Season 2 Episode 4

Flight crews operate in one of the most physiologically demanding environments out there: long sedentary stretches, high cognitive load, circadian disruption, and unpredictable schedules. In this episode, we break down how to move away from all-or-nothing fitness thinking and toward a flexible, data-informed strategy that actually works in aviation. 

We explore why modern exercise science favors strength training and progressive overload over steady-state cardio for building resiliency, cardiac efficiency, and long-term metabolic health—especially for aging aviators who need to preserve explosive strength for operational readiness. We also talk about the “learning phase” of training, how neurological adaptation builds muscle memory, and why consistency—not intensity—is the real game changer.

On the nutrition side, we frame fueling like flight planning: fat loss requires a calorie deficit, protein intake matters (0.7–1.2g per pound of body weight for active adults), and fiber is often the missing piece. We discuss evidence-based supplements like creatine, why collagen is frequently misunderstood, and how tools like wearables from Garmin, Apple, Oura Health, and WHOOP can reduce friction in tracking. 

Most importantly, we emphasize strategic flexibility: pre-planning workouts around your duty schedule, letting operational chaos dictate rest days, and remembering that your health routine must bend with aviation life—not break because of it.

Helpful Links:

Mile High Health Club: Your hub for all of Lashae's offerings: workouts, nutrition advice, flight crew health courses, membership information and more!

Season 2: Bonus Episode 

New series from The Calm Cockpit designed to help you start off your week on a positive note!

High performance in aviation is evolving. In this Monday Briefing, we explore the growing recognition—seen clearly in this year's Winter Olympics—that peak performance and mental well-being are not opposing forces, but complementary systems. The old “rise and grind” mindset is giving way to a model of sustainable excellence, where visualization, deliberate rest, and active recovery are treated as professional requirements, not indulgences. 

We examine lessons from Olympic figure skater Gracie Gold, whose public success masked significant private struggle. Her story highlights how high-pressure cultures can normalize unnecessary suffering—and why world-class performance systems are now changing from the inside out. The International Olympic Committee’s introduction of “Calm Zones,” recovery spaces, and neutral welfare officers offers a compelling blueprint for how high-stakes professions like aviation can better support mental performance without lowering standards.

The takeaway for aviators is clear: small, intentional choices matter. Prioritizing rest, nutrition, movement, and mental training helps prime the brain for better habits under stress—and allows less helpful patterns to fall away. These Monday Briefings are designed to be a steady nudge, a reset between flights or duty days, reminding you that taking care of yourself is not stepping back from excellence—it’s how elite performers sustain it. Have a great week, and fly safe.

Mentioned in the show:

Boston Globe Article on Grace Gold and Olympics Mental Health Initiatives

Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out 

by Gracie Gold

Bonus Episode

Optimize Your High Performance & Neurological Resiliency

Do you need to compensate for lost sleep? Or maybe improve your brain’s ability to learn and retain information? Yoga Nidra is a practical and trainable recovery tool; allowing you to find deep relaxation and rejuvenation without that napping “groggy” feel. Rest isn’t always passive relaxation, it can be intentional neurological training that creates “mental white space” in the middle of demanding schedules. 

This practice supports nervous system regulation, clearer thinking, and improved resilience—helping you fly smarter and stress less, both in and out of the cockpit.

The short and sweet practice includes a simple environmental setup, a short structured breathing pattern (4–2–6), and a systematic body scan that releases tension from the toes to the top of the head. 

In your practice go for consistency over outcome: you don’t need to feel calm, relaxed, or “good” for the practice to work. Each repetition trains the nervous system, regardless of how it feels in the moment. 

Life and flying are already demanding, and recovery is not optional. With practice, a sense of steadiness and ease becomes portable, accessible anytime, and always as close as your breath.

Season 2 Episode 3

Aviation demands sustained focus, emotional regulation, and high-quality decision-making—yet many of us carry a quiet “recovery debt” from constant task-loading, long duty days, and a grind mindset that treats rest as optional. That's why we are dedicating a whole episode to the concept of mental whitespace.

We break down how skipping real downtime degrades executive function, narrows cognitive bandwidth, and keeps stress hormones elevated—conditions that erode safety margins long before they show up as obvious fatigue.

If you’ve ever felt “on edge” while thinking you were fine, this conversation will sound familiar.

The takeaway is simple and actionable: treating recovery as human system maintenance isn’t just good for your health—it’s essential for clear thinking, consistent performance, and safer flying over the long haul.

Drastically Reduce Stress with a Work Shutdown Ritual by Cal Newport: Great advice from MIT-trained computer science professor at Georgetown University. 

Clinical Benefits of Practicing Yoga Nidra Regularly like Reduced Mind-Wandering, increased dopamine, enduring improvements in brain functioning…

Insomnia help research: Yoga nidra practice shows improvement in sleep in patients with chronic insomnia: A randomized controlled trial 

10 minute guided “Non-Sleep/Deep Rest” by Andrew Huberman

Bonus Episode (Season 2)

Whether you’re living out of a suitcase or looking to future-proof your health, this episode delivers clear, actionable guidance to help you stay strong, focused, and mission-ready. 

In this bonus episode airline pilot, mentor, and author Jeffrey “JJ” Madison shares how he successfully returned to the cockpit at age 60 after a 14-year hiatus—and the specific approach that made it possible. Drawing from decades of experience, JJ outlines practical strategies for maintaining physical strength, mental clarity, and emotional resilience amid the unpredictable demands of airline operations.

This conversation reframes pilot well-being as a professional performance requirement, not a lifestyle preference. JJ encourages pilots to train for life, treating aviation like a sport where fitness, recovery, and sleep are essential to safety, longevity, and consistency on the line.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to maintain training consistency on the road with limited time and equipment.

