The Wim Hof Method
The Wim Hof Method is focused on the objective to find one’s inner strength and be able to adapt to nature. By practicing the Wim Hof Method, people’s inner strength can be activated like it was hundreds of years ago to help people live a healthier, happier, and more powerful life.
Creation of the Wim Hof Method
A man named Wim Hof is a Dutch athlete known for creating the Wim Hof Method. He is nicknamed the ‘IceMan’ for submerging himself in ice for more than 80 minutes and running a marathon in -20 celsius. He has broken countless Guinness world records. He believes that he can teach anyone else in the world his superpower tools.
How Can I Find My Inner Power?
The Wim Hof Method consists of 3 pillars: breathing, ice exposure, and commitment. By practicing each pillar, most individuals find increased energy, improved sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, heightened focus, accelerated recovery, and a general improvement in quality of life.
Breathing:
The Wim Hof Method breathing exercises focus on increasing oxygen into the body to create many benefits. An example of a breathing exercise would be taking a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Then, transitioning to inhale for longer than exhaling to get more oxygen into the body. Keep inhaling and exhaling slightly until you feel dizzy. Next, exhale completely and hold your breath for as long as you can -- you’ll be surprised how long you can go. You may meditate after this step. Lastly, inhale for fifteen seconds and exhale and can repeat the process if you’d like (4). Here is an example of a breathing exercise by Wim Hof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ Try it out!
Ice Exposure:
The next pillar is ice exposure. Ice exposure is not something people typically voluntarily do. However, learning about the benefits of a cold bath and practicing to find the inner fire in your core to stay warm results in many benefits according to the Wim Hof Method. It might be worth trying.
To explain, ice exposure has been proven to speed up metabolism by activating brown fat (1). Metabolism is the chemical process that breaks down fat into energy our bodies need. Our bodies have different kinds of fat. Brown fat breaks down glucose and fat cells to provide the body with heat to maintain one’s body temperature (2). People want to produce brown fat instead of white fat to burn away excess fat and cold exposure helps this process of using brown fat (7).
Cold exposure helps reduce inflammation, swelling, and sore muscles. Many athletes submerge themselves in an ice bath after a game or hard workout to help heal their tired muscles. Top athletes such as Nicci Daly (hockey player), Tom Evans (ultrarunner), Celia Fernandez Lopez (cliff diver) found benefits from learning how to control their breath as they entered ice baths and learned how to apply this type of control to their sports performance and life (5). Other benefits include improved immune response, quality of sleep, and focus.
Commitment:
The last pillar is commitment. Commitment may not seem to fit with the other two pillars but really it is the foundation of the other two. The goal is to master your mind and body. This must be done with patience and dedication. With patience and dedication, people are able to have control over their mind and body to withstand the cold temperatures.
A study done on Wim Hof to analyze his body temperature when he was in an ice bath for more than 80 minutes found that his core body temperature barely decreased. His heart rate and blood pressure hardly increased as well. These results stunned the scientists as people typically would go into hyperthermia. Research is still being conducted to conclude this remarkable evidence (3). These “superpowers” that seem Wim Hof possesses can be taught to you as well to find your own “superpowers”!
Results
The most common results that individuals see are mentioned above: increased energy, improved sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, heightened focus, accelerated recovery, and a general improvement in quality of life. Individuals may also see improvements in sports performance, increased willpower, greater cold tolerance, faster recovery, enhanced creativity, and stronger immune system according to the Wim Hof Method (6).
Is the Wim Hof Method for Everyone?
This scientifically-backed evidence of the Wim Hof Method is promising to find the inner power and live a happier and healthier life. Many athletes and celebrities have taken part in this method. But is it really for everyone? The Wim Hof Method advises individuals with epilepsy, high blood pressure (in case of prescription medication), coronary heart disease (e.g. Angina Pectoris; Stable Angina), a history of serious health issues like heart failure or stroke to not practice this method. If this does not pertain to you, then maybe suffering the painful ice exposure until you’ve unlocked your inner strength is something to try! Everyone has inner strength within, but finding and controlling that strength must be done with practice, and here is how you can do it!
Get started if you want to find your inner strength by bonding with nature to live a healthier, happier, and powerful life!
Learn more at https://www.wimhofmethod.com.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WxufpcnNWw - youtube breathing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3623555/ -brown fat mice study
C/O Sophia Reed