What Doesn't Kill Us

by Scott Carney

First you will need to establish a baseline. Take a deep breath of air and time yourself with a stopwatch to see how long you can hold it. Most people can hold their breath for between 30 seconds and a minute without any training, but everyone’s underlying physiology is a little different. While you’re at it also figure out how many pushups you can do. When I first started, my arms began to buckle at around 20. Some people can only do one or two. Whatever it is, write down your baseline, perhaps on the inside back cover of this book, so that you can check back on it later. I should note that this is a variation on the Wim Hof Method. It is an even more basic starting point than where he usually begins students with their training, and is not precisely the one that he teaches in his courses. The first goal is to prepare your body by blowing CO2 out of your system. Start by sitting down on a couch or lying on the floor and taking 30 fast breaths. Each inhale should take about a second, but you should not force the exhale. Instead let it flow out naturally. Your breath should sound like you’re at the peak of a sprint just a few seconds shy of having to slow down. Pretty soon you’re going to feel a little dizzy; this is normal. You might also feel tingling in your hands and feet. You might also feel cold. Or experience ringing in your ears. After about 30 breaths you will have radically increased your blood oxygen saturation and cleared out most of the CO2 in your system. Now,...