Breathe the Forest – Gravity Eden: Deep Slow Breathing for an Optimal You
Garden of Eden for Mountain Bikers
My quads, my mind, my eyes, they all complain, even though I’m basking in the Gravity of Eden, a type of garden of Eden for mountain bikers.
Nestled into the Nullica Forest in southern NSW, hustled into the Sapphire Coast, in many ways it’s a saviour that one must travail so hard to even get there, to experience that first pedal stroke away from the huge map planted into the ground showcasing 58 kilometres of joy parcelled into 20 dirt trails for all skill levels.
Some 6-hours drive, whether you depart Sydney or Melbourne, that’s where Eden is. And I’m sure Heaven is hidden just around the corner there somewhere. Or at least there’s several gates you could try your luck upon.
It’s not the altitude, that grovel you will surely fight upwards, that disturbs the senses. The pitch, is the bitch. I’ve left a lot of salty sweat out on those climbing trails and I’m looking forward to the one day when I carry the required fitness to do less complaining as I reach for what’s known as the Gravity Zone, high up on the hills at around 300m elevation.
Each time I’ve sent myself up the After Burner 3km climb, I forget how gruelling the last pinch is with the tight switchbacks, passing the car wreckage before being spat out into the Trail Number 2 junction, like my own human body work of carnage.
Despite my sour grapes, it’s actually not all bad. Each visit to Gravity Eden I’ve met such friendly people. We always end up saying a hello and having a chat about which trail is next and which one is a favourite, before setting off in mutually exclusive directions. 80% of encounters see an e-MTB bike underneath said friendly visitor, and I’m pretty stoked when I have the capacity to pass them on the climb, spinning my cranks and heaving my chest in synchronised melodies under conventional power.
As much as the moany goat might get the better of me at times, once at the junction of trails that takes me to Round the Outside and Sodium descent trails, I have left those sweaty tears behind and I’m totally psyched for the ridiculous joy that awaits in the bermed corners, rolly polly undulations and fast twitching cambered zooming through the trees.
Hardtail Hiding
It’s hard to believe that the first mass produced mountain bike was revealed by Specialized brand bikes with the Stumpjumper mountain bike way back in 1981. I had the fortune of being a local Melbourne Specialized team ambassador over fifteen years ago and it was pretty cool to ride the cross country dual suspension mountain bike of that period, named as the Epic model. It was technologically advanced with Brain suspension which had its own internal lockout feature that made it ride like a hardtail until you hit a bump and then it opened the valve to the rear suspension and it was full double bounce with front and rear shocks. I revelled in the mistakes you could get away on that bike with taking uneven and rough corners at high speed with the suspension covering up slight miscalculations in braking and over-confident investment in tyre traction capabilities.
I also had a swathe of Specialized road race bikes, including the Tarmac and Roubaix models, which were popular in our squad at the time as we competed in Victorian club road cycling races like the Tour of the Yarra Valley.
So it’s interesting to see on the Eden trail map the one track named Jump Stumper, clearly a nod to the influence the Specialized brand has had on mountain biking since the 1980’s.
For cross-country riding (XC MTB in the common vernacular) my favoured bike is a hard-tail. They’re a bit harsher in the rear end over rooty, rocky and rough single track, but what I love about it is that you can throw that sucker around a bit like a BMX and the detailed feedback you get from the rear wheel and what it’s doing or not doing on the trail makes for such a lively experience.
It’s much like the sensation you have when steering a Subaru WRX or Mitsubishi Lancer EVO rally car out at Mount Cottrell Rally School in third gear flying into the corner, late braking, and trusting that that machine is going to grip like an ice-skate in the dusty ruts of the drive line to the next bend.
The Only Rhythm is Jazz, Acid Jazz
Cranking my way up After Burner towards Power Up track, my mental moaning rises to just behind my forehead, trying to get in the way of my frontal lobe duties that are keeping watch of the trail, interpreting the bumps, variations, shadows and light. The frontal lobe is as much under load as my quadriceps are as I seek to retain a regular rhythm of strong low-cadence pedalling in a tough gear up the steep inclines.
[I ride a 27.5/650b hardtail with Shimano 1×11-spd XT drivetrain including 34t Race Face Narrow-Wide chainring up front on 175mm cranks and 11-42 M8000 cassette at the wheel.]
XC mountain biking is such a great method for enhancing fitness, the trails are almost always undulating, so that unlike road cycling where you can pretty swiftly get into a good rhythm and work steadily to maintain your output whilst regulating your efforts and change of pace in longer more palatable arcs, in mountain biking it’s a million gear changes, little pinches over mounds and constant switching direction left and right. You’re either spinning up a short incline, pushing a big gear over the top of a grade, or start-stop pedalling over rock gardens and dips and gullies. The only rhythm is jazz, acid jazz.
Singletrack to Another Realm
The body hunts for comfort within the excitement of the live MTB zoom session, meanwhile the frontal lobe is concentrating hard, perceiving and judging everything. Choosing what’s important to focus on and filter out the rest. It’s attention is fixated on problem solving trail features, whilst trying to control our on-bike behaviour, and even more complicated, manage our impulses and both positive and negative emotional responses, general environmental and personal awareness and goodness, and also maintain those voluntary body movements screaming at us.
