never seen before.

Not a clinic, a classroom, or a gym. A community health center that blends world class education, training, and the world’s leading health technologies to create a personalized health program for every member.

The future of health and fitness is not generic. One size never fits all.

When we personalize the health experience we unlock the potential of every child, family, and community member.

David kicked off the initiative with a solo 24 run around the local high school track to raise seed money and we were off to the races. (The run ended up being far from “solo” as the community came out to support the event.) David managed to cover 100 miles while talking with reporters about our initiative - a new personal record for him as he’d never been interviewed during a 100 mile race before :)

Since starting the organization we’ve empowered hundreds of students and families with the latest science of mental and physical health.

A Physiology First workshop for student at our Freeport, Maine campus.

The journey led to David speaking around the world on the topic of youth mental health - and why we need a physiology first approach.

David speaking at the Youth to Youth Summit in Kyiv, Ukraine

David and Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. A 2023 podcast appearance led to the launch of our first UK campus.

Evolution Isn’t Over: A 3 Year Plan to Rebuild Health from the Ground Up

The next 3 years are going to be critical on the battleground of youth mental health. Job automation as we accelerate into the AI Age, the shifting economic prospects for new graduates, and the declining mental and physical health of our society at large presents unprecedented challenges for our kids.

Physiology First is responding with a 3 year plan to rebuild the health of our communities from the ground up.

The Vision: Health Infrastructure in Every City Where We Can Train Leaders - 100 Physiology First campuses by 2030

Imagine a place where teens can go learn about the power of their brain and body with the support of a community.

A 21st century health hub that offers the latest in personalized health technology, world class health education, and a community of peers and mentors “doing” health, together.

That’s what our Physiology First campuses offer. Operation Evolution is a strategic plan to put 100 campuses in communities around the globe by 2030.

Opening day at our Manchester, UK campus. This is what the future of community health looks like.

Year One - Training: We are working to train 1,000 leader globally. Parents, coaches, health professionals. At the same time we are creating a new business model at Physiology First. Built to scale to new owners and campus operators across the globe.

Year Two - Recruiting: We are recruiting owners who want to run a leading-edge health hub in their community. A business that grows the revolution in health science accelerates, and the need for real community becomes more important than ever.

Year Three - Building: With our owner/operators trained and ready to launch we aim to build 100 campuses in communities around the globe by 2030. Health built for a new generation.

How Do We Bring This Vision to Life?

We Need Evolutionaries

What is an “evolutionary” Someone who believes that the future of our communities matters, and that it’s ours to build. A person who believes in the unlimited potential of every child. A person who believes that evolution isn’t over - mine, yours, ours. We are each growing and changing every day. An evolutionary believes in the power of self-directed growth through daily training - and is committed to helping the next generation evolve and adapt on purpose.

The 5 Levels of Evolution:

Become an “Evolutionary” with Physiology First and share the science of health in your community!

Level One- The Supporter

Follow on Substack for daily free content. Consider becoming a paid subscriber for $6 per month to help support our youth programs and gain access to tons of fun subscriber only benefits.

Level Two - The Learner

Get the Physiology For Parents Program and take the health class most of us never had! Order now and receive one month of access to our online community packed with additional health and wellness resources!

Get the Program

Level Three - The Mentor

Join our June cohort of the Physiology First Mentor Program. A 6 week journey to help you master the basics of health education and share them with schools, companies, organizations, and families in your community.

The next Health Mentor Cohort begins on June 7th!

Register Now!

Level Four - The Leader

Join our Level One Certification Program this May and get trained to become a next generation health professional in your community.

Learn the three dimensions of the Physiology First Approach: Education, Experience, and Assessment.

Build your gym, clinic, or practice into a future-focused, data-driven, community health hub that grows into an economic engine and community impact opportunity. This is for the professional or aspiring professional dedicated to putting the health of their community first.

Register for our Spring Certification today! Kick-off - May 17th

Register Now!

Level Five- The Architect

Become a Physiology First Affiliate owner and run a next generation health business built to grow in revenue and community impact while offering you the freedom to put your own physiology first! Contact David to schedule a 1-1 info call to learn more about our Physiology First Affiliate Program.

Schedule your 1-1 info call today!

The Physiology First movement is growing thanks to your support!

• We just launched our first affiliate in Australia!

• Our first online program for teens launches this summer. It will be unlike any online program in the world - rewarding off-screen health activities, community service initiatives, and 21st century skills. An opportunity for teens to technology for brief daily instructions on how to escape the matrix, unplug from technology, and RECONNECT to their physiology.