Why strength training outperforms cardio for metabolism, immunity, and energy.

Practical airport and hotel nutrition hacks to avoid hidden sugars and excess calories.

How sleep hygiene and nervous system downregulation support recovery and decision-making.

Why rest, sweating, and recovery are critical to long-term performance.

How mindset and humor build mental resilience in high-stress aviation environments.

JJ also challenges the outdated stereotype of the “airline pilot body,” advocating for a new standard of strength, mobility, and professionalism that supports career longevity and safe operations.

Season 2 Episode 2

In this episode we welcome our first repeat guest, Jeffrey “JJ” Madison. A Harvard-educated flight instructor, mentor, airline pilot, aviation advocate, and author, JJ has accomplished something few pilots ever do—returning to the airlines at age 60 after a 14-year hiatus. His story, and the discipline behind it, underscores that personal accountability for our lifestyle choices is not optional in aviation—it’s a safety imperative. 

The discussion connects fitness, sleep, nutrition, and mental health to real-world safety outcomes. Cardiovascular conditioning supports oxygen utilization and brain performance, while strength training and intentional recovery reduce fatigue-related errors over long duty days. Hydration and stable nutrition help prevent cognitive fog and energy crashes that degrade judgment, and unmanaged personal stress is identified as a leading human factors risk. By addressing physical and mental health proactively—before they manifest as distraction or impairment—pilots reduce operational risk, protect their medical longevity, and strengthen the safety margin for their crews and passengers.

Links:

YIKES! 100 Smart Pilots and the Dumb Things They Did Yet Lived to Tell About ‘Em   A Great Book for a Great Cause! Fueling the Next Generation of Aerospace Professionals.

Season 2 Episode 1

Aviation demands precision, resilience, and flawless execution—but what happens when the pressure to perform leaves no room to be human?

In this episode we explore the deep mission that motivated us to create this podcast: addressing a long-standing gap in aviation culture around mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Our conversation examines why stress, anxiety, fatigue, and fear are so prevalent among pilots—and why traditional “push through it” thinking no longer serves safety or performance.

To help us, we invited podcaster and guest expert Avi Gordon to guide the discussion. Along with his podcast skills, Avi is a mind-body coach, meditation teacher, and Director of the Integral Yoga Teachers Association. 

Avi helps us dig into the core paradox of pilot life: that the profound love of flying is inseparable from the fear of losing one’s career and identity. This fear drives perfectionism, discourages vulnerability, and often prevents pilots from seeking help—medical or otherwise. From training events to line flying, the pressure to appear flawless creates a constant “performance self,” leaving little space for authentic wellbeing.

You’ll hear why most mistakes aren’t caused by lack of skill, but by lack of presence—being stuck in future worry or past self-judgment. The episode reframes self-care not as a personal indulgence, but as a practical, safety-oriented performance tool that directly supports focus, decision-making, and consistency in the cockpit.

To put the discussion into action, Avi shares a simple, actionable framework pilots can actually use—without needing hours of meditation or lifestyle overhauls. His 8 Practical Tools for Pilot Wellbeing can be put into action immediately and yet provide profound results. 

This episode is an invitation to rethink what strength, professionalism, and peak performance really look like. It’s time to embrace the core concepts of self-care as part of aviation culture, turning pilot wellbeing into a prerequisite for every training and flight.

Helpful Links:

Avi's Coaching: Mind Body Coaching for Peak Performance 

Avi's Book: A Light in the Tunnel Audiobook and Paperback

Integral Yoga Podcast: Hosted by Avi. Discussions on yoga, spirituality, and conscious evolution

Avi's Newsletter Sign-Up

In this bonus episode join Yoga Therapist Lisa Danahy for a short mental wellness reset.

Create Calm: resources and more information about Yoga Therapist Lisa Danahy

Episode 25

In this episode Yoga Therapist Lisa Danahy explores the physiology of resilience and why true calm is not a personality trait, but rather a trainable skill. Drawing clear parallels between yoga, neuroscience, and aviation, Lisa explains how pilots can regulate stress responses in both acute emergencies and the cumulative pressure of long-term training.

Resilience is the body’s ability to move out of fear-based survival responses and return to clear, executive functioning—a capacity governed by the vagus nerve, the HPA axis, and the parasympathetic nervous system. The key is learning how to practice regulation during ordinary moments so calm becomes instinctive when it matters most.

We also discuss the limits of a perfectionist mindset and how to reframe our rigid thinking into a growth-mindset that prioritizes curiosity and learning.

Links:

The Schiff Show: Aviation Education Variety Show with legendary aviator Brian Schiff "Final Approach to Tragedy; Checklist and Discipline Gone Wrong" December 11 episode with John Niehaus. WINGS credit available!

Create Calm: Workshops, classes, and professional training that empowers children, educators, parents, and professionals with practical, evidence-based tools that support the well-being of the whole person—mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Creating Calm in Your Classroom: A Mindfulness-Based Movement Program for Social-emotional Learning in Early Childhood Education

What separates a calm cockpit from catastrophe? A recent study out of Griffith University in Australia is shedding new light on why some pilots handle in-flight emergencies better than others.

Episode 24

When you’re on duty while the rest of the world slows down, the emotional load can hit hard. Loneliness, fomo (fear of missing out), and the quiet ache of missing rituals that anchor you are common experiences to many pilots. 

In this episode we’ll share five counter-intuitive, highly practical strategies for navigating holiday duty with clarity and compassion. From acknowledging the “suck,” to scheduling a worry appointment, building small mission-based rituals, unhooking from old emotional stories, and finding connection through service, this conversation reframes holiday work as something you can approach with intention—not avoidance. 

Whether you’re in the cockpit, the cabin, or supporting others behind the scenes, these tools help you stay grounded, human, and connected—even from miles away.