Working with Harvey and the MindStrong crew has been an amazing experience so far. Learning about breath work, heat and cold exposure, and various movements has given me a whole new outlook on how I train and think. Through this process I’ve been able to learn so much about health and wellness and how important it is as an athlete to understand your true nature and physiology. Joining the MindStrong team is a must for anyone looking to enhance their everyday life and performance!
Training the breath with Harvey Martin and The MindStrong Project has been a major component to my growth the last couple years. Understanding more of what the breath does to our biology has opened many doors and helped me to continue tapping into my humanistic potential. The most exciting part is that I feel I am just getting started.
After deciding that the effects of breath work was something I wanted to pursue, I’ve been able to incorporate it into my routine and have seen great improvements physically and mentally because of this “tool”. Working with Harvey has built a foundation of confidence within my performance, recovery and mindset. I’ve been able to use different protocols in and out of season that have given me an even greater understanding of the benefit of “the breath”. From working on controlling my breath in the sauna, cold tubs or in the weight room I’ve been able to carry all these experiences onto the ice.
Countless players talked about how much he [Harvey] had helped them in their careers. I was curious of anyone in human performance coaching and making that big of an impact. “What is this guy saying to the athletes?” I would often wonder. After nearly a year of hearing about him I decided to see for myself first hand what he was doing. The two weeks I spent with Harvey opened my eyes to a huge aspect of what I had been reluctant to use in my own practice…we have to be aware of our own human nature first before we can access our mental and physical abilities at the highest level. His art works for people because it taps into the most primal sense of ourselves. It’s about who we/athletes are at our core and what we know we need to become.




A Note From Our Founder, Harvey Martin
“When my pro baseball career ended, I, like many athletes, found myself struggling with anxiety and dealing with an identity crisis. I was training and coaching athletes of all ages and skill levels, but I was lost, until I found the breath.
In the fall of 2015, unsure of where to go, I started a 16-week journey focused on breath practice followed by cold exposure in the hopes of understanding a deeper level of psychological training. During this practice, I learned how to use environmental stressors to alter the state of my mind and body and better control my emotions and anxiety in times of stress and stillness.
As I continued to train more and more athletes, I became more deeply aware of the problems plaguing the current performance industry. I noticed that with the rise in technology and specialization in sport, there was a big gap in our ability to move. We were getting stronger, yet weaker. Injury rates heightened, sensory input was misunderstood, and our minds were becoming overstimulated and depleted. Athletes were stressed, they couldn’t perform under pressure, and there weren’t any outlets to help them through this.
That’s when I decided to co-found The MindStrong Project in 2017 with the goal of changing the sports world through the natural breath, movement, and mindset protocols we teach our NFL, NHL, MLB, and Elite Athlete clients. Our team has now trained hundreds of top performers at all levels, each experiencing immense physical, mental, and emotional improvements.
Our team at the MindStrong Project takes training and human performance to a whole new level. We combine foundational nature based training with industry leading strength, movement, conditioning, and nutrition programs that give athletes a serious edge over the competition. Join us as we continue to shape the world of human performance.
The MindStrong Monthly Membership
Elevate Your Performance
When you become a MindStrong Member you gain unlimited access to a variety of tools to use pre and post performance including…
- Breath Work & Guided Meditations
- Movement Programing
- Mindset Training
- Heat & Cold Practices
- Research & Continued Education
- 6 LIVE COACHING WEBINARS EACH WEEK
- LIVE & RECORDED WEEKLY CLASSES
We’ve established and used these systems with the highest performers on the planet and we will do what ever it takes to help you on your athletic journey towards your life long goals.

HUMAN PERFORMANCE
The human mind and body as an organism is meant to be stressed. It is our great gift to learn how to adapt and evolve ourselves. Since the beginning of time we have adapted and used stress to do that. We are the only species on the planet that voluntarily place stress in front of us to become stronger. Whether that’s reading, learning or studying to improve our minds or lifting, running and swimming to improve our body we have the ability to better ourselves. With this comes great freedom. However, we have to take the responsibility to invite positive stress into our lives. As the stoic philosophy strongly suggest, we should live in accordance with nature.
Breathwork:
How To Get Started:
Nose Breathing Benefits:
- Promotes a more mechanical breath (Horizontal vs Vertical)
- Filters Air
- First line of defense against viruses and bacteria
- Warms and humidifies air
- Produces Nitric Oxide
- Activates the Vagus Nerve (Parasympathetic/Calming)
Mouth Breathing:
- Moves O2 and Co2 in and out quicker.