• A new collaboration in Guatemala is set to make to history. A pioneering initiative that puts health at the foundation of education for a new generation. Stay posted!

• New programs are coming to our Manchester, UK campus for teens and families this July

• We aim to train 1,000 Evolutionaries in the next 12 months. Be part of the evolution of health by choosing your impact level today and joining the Physiology First Movement!

The future is ours to build. An inspired, healthy, vibrant future begins by teaching our next generation about the power of their physiology, first.

The evolution of health is here. Choose your level of involvement and join Operation Evolution today!

- -David and the Physiology First Team

David Bidler is an ultra-marathon athlete, performance coach, and social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for a new generation.

More people than ever feel the system isn’t working - especially for kids and families. Anxiety is rising. Energy is low. Focus is fragmented. And the solutions most people are offered don’t go far enough upstream.

What’s emerging in its place is something different.

A new kind of health professional.

A new kind of education.

A new kind of career path.

Physiology First is building a new model for community health. One that doesn’t react to problems - it helps prevent them. One that doesn’t just treat symptoms - but teaches people how their body actually works. One that doesn’t just live in institutions - but shows up in communities.

The Physiology First Certification Program was created to help you build a meaningful path to career development in one of the fastest emerging fields - personalized health.

Register for Our May Cohort!

What if Health Started Earlier?

What if we didn’t wait until someone was struggling? What is kids understood their sleep, their energy, their focus, their stress - before it became a problem?

What if parents, coaches, and educators had the tools to effectively guide this process? That’s the gap we’re working to fill.

Because right now most people were never taught:

• How their brain responds to environments

• How sleep shapes mental health

• How movement changes mood and cognition

• How nutrition impacts long-term outcomes

• How to build environments where people actually thrive

And when that knowledge is missing, we end up reacting too late.

Noah, 17, performing a V02 max test at our campus. We are building the most personalized health system for kids and families on the planet.

A New Role is Emerging

There is a growing need for people who can bridge the gap between:

• Science and daily life

• Data and daily habits

• Health and community

Not just clinicians or coaches. Something new, powerful, and important.

People who understand physiology - and can translate it into real-world change.

Our Physiology First Team Leaders operate in families, schools, teams, and communities. We are collaborating with the existing health infrastructure while building a new frontier at the intersection of health and education for the next generation.

The Health Careers of the Future

Most people think working in health means:

• Going to medical school

• Becoming a therapist

• Working inside a broken system

But there is a new path emerging…

One where you can:

• Work directly with individuals and families

• Support schools and youth programs

• Build your own practice

• Lead workshops and education

• Integrate data, lifestyle, and environment

• Create real, measurable impact

Why This Matters Now

We’re at an inflection point in community health. We’ve never had greater access to research, technology, or science-backed protocols for optimal health. Yet, our communities have never been sicker.

Technology is accelerating, attention is fragmenting, and lifestyle is changing faster than education can keep up.

The next generation is feeling the brunt of the impact. We’re living through a moment of information overwhelm and application scarcity. We don’t need more podcasts, audiobooks, or digital distractions telling us to be healthy. We need to turn existing research into effective outreach. We need environments that don’t make kids sick. We need leaders on the frontlines of the health evolution.

This Is Where You Come In

If you’ve ever felt like:

• “There has to be a better way to approach health.”

• “I want to do something meaningful, not just transactional work.”

• “I care about the next generation and want to help.”

• I want to build something of my own in this space.”

You aren’t as far from this vision as you might think. The community is hungry for new solutions, the market is calling for health entrepreneurs to innovate, and the problem of declining health is only growing more critical. The future belongs to those who help their community understand their physiology, first.

Register for our May Cohort!

Sustainable Business + Social Impact

There are four main revenue streams that you can tap into as a Physiology First Certified Team Leader:

1.) Working directly with teens and families. The demand for 1-1 and small group coaching that leverages personalized health data has never been higher. Learn to lead sessions or let us help you hire a coach to work with you in your practice.

2.) Consulting for teams, companies, and universities. A high leverage opportunity to earn substantial income while providing a powerful community service - health education for a new generation!

3.) 1-1 Online Coaching for Teens and Families

We get calls from families around the world every day. Our goal is to train leaders across the world who can help support these families in their health journey by teaching the Physiology First Approach.

Our first UK campus launched last year. We are excited to announce that Physiology First affiliates will be launching community health initiatives across the globe in 2026!

4.) Business ownership. We are expanding our affiliate program in 2026. Bring Physiology First into your existing practice or build a Physiology First Affiliate from the ground up and become a hub for data-driven, community centered health education and optimization.

