The Wim Hof Method (WHM) consists of three parts- breathing, physical exercises, and cold training. It was mid-October and I knew I’d be going to Alberta, Canada to visit AnnaBlanca’s family in December- being ready to go into the freezing Bow River in Canada was the perfect goal for me to work towards. I debated for a week over whether or not I should spend $199 on the 10-week online video training program, but finally I pulled the trigger and went for it. Cold exposure was a central part of the practice and incredible cold endurance seemed to be a consistent result amongst everyone who went through the program. I found that Wim, an incredibly charismatic and inspiring individual, had been developing a practice over the course of several decades to train and strengthen his nervous system. I started eagerly consuming every bit of information I could find online about Wim Hof and his method.
My curiosity wasn’t peaked until a while later that I listened to an interview with Tim Ferriss and legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton talking about the “Wim Hof Method.” Having been a passionate surfer most of my life, anytime Laird talks about something that he regularly incorporates into his training, I’m very keen to know more about it. “The Iceman,” Wim Hof first came into my awareness because the feature that Vice did on him kept popping up in the “recommended” section of YouTube… but I didn’t watch it because even the thumbnail image just looked too cold to possibly make for enjoyable watching! And out of ignorance, I just assumed he was a freak of nature with a special ability completely unique to him alone. I found some help in hot herbal elixir with major amounts of shilajit and cayenne (yes, so much that I felt the burn twice), but even this only helped moderately. I knew that using infrared saunas would boost my circulation, but the effects always started wearing off by the time I drove 30-45 minutes to the beach and after a couple of hours in the water, I was still frozen. I’ve always kept my ears open for ways to improve my adaptability in the cold in order to extend my winter surf sessions, but there were few solutions available. Though I would surf year round, I would always wear a nice thick wetsuit and would always be the quickest to get cold, walking back to my car with numb hands and feet while everyone else was still in the water.įor years I’ve known about the nervous system benefits of finishing showers with 30 seconds of cold water, but apart from doing it a few times on the hottest days of the summer, it was never something that I was able to stick to and incorporate regularly into my life. I felt most comfortable in either tropical environments or hot Southern California summers and definitely never got excited about going somewhere cold.
But by staying in this nice cozy comfort zone, are we missing out on one of nature’s most powerful tools for enhancing health and vitality?įor most of my life, the cold was definitely not my friend. We set the thermostat to 70✯ year round and don’t dare to go outside without plenty of warm clothing on to make sure the ambient temperature is hardly felt. How long is the online course? 10 weeks of video guidance, then you can continue as you likeįor most of us in the modern world, the cold is something we avoid like the plague. How much time does it take? 30 minutes/day
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