Breathing:
Frequently asked questions:
What are appropriate mechanics?
Is there a specific protocol to follow?
Mindset:
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
Everything that we can see and touch outside of nature has first been created through thought. The human brain has created visions and action plans such as skyscrapers, iPhones, computers and incredible world solving inventions initially through the mind. The human brain alone separated us from the rest of the animals on the planet and placed us at the top of the food chain. The power of imagination and courage of acting upon it becomes a beautiful gift all of us humans have ownership over. For the most part creating a vision and placing goals with action steps to move forward typically works out pretty well for anyone trying to promote growth in their lives. What is it that makes you curious? What experiences seem worth pursuing in life? How is it that you become more aware of your intuition?
***These questions are deep, powerful and reflective. Take your time with them. We’ve interviewed some of the most brilliant minds on earth and asked similar soul searching questions. So how do you improve the mind? Simply by doing that…***
Ask Questions!
How to improve the mind you ask?
Due to this negativity bias our mind looks at the past through a lens of regret and guilt. Then it projects out to the future at fear and worry. All these thoughts and feelings are trying to keep us in comfort zones. Think of negative stimuli compared to positive stimuli. The negativity tends to stick harder and longer than positive experiences.
When you find yourself in a state of avoidance. Ask yourself if you are avoiding or excited by the challenge in which these triggers bring about. Much opportunity comes through these stressors and most certainly results in adaptation.


Standards and Values

Goal Setting

Mastery Approach – Generally appreciate everything about the process of striving for personal excellence regardless of the end result.
Nutrition:
What you eat… Is what you think.
Hydration
- Aim for a minimum of 1/2 your bodyweight in ounces of water each day, preferably filtered.
Food
- Prioritize protein. Aim for 1-2 palm sizes of protein at each meal. Some good sources include beef, chicken, pork, wild game, fish, tofu, etc.
- When consuming animal protein, avoid added nitrates, nitrites and antibiotics. Organic, grass-fed and grass finished is best. You are what your animals eat.
- Eat the rainbow. Aim for 2-4 fist fulls of non-starchy vegetables at each meal. The key is variety – green broccoli and brussels sprouts, red peppers, orange carrots, yellow zucchini, white garlic and onions, etc. – an array of colors will provide your body with essential nutrients and minerals.
- Carbs. Based on your goals, aim for 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbohydrates at each meal. This includes foods like whole grains, quinoa, rice, beans, etc.
- Flavor with fats. Aim for 1-2 thumb size portions at each meal. Some good sources include avocados, grass-fed butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, nut butters, chia seeds, nuts, etc.
- Read labels. If purchasing processed, aim for 5 ingredients or less on the label. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, avoid it.
- Be on the lookout for unnecessary, added ingredients. Sugars, salts and oils are common culprits.
- Supplement where needed with a high-quality multivitamin, fish oil and protein powder to fill in the gaps.


Movement:
There are many ways to view movement. Purely sport specific or training modules that specialize in unique skill development. We could look at movement as rehab or injury prevention. Movement could be losing or gaining weight depending on individuals needs. Either way we see it movement is life. The body is your brain. The gut, heart, blood flow all becomes one. The system lives under the same roof and it needs to be moved. Movement alone plays massive roles in how we see the world and the relationships we have in it. This ability to move and strengthen our body deals tremendously with learning, memory and improvement of overall resiliency. The MindStrong Project looks at movement in a few categories: Strength & Conditioning, Speed/Agility and Recovery. The organism needs to be placed under stress to adapt. As the body evolves to be stronger, the mind follows. As our background forms from specific sport training and power lifting environments we have implemented performance breathing, yoga, heat/cold contrast, nature and meditation into our systems to build a healthier more durable machine. To be healthy, is to be useful!
Remember the body is meant to move. Inside sport specific movements we can all learn from the basic movements of human life. Think feet first and move up from there
- Monday: Quick Cold activation – Full Body lift “Light” – (Sauna/Ice x1)
- Tuesday: Breath/Yoga/Flow + Aerobic Endurance (Develop Oxygen Supply) – Nasal Only
- Wednesday: Heavy Upper Body Lift – Finisher (Sauna x1)
- Thursday: Breath/Yoga/Flow + Footwork/Speed – Finisher (Cold x1)
- Friday: Heavy Lower Body Lift – Finisher (Sauna x1)
- Saturday: Full Body light movement (Sauna/Ice x2) – Nasal Only
- Sunday: Active Recovery (Nature Walk) + Optional (Sauna x1)


Sleep:
- Avoid deep thinking before bed
- Avoid arguments or problem solving before bed
- Avoid high arousal activity
- Avoid artificial and blue light
- Try to limit foods/liquids before bed (Use energy recovering not digesting) or having to get up throughout the night having to use the bathroom
Things to pay attention to when you wake up:
- Do you have a dry mouth or saliva?
- Are your bed sheets all over the bed or neat?
- What is the temperature of the room?