Spring Certification - May 17th. Build a Career in the Future of Community Health with Physiology First!

Register for Our May Cohort!

Join us for the 8 week journey into the future of personalized health - and let us support you for a full year as you work to implement the Physiology First Approach in your community. Sign up now to join an inspiring team of leaders dedicated to reshaping the health of their communities!

We hope to see you on the frontlines of the health evolution!

-David and Physiology First

David is an endurance athlete, speaker, and social entrepreneur dedicated to putting health at the foundation of education for our next generation.

A full breath is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. It is the integration of the mind, body, and brain - unified through a simple action that impacts every part of our physiology.

As the world gets increasingly busy, frenzied, and disconnected breathing is how we reconnect to our senses - and to ourselves.

Here are 12 simple lessons that most people were never taught about their breath. I hope they inspire you to share them with someone in your life, especially the next generation.

1.) Nasal breathing throughout the day is one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve mental and physical health. It increases oxygen utilization by up to 20%, reduces the tendency to hyperventilate, and helps keep the body in a calm state.

2.) Breathing through the nose unlocks the bodies built-in mechanisms for immune system health, oxygen uptake, and stress and anxiety management.

3.) Slightly extending your exhalation is a powerful tool for managing the stress response in any situation. It puts a gentle break on the heart via the sinoatrial node, and slows the heart beat while lowering blood pressure, both immediately after periods of exhale emphasized breathing, and systemically over time.

4.) Breathing impacts heart rate variability (HRV) This describes the space between heart beats.

Greater variability between heart beats equals greater stress resilience.

5.) HRV is the greatest indicator of your sensitivity to stress and anxiety, as well as your level of athletic recovery. The relationship between breathing and the heart is both mechanical (a braking action upon exhalation) and physiological (breath impacts stress which impacts heart rate and cardiovascular function.) You can’t actively control your heart rate by thinking about it, but you can actively control your breath which directly influences the function of your heart.

6.) Slow breathing improves baroreceptor sensitivity (the neurons of your heart) and decreases blood pressure.

7.) Chronic mouth breathing has been linked to feelings of exhaustion, brain fog, and generalized anxiety.

8.) Mouth breathing negatively impacts our health by reducing the transport of oxygen to our cells and brain.

9.) Poor breathing biases the brain towards stress, anxiety, and fear. By offloading more carbon dioxide than necessary through hyperventilation or “overbreathing” we reduce oxygen delivery to the brain, increase sympathetic nervous system tone, and elevate heart rate and blood pressure.

We over activate the amygdala, the brain region responsible for threat detection, as well.

You can change your brain by simply changing how you breathe.

10.) Breathing is posture. The pelvic and thoracic diaphragm exchange the contents of the abdomen with each breath. Think of two bowls stacked over one another, exchanging their contents. When one bowl is protruding slightly forward, a full exchange is not possible. In the bowl analogy the contents simply fall into the space between the bowls. In our bodies, the contents are pressed into the abdominal wall, causing the belly to protrude and breathing to be partially limited until we learn to stack our ribs over our hips. This puts a lot of strain on the lower back muscles as we are now tipping slightly forward, and these muscles are working to counteract this forward leaning tension.

11.) Low back pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain are common when breathing dysfunction is present.

We literally breathe ourselves into the shape we are in.

12.) Breathing impacts the body, brain, and mind. This gives you the power to improve your mental and physical health-one breath at a time.

Breath is a variable that we can control in a sea of chaos, change, and unpredictability.

When we put breath at the foundation of education we teach the skills of self-awareness, self-regulation, and real world resilience to the next generation.

Get trained to teach Physiology First in your community!

Spring Certification: May 17th

Education and school are not synonymous. One is a place, the other is a process. With every breathe that we take we have the opportunity to learn about our physiology - and pass the lessons on.

I began working as a landscaper’s helper, and eventually as the manager of a landscaping crew.

On the weekends I would spend hours in a little bookstore in Montclair, N.J - overwhelmed by the centuries of knowledge on display.

I read philosophy. physiology, and poetry. I’d spend hours in the history section, learning about the innovators who shaped the world we live in today.

I explored Eastern mysticism and the origins of Western psychology.

I fell in love with the thinkers who understood that “subjects” were created to make schools easier to run, and bookstores easier to navigate.

The only subject is “life” - and the ability to learn this subject through firsthand experience as opposed to a thin, theoretical understanding gained from the sidelines of society while sitting behind a desk is something I’m eternally grateful for today.

