"It Changes You" Controversial Trainer on Ancient Tool to Unlock Human Potential | Ido Portal

Movement coach Ido Portal tells host Danny Jones that elite performance requires more than isolated “strength and conditioning” components, arguing for broader “practice” that targets attention, perception and what he calls deeper layers of the person. He criticises the popular framing of “flow state”, saying full immersion can create an automated “robot” quality; he says he wants athletes to keep choice and awareness rather than train until they “cannot go wrong”. Portal gives specific examples from work he says he has done with NFL running back Christian McCaffrey, including reading difficult literature (he names Jorge Luis Borges), doing mathematics exercises, and daily long seated meditation alongside conventional power and field work.

On breath and posture, Portal rejects simplified social-media rules, arguing that breathing should adapt to context; he claims “belly breathing” can create distortions and says some breathing gadgets are unnecessary. He also warns that aggressively “loosening” chronically tight hamstrings can backfire if tightness is protective, predicting downstream injury risk if underlying causes are ignored.

Portal makes several broader cultural claims, including that cities and straight-line geometry shape perception and movement, and that modern posture-based yoga is not genuinely ancient but was shaped for Western audiences, referencing the book The Yoga Body. He also alleges that poor results reported from “Enhanced Games” experiments imply many existing elite records were already drug-assisted. He describes recent Indonesia trips where he says trance states occur “with no drugs”.

• Portal says he is sceptical of “flow state” as an ideal, arguing it can automate performance and reduce choice.
• He describes training with Christian McCaffrey that includes literature, maths and long daily seated meditation as well as conventional strength work.
• Portal argues breathing advice is often oversimplified and says “belly breathing” can “create more issues than helped”.
• He warns that persistent hamstring tightness may be protective and that forcing flexibility can create later problems, including back injury.
• Portal alleges modern posture-based yoga is not truly ancient, claiming it was shaped by Western physical-culture influences and colonial history.
• He claims “Enhanced Games” results suggest many existing sport records were already “enhanced”.
• He describes Indonesia as a current research focus, claiming drug-free trance states occur naturally in some settings.