Things to take note of:
- If you have a dry mouth this is seen as a sympathetic state (Fight/Flight)
- Are you snoring or breathing through your mouth?
- If so, consult with a doctor/physician (We suggest taping your mouth for sleep)
- This promotes nasal breathing and produces filtration of the air as well as parasympathetic (Calm/Regeneration)
- Make your bed
- First of all it triggers your brain to recognize progress/accomplishment right away
- Secondly it promotes cleanliness and peace (Nervous System feels safe)
- If you notice your sheets are not all over the place when you wake up you can trust that you slept soundly throughout the night
- Keep air temperature cool and dark in room
- Think of a cave for our ancestors (cool and dark)
- Hot/stuffy rooms correlate in our brains as not safe
- A hot shower before bed promotes body temp to cool down afterwards finish quickly on a cold shower to spark arousal and getting focused with slow nasal breathing to shift into relaxation. If you do a contrast route with showers time them up to be an hour or so before bed
Pay attention to your fatigue meter. Don’t lie in bed awake, if you’re having trouble sleeping then do something else. Read a fictional book or something light that avoids thought provoking activity. Try listening to music until you feel tired.
Tracker | Hours Of Sleep | Bed Time | WakeTime | Sunrise Exposure | Movement | Heart Rate | Liter of Water | Breath Protocol | Cold Shower |
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Sunday |
Cold Exposure:
The modern lifestyle for humans rarely demands environmental discomfort. This is rather new to the human mind and body. We tend to think negative about the cold. Deep rooted in our brain cold meant energy expenditure. As you hear often through our coaching at MindStrong Project your brain is constantly trying to find ways to keep you safe. This is because through most of our existence we only wanted to use energy when we absolutely had too. After we would use energy hunting/gathering or finding/building shelter we would conserve as much energy as we could. With the ease of modern society we have lost the “need” to move or use energy. This lack of movement creates an excess of “white fat”. Which means we’re storing up an excess amount of energy and reserving nutrients. So under your skin this will become an insulator for your body. Brown fat, warms up your body by burning fatty acid and glucose (The heater).
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:


Heat Exposure:
As far as the benefits of a sauna you increasingly feel a strengthening process happening with your immune system. Beyond that you create a tolerance to heat stress. This pays big dividends in endurance and ability to maintain energy in your performance. Post workout using a sauna to increase blood flow and flush toxins relaxes and recovers muscles. With correct timing and dosage you can increase changes in the body and increase growth hormones. REGULAR SAUNA USAGE MAKES YOU STRONGER!!!
Heat/Ice (Fire & Ice)
Training or Recovering?
Here are a few readings from Sauna/Ice sessions. You can see the stress of the body and also get an idea of the taxation on the mind/body. The key in understanding this concept means that we are not beyond our nature. We can’t speed up recovery. Timing and dosage become crucial when making choices with your energy.



Earthing:
Think of the last time you buried your feet into the sand while sitting at the beach. Not only was it playful and fun but it probably made you relax and feel a sense of calm. This alignment with the earth is highly crucial for our performance and mental alertness. It also strengthens muscles and helps with our balance to move freely without shoes and on uneven surfaces in outside environments. So kick those shoes off and gain the health benefits of being one with the planet.
Nature:
Try to spend at least two hours a week in nature where you can use the silence to recovery, adapt and create.
Bodies of Water:


Find Your Bonfire:
Social Connection:


The “Art of Being Alone”
Maybe something rather new to dive into but practicing being along is a powerful skill. For most if not all devices on the planet need to be plugged in or charged to properly work to full capacity. As a human we also need a charger. This charge is called solitude, become chargeable by uncharging. This is the raw ability to be alone.
First and foremost this seems easy to some people and incredibly difficult for others. The power of perception wins in this specific skill. Having to actually accept yourself, acknowledge your own thinking and act as your own charger does not meet us all at the same level of understanding. Take your time at this layer of the journey. Take your time diving into peaceful alone time. When we talk about alone time we are talking about truly being alone. No stimulations, no one around you nothing to capture your mind that is outside of nature. This skill becomes daunting if not practiced, yet most of our worlds greatest inventions have come through solitude. Being able to intentionally isolate ourselves opens us up to explore our mind. The genius that lives in us all.
“I’ve been able to incorporate MindStrong into my routine and have seen great improvements physically and mentally because of this “tool”. Working with Harvey has built a foundation of confidence within my performance, recovery and mindset. I’ve been able to use different protocols in and out of season that have given me an even greater understanding of the benefit of “the breath…”
“Training the breath with Harvey Martin and The MindStrong Project has been a major component to my growth the last couple years. Understanding more of what the breath does to our biology has opened many doors and helped me to continue tapping into my humanistic potential. The most exciting part is that I feel I am just getting started.”
“Traditional mental skills approaches utilize words and thoughts to guide mental processes, The MindStrong Project is unique because they have a strong grasp of the physiology that leads to improved mental processes. As a former athlete I would’ve appreciated a process like theirs because it is more tangible and something that every athlete is very familiar with…”