A Galway based international breathing expert hit the headlines recently when one of his books was given as a gift to English cricketer Ollie Robinson by a British rock band member.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin gave The Oxygen Advantage, a book by Patrick McKeown, who lives in Moycullen, to the 28-year-old renowned cricketer in a bid to boost the young man’s fitness and regain his place on the national team.
The story first appeared in the national British daily newspaper The Telegraph and featured prominently in many other media outlets. It explained how Ollie Robinson, who had been struggling with his fitness in recent years, was given the book by cricket fan and Coldplay co-founder Chris Martin following a performance at Wembley Stadium.
According to The Telegraph, Chris Martin believed the book could help the cricketer maintain his fitness, and crucially, his pace, over the course of the Test match.
The 45-year-old singer said that the advice in the book - its second chapter is titled “How fit are you really?” - helped his performances during concerts. He had issues with both his breathing on stage and maintaining his energy levels during long performances.
Patrick McKeown, the founder, CEO, and director of education and training for Oxygen Advantage® and the Buteyko Clinic International is a bestselling author (his work has been translated into 15 languages ) with more than 20 years experience helping people with breathing issues.
He has worked with thousands of clients in more than 55 countries to train their breathing, enhance sports performance, boost focus, and improve conditions such as asthma, ADHD, insomnia, anxiety, craniofacial development for children, and panic disorder.
A chronic asthma sufferer as a young man, he also had difficulties with concentration and focus and left school at the age of 14 because of this. However, he returned to education later and went on to achieve an honours business degree from Trinity College Dublin.
While preparing to sit one of his university examination, he began to focus his attention on the one thing that had been a constant issue throughout his life, his breathing. Going for a walk prior to the exam, Patrick followed the standard knowledge of the time and started taking in big breaths of air, in preparation for the event. This only made things worse. Almost putting himself into a state of hyperventilation, he had an elevated heart rate and his head was spinning. He went on to pass the exam but the experience beforehand stayed with him.
He began to look at the issue of breathing as an alternative therapy and in the late 1990s, after reading an article about the Buteyko Breathing Method, he went to Russia to study directly under its Ukrainian founder, the late Dr Konstantin Buteyko.
After successfully reversing his asthma, Patrick decided to train to become an instructor so that he could help others. He was accredited by Professor Buteyko in 2002 and has since been teaching thousands of patients throughout Ireland at his renowned Asthma Care clinics.
Patrick holds regular workshops and talks on dysfunctional breathing in nine countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, Israel, Denmark, France, Holland, the UK, and Ireland. He has trained Buteyko instructors from 32 countries and regularly provides Buteyko clinics in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
His books The Oxygen Advantage, The Breathing Cure, and Atomic Focus are all bestsellers and his second book, Close Your Mouth has consistently remained among the top 10 asthma books on Amazon.
For information and dates about Patrick’s forthcoming clinics visit www.buteykoclinic.com/courses