Around age 18 I started experimenting with running. I would head out into the mountains of Northern N.J for a few miles and enjoy the feeling of pure, timeless flow that running provided.

By my mid-twenties I was training regularly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. An injury during a sparring session turned me back onto running - with a passion to explore new distances beyond my frame of reference for what was possible.

I didn’t know that people regularly ran marathons and even ultra-marathons. My 3.5 mile loop in Portland, Maine where I was living at the time seemed infinitely challenging when I was first starting out. The first time I attempted to run it twice I strained my hip flexor so badly that I had to limp across the warehouse floor of Goodwill Industries where I was working as a forklift operator for months.

But eventually I returned to the bookstore to read everything I could find about running, and about human movement.

I learned about breathing, biomechanics, injury prevention, strength training, and the physics of putting the human body into motion at high speeds, and for long durations.

Eventually I completed my first 50 mile race, not only uninjured, but feeling strong in my body. I went on to finish over a dozen of the world’s toughest ultramarathon events, some in the top 10 position.

What If School Taught Us About Ourselves, First?

Learning about my breath, body, and brain in order to improve my running opened up the doors to a world of adventure. The mountain trails of these epic races are forever etched into my soul.

It also allowed me to build a lucrative and fulfilling career, teaching adults who never learned about their bodies how to operate them with agency.

I opened my first performance training center in 2012. It quickly grew into an intergenerational community of members aged 5 to 85.

We taught children how to breathe for stress and anxiety management.

We taught adults who’d been divorced from their body how to use their feet, hips, shoulder, and breath again - skills they would never have had to lose if education had not become a lesson in desensitization. If the foundation of learning was learning about ourselves.

We taught the 80 year olds in our community how to maintain heart health, build strong bones, and amplify their healthspan.

We taught countless teens about their physiology, first, through our after school programs and collaborations in traditional education.

In 2019 we evolved the entire business into Physiology First - an organization committed to putting health at the foundation of education for our next generation.

The Ignorance Economy: Pills, Potions, and Snake Oil Solutions:

One thing I’ve noticed in over a decade of working with teens and adults? The cost of not understanding your body is far higher than the investment in learning about your physiology.

• 6.5 million kids are currently on medication to elevate dopamine and norepinephrine - the same brain chemicals naturally elevated by sunlight, exercise, sleep, and nutrients.

• At any given time 540 million people globally are dealing with back pain. The global economic cost of back pain alone is $100 billion - $200 billion per year. This breaks down to the average person spending $k-$10k per year on physio appointments, imaging, doctor visits, insurance co-pays, and time off work.

• 1 in 4 people suffer from shoulder pain and foot pain. The average person pays between $700-$2500 per year on orthotics, podiatry, physio and rehab treatments, and the downstream health costs of reduced physical activity.

“If you think health is expensive, try illness.”

The person who understand their physiology has an advantage in the world like no other. They aren’t fooled by quick fixes, gimmicks, and backwards ideas that stand in stark contrast to modern science.

In this 6 part series I’m going to share the most important things most people didn’t learn in school, including practical exercises in each subject.

We’ll cover:

• Breath

• Sleep

• Exercise

• Nutrition

• Brain Health

Subscribe if you haven’t already and gain the education that you should have been given years ago - an in-depth, practical education in the power of your physiology.

On a level deeper than improving health metrics, avoiding the cost of illness, and extending healthspan something more valuable, primal, and timeless occurs within us when we learn to operate our physiology.

A few minutes of focused breathing feels like a gift - a reunification of our relationship with the most critical and life sustaining elements of our physiology.

Walking, jogging, or running feels like an immersive experience rooted in a sense of alignment with our body, breath, and mind.

Life starts to feel really awesome, exactly how it is supposed to feel.

We didn’t evolve to be domesticated. We didn’t come this far only to be separated from ourselves. One of life’s greatest gifts is the ability to maintain presence and awareness of the many gifts we encounter every day.

The gift of movement, breath, mental clarity, joy, passion, and conscious awareness of our own limited time on this earth. We were meant to live in our bodies, not as bystanders to them.

The power move of the century is learning about our physiology, first.

Subscribe if you haven’t already and gain the education that you should have been given years ago - an in-depth, practical education in the power of your physiology.

I’m looking forward to sharing the toolkit that helped me transform myself from a sedentary kid into an ultramarathon athlete, while transforming countless familes and students into the highest versions of themselves.

The future of education is learning about ourselves - and passing the lessons to the next generation.

David

Join the Mentor Movement and become a leader in health education in your community!

Next cohort begins on June 7th! Register here.