My Name is Rob and I’m a Hofamaniac by Robert Brinkley

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You are in the shower. You turn on the water. You discover the switch from tub to shower has already been engaged. No time to turn it off, what do you do? The answer separates Hofamaniacs from the rest of the world.

I’ll tell you what I’ve done for the past 3 decades – jump back to get out of the spray range; and if the cool water grazed my toes, I’d let out a high pitched scream!

Hi, My Name is Rob and I’m a Hofamaniac

After that intro it is odd to say, I’ve been purposely taking cold showers for over 2 months now. It’s probably even more odd if you know what I do to convert my 80 degree Fahrenheit “cold water” to actual cold water. My wife says it’s quite the production.

So what changed? I met Wim Hof.

Wim Who?

If you are unfamiliar with Wim Hof, he has an impressive resume with over 20 Guinness World Records. His earned nickname is “The ICE MAN.” Some are: farthest swim under ice; longest ice bath; Fastest half marathon barefoot on ice/snow; running a full marathon above the Arctic circle wearing only a pair of shorts; reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in his shorts within two days; the list goes on and on. What may be more impressive, is that although he could rightfully brag on his super human accomplishments. He humbly declares that anyone can learn to do what he does.

Becoming Superhuman Day One

Wim was hosting a one day seminar and I mentioned to my wife that it’d be neat to listen to him in person. So for my birthday my father in law bought himself and I tickets to the seminar. The itinerary for the seminar was: lecture, breathing exercises, break, ice bath, Q & A. I’ll admit, I was rather intimidated by the ice bath. But I was curious to hear what he had to say. Plus his motto is, “Happy, Healthy, Strong.” That sound perfect to me!

My expectations for the seminar was to tryout/practice Wim’s style of breathing, listen for some nuggets of knowledge, try and snap a selfie with Wim, and not look like a sissy in front of my father in law in the ice bath. But we got more than we expected. After the breathing, both my father in law & I felt amazing. Even stranger, after the ice bath, we felt amazing! So amazing that when we got the offer for a bonus round in the ice -we took it! We even jumped in a 3rd time when there was extra room in the pool!

Time to Always Get Better, Stronger

After the seminar we both signed up for Wim’s 10 week online class. In the class you practice breathing, practice push-ups with your breath held, progressively build up your cold exposure (via cold showers leading up to ice baths), and there are other exercises/meditation sprinkled in.

I started the class, and enjoyed it, but knew I wasn’t getting the most out of it because where I live, I don’t have cold water. It literally comes out of the cold tap at 78-81 degrees Fahrenheit. Determined, I bought a camping shower and starting experimenting with different mixtures of ice, tap water, and refrigerated water.. Here’s a video of what I did:https://youtu.be/i6JxlgDBLLQ

The cooler solution worked well for the first 4 weeks. But in week 5, we jumped our shower time up to 10 minutes. That requires a lot more water. I had to upgrade my efforts.

So why do it?

You could do a quick Google search and find a laundry list of cold shower benefits. When we were at the seminar, we met some folks that said they do their breathing and cold showers to help them with things like: PTSD, inflammatory diseases, depression, boost immune system, etc. Those are all serious things and they told us the cold & breathing helped them a lot. For me, it just feels good, after. No always with the first blast of cold water.  There is often a little self talk prior to stepping in a 40 degree shower. And of course there are times, just when you are feeling great. Feeling like you have conquered the cold, and it will sucker-punch you in the kisser and you’ll think, why do I like this? But after the shower is over I feel great!  If you wanted to hear me pontificate, I like the primitiveness of it. I believe there will always be a trade off with comfort and convenience. A cold shower can be a little way to easily give your body back the ability to adjust/adapt/respond to environmental stimulus.

Also a short word on the breathing.

The breathing practice is a big part of Wim Hof’s Method. It can be easy to discount the breathing. But practicing it, it feels good too. You practice cycles of breathing and then holding your breath.  At the end of your

Final Stretch . . . get it?

daily practice you do some push-ups holding your breath.  It’s fun to watch the progress of: the retention time, and doing push-ups while holding your breath. Beyond feeling revitalized, I think it helps my have greater patience. Which is critical with a 2 year old.

Final Stretch

I am not done with the online course. I am currently in the beginning of week seven of ten. I’m a little sad it is almost over, but excited to see how the last few weeks shape up.

Robert Brinkley says he is Humble Teacher & Student of Strength . Rob is certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Strongfirst, Original Strength and TRX. He’s a former powerlifter who began exploring alternative ways to increase his strength and athleticism in his relentless quest to always get better, always get stronger. You can follow his training on Instagram @alwaysgetbetterstronger, contact him to learn more about his online coaching services at alwaysgetbetterstronger.com and check out his YouTube channel for innovative ways to improve your training at home including some low tech alternatives to expensive gym equipment.