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Invincible: How we can retrain our hearts to beat stress and achieve success
Stress is not in your head, it's in your heart - this is the key to peak performance that Dr Leah Lagos, an internationally known expert in biofeedback and sport and performance psychology, wants us to know.
In this book, she shares with readers for the first time the same program that she uses with top athletes, CEOs, business leaders - anyone who wants and needs to perform at their best . What makes her scientifically proven ten-week programme unlike any other is that she recognises the link between heart rhythms and stress to create specific, clinically tested breathing techniques that allow you to control your body's physical response to stress . She pairs this training with cognitive-behavioural exercises to offer a two-tiered protocol for strengthening health and performance, enabling readers to respond more flexibly to stressful situations, let go of negative thoughts and emotions, and ultimately be more focused and confident under pressure.
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'Dr. Leah Lagos is an extraordinary being. I've never known a greater empath ... The vast majority have described the experience as some version of life changing, and I've been blown away by the immense performance benefits.' Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning
'This is a step-by-step owners manual for the human body ... Her holistic and data-driven protocols fit athletes and laymen equally well. Now get into your body and breathe.' Scott Carney, New York Times bestselling author of What Doesn't Kill Us
'If you can control your emotions and attention, you can navigate whatever happens in life with your full range of abilities. Dr Lagos teaches you how to tap a powerful tool anyone can use in daily life.' Adam Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of Cracking the SAT
In this book, she shares with readers for the first time the same program that she uses with top athletes, CEOs, business leaders - anyone who wants and needs to perform at their best . What makes her scientifically proven ten-week programme unlike any other is that she recognises the link between heart rhythms and stress to create specific, clinically tested breathing techniques that allow you to control your body's physical response to stress . She pairs this training with cognitive-behavioural exercises to offer a two-tiered protocol for strengthening health and performance, enabling readers to respond more flexibly to stressful situations, let go of negative thoughts and emotions, and ultimately be more focused and confident under pressure.
**********************
'Dr. Leah Lagos is an extraordinary being. I've never known a greater empath ... The vast majority have described the experience as some version of life changing, and I've been blown away by the immense performance benefits.' Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning
'This is a step-by-step owners manual for the human body ... Her holistic and data-driven protocols fit athletes and laymen equally well. Now get into your body and breathe.' Scott Carney, New York Times bestselling author of What Doesn't Kill Us
'If you can control your emotions and attention, you can navigate whatever happens in life with your full range of abilities. Dr Lagos teaches you how to tap a powerful tool anyone can use in daily life.' Adam Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of Cracking the SAT
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Published May 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 7, 2021
I think it's important to start by separating two things here: resonance breathing as a practice, and this book by Leah Lagos. Resonance breathing is something I would definitely recommend. I've derived a lot of benefit from doing it for 4 months or so now. I've been significant improvements in my HRV. I feel sharper and calmer. It definitely helps to wind me down for good sleep in the evening. This book, on the other hand, I would not recommend. You don't need it to practice resonance breathing, and I would recommend not trudging through all the other exercises unnecessarily.
My first gripe with the book is that it's poorly written. The language is dry and uninteresting, except when there are random insertions of contemporary colloquialisms that feel like they were added as an afterthought to make it more 'fun' and fall quite flat.
My second gripe with this book is that, while the core practice of resonance breathing and the guidance on how to do it are quite valuable, I found most of the other exercises unhelpful, poorly described, hard to execute and probably superfluous. It felt as if they were added just to build a 10 week programme. I'll give you a simple 10 week programme: breathe for 20 minutes, twice per day at a pace of 4 seconds in and 6 seconds out, for 10 weeks. I'm pretty sure that will get you at least 90% of the benefits.
My third gripe with the book is that it pretends to offer something that it doesn't really. It's packaged as if it's meant to be about HRV bio feedback, but then Lagos discourages you from using live biofeedback. I understand that this was probably to make the book more accessible to those who don't have the tools, but it does mean that the descriptions of this book are not really representative of the reality. It's not actually about HRV biofeedback; it's about improving your HRV through paced breathing.
My last complaint is the packaging as a 10-week programme. The reader is genuinely led to believe that something significant will be achieved in 10 weeks which will then last. I suspected this wasn't true from the start, and then at the bend of the book, Lagos confirms this. She states outright that to maintain all the benefits, you have to continue the practice at least 5 days per week. That's not surprising. If there were really practices that you could do like this for 10 weeks and the reap the benefits for life, everyone would be doing them. Life is harder than that; that's fine. I just don't understand why Lagos tries to suggest that this is simply a 10 week programme. It's a practice that you can choose to integrate into your life for a chapter or forever.
So, in summary, don't read this book. Take the 3-5 hours that you would have used to read it and do a week of 2x20 minutes of resonance breathing per day. You'll probably find the motivation to continue, and I'd suggest you do. I think it's a valuable practice.
My first gripe with the book is that it's poorly written. The language is dry and uninteresting, except when there are random insertions of contemporary colloquialisms that feel like they were added as an afterthought to make it more 'fun' and fall quite flat.
My second gripe with this book is that, while the core practice of resonance breathing and the guidance on how to do it are quite valuable, I found most of the other exercises unhelpful, poorly described, hard to execute and probably superfluous. It felt as if they were added just to build a 10 week programme. I'll give you a simple 10 week programme: breathe for 20 minutes, twice per day at a pace of 4 seconds in and 6 seconds out, for 10 weeks. I'm pretty sure that will get you at least 90% of the benefits.
My third gripe with the book is that it pretends to offer something that it doesn't really. It's packaged as if it's meant to be about HRV bio feedback, but then Lagos discourages you from using live biofeedback. I understand that this was probably to make the book more accessible to those who don't have the tools, but it does mean that the descriptions of this book are not really representative of the reality. It's not actually about HRV biofeedback; it's about improving your HRV through paced breathing.
My last complaint is the packaging as a 10-week programme. The reader is genuinely led to believe that something significant will be achieved in 10 weeks which will then last. I suspected this wasn't true from the start, and then at the bend of the book, Lagos confirms this. She states outright that to maintain all the benefits, you have to continue the practice at least 5 days per week. That's not surprising. If there were really practices that you could do like this for 10 weeks and the reap the benefits for life, everyone would be doing them. Life is harder than that; that's fine. I just don't understand why Lagos tries to suggest that this is simply a 10 week programme. It's a practice that you can choose to integrate into your life for a chapter or forever.
So, in summary, don't read this book. Take the 3-5 hours that you would have used to read it and do a week of 2x20 minutes of resonance breathing per day. You'll probably find the motivation to continue, and I'd suggest you do. I think it's a valuable practice.
April 29, 2023
This is a decent read for understanding various techniques for mindfulness. The author has share multiple techniques for mindfulness using the breathing techniques. My favourite has been the suggestion to count when anxious as both these activities are controlled by the same centre in the brain and counting while stressed out reduces the stress.
July 26, 2022
ScientIfic explanations/background not so strong and quite cherry-picked. The program is well designed and helps. Increased my HRV over the ten weeks by around 40% but from quite a low base.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews