The Way of the Iceman: How the Wim Hof Method Creates Radiant Long-term Health—Using the Science and Secrets of Breath Control, Cold-Training and Commitment

by Wim Hof

Intense exercise short circuits the conscious mind, allowing the athlete to (unknowingly) attain advanced states of meditational consciousness. This higher state of consciousness is an unintended consequence of the intense training. The key to routinely accessing this bliss state is to present ourselves with a physical task of such severity that only by unifying body and mind can we succeed.

The elite athlete methodically and consistently seeks to exceed their current capacities and limits. Only by continually assaulting the barricades of the status quo can the athlete hope to improve those limits and capacities. No athlete improves by striving to stay the same. After fifty years of intense physical training, I can effortlessly access this “Mind of no Mind” via intense physical exercise. I can invoke a true and pristine mental silence in every workout. As an athletic monk and mystic, I can say with zero hesitation, I am at my best, as a person and as a man, as long as I remain enveloped in this exercise-induced state of altered consciousness. It is physiological and psychological Nirvana—addictive and exhilarating.

Only when the ceaseless internal chatterbox is bitch-slapped into silence can we experience reality

Exposure to cold has the power to transport you into a wondrous state of higher consciousness. Mind and body must morph and meld

A person can stand ankle-deep in a freezing lake for the next 20 years and think they are doing something—and to a certain degree they are—the ankle wader is certainly better off than those that won’t venture even this far. However, to reap the optimal physiological and psychological results, at some point the ankle wader must take the plunge and commit!

strength of mind is one of the reasons why the elite are the elite.

The ankle wader must, at some point, make the commitment and (literally) plunge into the extreme cold, embracing it fully and completely in order to absorb and realize the full and complete cornucopia of results. The 102% effort requires we push past the known, step off into the chasm. Dare to struggle, dare to win.

The breathing and the cold are the causes—the feats and tests and health benefits are the results. I would suggest that if you fall in love with the cause, results naturally and inevitably occur. In my world of Iron Zen, the ones that succeed are the ones that fall in love with the training, not the applause.

“Our breathing is the link between the physical world and the soul. If we, as human beings, can find the way back to our souls, we will win the war.”

no one can fight bacteria that have been injected into their arm. Hof can do that. He can influence and control his autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system regulates things like your body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and determines whether your blood vessels dilate or contract. In other words, everything that automatically happens in your body.

A scientific study conducted at the Radboud University Medical Centre with 24 test subjects showed that people who had practiced the Hof method were all able to control their autonomic nervous systems.

you will need to make a resolute commitment. These three components—breathing exercises, cold training and commitment—constitute what we call the Wim Hof Method (WHM).

During the bike journey, Hof also had a deep spiritual experience, in which his body and mind became one. The sense of duality

With breathing exercises, he could transform his fear and the negative experience of the cold into a powerful form of energy.

company called Innerfire.

We are addicted to temperatures around 20-21°C

Your body has 125,000 km (77,671 miles) of blood vessels.

If they work properly, your whole body will function better, because it will get more nutrients and oxygen. Your brain will work better and the same applies to your muscles, intestines, heart, liver and so on.

When you expose yourself to the cold, by stepping into a cold lake for example, your body automatically closes off blood flow to the less vital parts of your body. That is necessary because your body temperature must not fall below 35°C (95°F). It is more important that your heart keeps beating than that your little toe gets enough blood. Your body is smart enough to give priority to your heart and your other vital organs. Your arms and legs get less blood as their blood vessels contract. This ensures that your vital organs—your heart, liver, lungs and kidneys—get enough blood to continue working. Your arms and legs will start to tingle and you might feel a burning sensation. When the body warms up again, the blood vessels open up and your circulation normalizes. By exposing your body to the cold, you can train your blood vessels by closing them forcefully, then making them open again. It’s like training your muscles.

You can achieve a lot if you build up your exposure slowly, but if you go too fast, it can be dangerous.

If you expose yourself to extreme cold for too long without training, you run the risk of suffering cold damage. If your core body temperature falls below 35°C (95°F), the cold will get into your bones and tissues can die. That is what happens when people get frostbite on their fingers and toes while climbing in the Himalayas or other high mountain ranges. First, the fingers or toes become white, which is accompanied by a burning or tingling sensation. After a while, they become completely numb, which is dangerous. If they are not treated, the skin will become dark or even black. The skin will look as if it had been burnt.

when exposed to ice, Hof’s metabolic rate increases by 300%.

There are two varieties of fat: White fat Brown fat White fat mainly stores energy and is a reserve of nutrients. Beneath the skin, it serves as insulation for your body. It protects your organs, and also ensures that they stay in place. The main function of brown fat is warming up your body by burning fatty acids and glucose. One consequence of Hof’s many years of training is that he has a lot of brown fat. Brown fat releases energy directly, generating heat. Newborn babies have a lot of brown fat, so that they can warm up quickly in a cold environment. After nine months, there is little left of this brown fat. Each year, it decreases, perhaps because of clothes and blankets. Adults in Western societies have almost no brown fat left.

Research carried out by the Thrombosis Foundation (Documen-tation Centre 1994) shows that people who take a cold shower daily also have more white corpuscles. The researchers explain the increase in white corpuscles by the activation of the immune system, which releases more white corpuscles.

remarkable how quickly many people got used to the cold and started to feel the benefits after only three or four showers.

Take a warm shower, as you always do. Then, while the water is still warm, start doing the following breathing exercises: Breathe in and breathe out slowly. Breathe in deeply and breathe out nice and slow. Keep doing this for about a minute—taking a total of six to ten breaths. Then, turn the shower to cold. Of course, you will start breathing more quickly and the cold will give you a shock. The trick is to breathe calmly again. Control your breathing under the cold shower. The moment your breathing is under control, the cold will feel different. If you find it difficult to set the shower to cold in one go, do it in two or three steps. You can also start by just holding your feet under the cold spray, then your hands and arms, then gradually bringing your whole body under the cold shower. Stay under the cold shower for a minute. If you are unable to relax with the breathing exercise, try another trick—rubbing yourself. You can “lead” the cold spray over your body with your hands. Massage your arms and legs as the cold water goes over them. The cold might feel a little less intense.

DO-IT-YOURSELF: A BOWL OF ICE-COLD WATER Fill a bucket or bowl with cold water. Add some ice (you can make ice by putting plastic containers filled with water in the freezer). Put your hands in the cold water. At first, it will tingle painfully, as the blood vessels contract. But the pain will quickly decrease, and when you feel your hands becoming warm, you can stop.

“collateral smear”, a phenomenon caused by a hormone that makes the walls of your blood vessels strong and elastic. When you immerse parts of your body in cold water, it releases strengthening hormones and an anti-freeze hormone. These hormones ensure that the vascular system continues to work automatically. Cold showers and a bowl of cold water with ice in it are excellent starter exercises. We recommend that you try it for a month. After that month, you can continue with your cold training.

Breathing exercises are considered to have many benefits. They can: Help you relax Give you more energy Help you sleep better Help relieve headaches Are good for extreme athletes Help relieve back and neck problems Help relieve intestinal problems

Count how often you breathe in a minute.

When a competitive cyclist rests, he breathes only six times a minute and has a heart rate of less than 40 beats per minute. People who are tired breathe too quickly all day and mostly have a resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute or higher.

He had to diagnose a patient who was breathing heavily and who sometimes gasped for breath. Buteyko thought he was dealing with an anxious asthma patient. To his surprise, there were no signs of asthma, but the patient had high blood pressure.

If you breathe more calmly, your heart rate will slow down and you will improve the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide in your blood.

Oxygen is important for releasing energy from nutrients, while carbon dioxide is important for keeping the blood vessels open. Carbon dioxide is often incorrectly seen as waste—something that must be expelled from the body. But, it is essential that your blood vessels stay open so that oxygen can reach everywhere in your body.

David Servan-Schreiber writes extensively on the importance of good heart rate variability. He claims that people suffering from depression, stress, cancer, or who are in the final stages of life have low heart rate variability without exception.

The sympathetic nervous system is associated with everything to do with action. If it dominates, your body will be in “fight-or-flight” mode. You will breathe faster, your digestive system will stop working momentarily, and your blood will move from your skin to your muscles, internal organs, and your brain. That is why the sympathetic system is often compared to a car’s accelerator. The parasympathetic nervous system regulates everything relating to recovery: a slow heart rate and breathing, a good flow of blood to the skin, and an active digestive system. Therefore, the parasympathetic system is sometimes known as the body’s brake pedal.

Breathing incorrectly can cause a whole range of health problems. We will explain five of them: Pain in the shoulders or neck Agitation Intestinal problems Tiring quickly Heart palpitations

Here are two breathing exercises that are good for relaxation: — Breathe in through your nose — Breathe out through your nose — Pause — Breathe in through your nose — Breathe out through your nose — Pause Don’t pause as long as possible, but just until you feel the need to breathe in again. If this exercise doesn’t relax you, breathe out through your mouth: — Breathe in through your nose — Breathe out through your mouth, prolonging the breath a little — Pause — Breathe in through your nose — Breathe out through your mouth, prolonging the breath a little — Pause

Vajrayana works from a cause and effect perspective. The aim is to transform every experience into fearless wisdom, spontaneous joy and energetic love.

Tummo combines breathing with visualization. It involves breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. While breathing, practitioners visualize flames, as a method to help raise their body temperature.

THE WHM BREATHING EXERCISES A word of warning in advance: Don’t do this breathing exercise in a position or location where fainting might be dangerous, such as in the shower, underwater, while standing up, or in the car. Do it under supervision the first time. — Breathe in deeply, and then exhale — Breathe in deeply, and then exhale — Breathe in deeply, and then exhale — Breathe at a pace and rhythm that feel most comfortable — Repeat this 30 times — The last time, breathe out completely, then in again very deeply, out again slowly, and then wait.

Breathe in deeply, without forcing yourself, and then out again slowly. By not fully breathing out, a small amount of air remains behind in the lungs. After doing that 30 times, hold your breath after breathing out, and wait until you feel the need to breathe in again. Repeat this exercise until you feel tingling, light in the head, or sluggish.

Holding your breath after exhaling leads to a parasympathetic reaction (in other words, you relax). This leads to aerobic dissimilation in the cell. By breathing more deeply and consciously, we can therefore generate more energy in the cell.

After these breathing exercises, many people experience an expanded form of consciousness. This is likely from the mitochondrial activity in the brain cells releasing chemicals in the pituitary and pineal glands. The pineal gland (epiphysis cerebri) is very important for determining our state of mind. It produces melatonin, a hormone that plays an important role in our sleep-wake and reproductive rhythms. Our hypothesis is—that through the WHM breathing exercises—much more oxygen enters the pineal gland, so the body will generate a lot more oxygen. That explains why the exercises work so well in combating jetlag, sleeping problems and depression.

BBC and National Geographic. The documentary was later shown on the television program, Daredevils.

walking barefoot strengthens the muscles in the foot—muscles that are hardly used when you wear shoes—and increases your bone mass.

The Earth is negatively charged while the air is full of positive ions. The quantity of positive ions has greatly increased in recent years with the widespread use of radios, televisions, cell phones, and other forms of wireless communications. Too many positive ions can disrupt the balance between positive and negative.

he rarely has breakfast and doesn’t eat lunch. He only eats in the evenings, but as much as he wants and whatever he feels like eating.

Eat during a five-hour period each day, no more.

trains your body to mainly use fat as fuel instead of glucose. This idea also ties in with the production of brown fat during cold training.