Meanwhile, in the background, our medulla is concentrating on the vital functions of regulating our breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. It is a part of the brain that is essential to survival, where the cardiovascular and respiratory systems link together, managing the autonomic functions of our blood flow, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
Who would have though all this intense processing is going on whilst you’re out there in nature, merely enjoying a nice day out pedalling your bike up a trail in the forest?
There’s method to all this scrutiny and extra understanding, for where are we? That’s right, the Garden of Eden! Well, the Gravity of Eden anyway.
I find the sensations of descending a flowing, fast-paced, undulating and twisty piece of single track on a push bike one of those feelings that transports me to another realm. It’s that awesome zone of being in flow. Totally transfixed by the now. The real now.
Distractions to Cognition
There are times however, when I’ve become distracted by a seemingly important or deemed urgent email or message that arrives on the Samsung Galaxy smartphone at the top of the descent trails, right before pointing the front wheel down hill and trying to be effortless and speedy for ultimate enjoyment. Each time I’ve checked that email or message beforehand, invariably it has occupied part of my frontal lobe and very swiftly I’ve been bucked off the bike, slid sideways, or really just eaten dirt with my elbow, and knee, or worse, face. I usually right after dusting myself off, remind myself to concentrate.
In a way, what’s happened is the transmission lines between the frontal lobe and the medulla have been hampered or interrupted by the attention the email is taking from the important task of keeping my bike on the track. The cognitive load of hastily zooming between the trees, plus the email, it’s just too many processes to regulate.
Research has shown however, that we can influence the capacity of our cognitive skills and attention, working memory, and spatial perception of cognitive functions, which almost certainly are going to assist us on the trail, but of course, in the broader demands of our normal living and working.
And do you know what it is? It’s one of the simplest exercises you can do: deep slow breathing.
Now that was a slightly underwhelming, yet satisfying revelation, wasn’t it? Slow breathing. The magic antidote.
Positive Frontal Lobe Impact
And when we begin to realise that it’s this smallest shift in our breathing pattern that can change so much in our lives, it starts to become the thing we keep looking and watching for in the important moments, not just laying on the mat at the end of the yoga class in savasana (corpse) pose.
And it’s importance will never leave you. This revealing study on “The Effect of Deep and Slow Breathing on Retention and Cognitive Function in the Elderly Population” highlights how deep slow breathing serves us not just in sports, or when trying to perform under pressure, but even when later in life our cognitive skills and functions may be declining.
Slow, deep breathing can positively impact frontal lobe function, and the study (which looked at dementia prevention training protocol), confirmed the benefits that slow, deep breathing has in retention of new cognitive skills and attention, working memory, and spatial perception of cognitive functions.
Now if we consider the multitude of settings, environments, work pressures and life commitments that we manage in the everyday, which places extraordinary load upon our energy reserves, then surely if we could find even as little as two minutes each day, or 15-minutes, or an hour to dedicate to improving our attention and focus through breathing, and importantly, practicing mindfulness, we are going to effectively be benefiting our frontal lobe function each step of the way, and improving our performance potential.
The Craft of Deep Slow Breathing
To be even craftier, if we take the additional steps of applying breathing techniques during activities like careering around the Gravity of Eden on a mountain bike (which requires executive functions, motor skills, cognitive exercises, problem-solving, learning new skills, and practicing repetitive movement), then as a likely extra benefit, we’ll be simultaneously increasing our potential to enhance our brain’s neuroplasticity, which is the strengthening of our neural pathways.
And what this actually achieves is an improvement in the transmission and connection between the frontal lobe and medulla mentioned earlier.
Since my early days of cross-country mountain bike racing, the way I approach the trail has changed markedly. With a dedicated training regime, tempered intensity and a sustained high output, I was winning races. Nowadays however the sheer joy of plummeting a flowing MTB trail descent is a win in itself. And it’s less about single-minded training plans, interval sessions and a maniacally managed diet.
I’m noticing things. Using my breath to maintain my sense of self-awareness. Using my self-awareness to notice my breathing. Looking outside of my body at the environment, the trail, keeping check on the bike and how it’s handling in relation to my inputs. To monitor the rate of breathing, the effort my body and systems are expending, my thoughts and emotions that fluctuate and change throughout the day. It may seem like a lot, but in reality, it’s what we do every day without thinking.
The difference is that my breath has become the unequivocal tool to being more present in the moment, responding to the goings on favourably, to widening the path to greater fulfilment. And the best bit is, everyone has this capacity. This capacity to practice breathing, and develop the parts of ourselves that we do and don’t know about.
Whether you take your mind, and bike, to the Gravity of Eden to begin or extend your quest, or simply have found a heightened curiosity for your own pathway to better breathing and a better life, the best time to begin is …. When you’re ready to begin.
Ready?
Online Breathwork Courses and 1:1 Coaching
Learn more about Breathwork and begin your own online training right now. Check out the Online Breathing Course for Performance page or visit the coaching page to apply for personalised one-on-one development.
Images & Words by Marlon Quinn
E-Bike Hire in Eden
To get around Eden, consider hiring an e-bike.
E-Bike Hire & Mountain Bike Hire Port of Eden or Here too
Book Your Own Rally Car Experience
Would you like to ride in a rally car in Australia?
There are a number of opportunities. These are my recommendations, and a few alternatives:
Booking Options and Locations
Book a Victorian Rally School Hot Lap Experience – Click Here
Marlon Quinn
0 Comments