The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Potential, Transcend Your Limits

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The book offers some interesting insight as to why the WHM is having some success in making people healthy and why it might work, enough to satisfy your skeptical friends no doubt, but this doesn't feel like research that has found it's cohesion yet... it's not fully baked. It feels like its a little all over the place, even though some ideas are very interesting. Hof met his first wife, Olaya, from the Basque country in Spain, while living in a squat in Amsterdam. Enahm was born, they became a family and got by on very little money. They had three more children and spent time living in a Basque village.

The penultimate chapter suggests what the WHM might do for people in various classes, including: healthy people, athletes, and people suffering from various physical and mental ailments. With respect to the latter, there is discussion of exemplary cases as well as the possible means by which the training might act. The 'Iceman' Wim Hof shares his remarkable life story and powerful method for supercharging your strength, health and happiness.He discussed his methods, albeit, with some repetition. He mentioned various studies, but unfortunately, no deep dives into the science. I'd prefer a book based more around the science, but this was not Hof's intention.

This book is an enlightening look into the nervous system, and the amazing power of the mind. Don't mistake this for simple ‘cold therapy’ although that is a piece of the puzzle.

Wim Hof first came across my radar a few years ago when I heard of a crazy Dutchman defying the laws of thermodynamics. How could a man submerge himself in freezing water for prolonged periods of time without hypothermia? How was it possible for his body temperature to stay the same during the process? Hof goes on long monologues, extolling the benefits of the WHM and generally bigging up WH. He can control his core body temperature, prevent it falling to dangerous levels of hypothermia when exposed to the cold. He says he can manage the part of his nervous system that is responsible for breathing and heart rate, as well his adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. And that we have control over our immune systems and our anxieties, and the power to prevent illness, depression and inflammation. Wim has become known as “The Iceman” for his astounding physical feats, such as spending hours in freezing water and running barefoot marathons over deserts and ice fields. Yet his most remarkable achievement is not any record-breaking performance—it is the creation of a method that thousands of people have used to transform their lives. If you can say yes to freezing water each day, it may help you say yes to an all-nighter in the office to get a project done. 6 ACTIONS YOU SHOULD TAKE Now my turn, here goes … Jesus! I feel the air rushing from my lungs and body tightening up, recoiling, saying: “What the actual …” But I am actually in.

Breathing exercises can activate brown fat tissue (or brown adipose tissue — BAT), which is capable of energy combustion, and your intercostal muscles. This can help your body produce heat by burning fat.And we – I – do, hold my breath for a minute. “Three, two, one, fully in, squeeze it a little bit to your head, this is bringing cerebrospinal fluid to the brain, letting go. Now we go again.” That being said, this book is so full of pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo and variations on "If you follow this method, you will live 500 years, never experience disease, your wife and kids will love you, you will never feel sad or depressed", naturally supported by Wim's own claims about his own life, that it's hard to get through to the end. I think I eventually gave up at about 87% through, because I couldn't get through the 20th repetition of the same ideas. The book could have been 75% shorter (and probably 75% more enjoyable as a result). There is some good information here (respectable studies that have looked at his method, for example) and I do expect more studies to confirm the benefits of cold exposure and breathing exercises (we should not need studies to confirm common sense, might I say). I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon with the Iceman. Yes, he bangs on a bit, but that’s because he does passionately believe it. He’s also entertaining and funny. And extraordinary. He sat in an ice bath for one hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds! It makes me hyperventilate just thinking about it. Location is important. Always do these breathing exercises in a safe environment, never in an environment in which it might be dangerous to faint, like in water or driving a car. So, first off I like this book mostly. I do think that there's legitimacy to the results seen, observed and claimed. However, the scientific explanations are a little off. I read the PNAS paper, some stuff Wim Hof claims is right but some is really off. The oxygen levels are not really different; the CO2 is very different. Also, 7 pH neutral, pH 7.4 is normal for blood is already slightly alkaline. The increase to pH 7.6 is more alkaline, however, is this really what the difference is? This pH change is from the decrease in CO2 not an increase in O2. Also, the air being charged with negative ions is ridiculous. Air is "78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide" (Wiki). Nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide are all neutral molecules, and air is an insulator. I do think that the other benefits of walking barefoot are correct, but the grounding/earthing can't be right. Please show me a source/reference/study if I'm wrong about any of the science. Again, the method seems really good and effective, just the justifications need work.

Wim Hoff is quite the enigma. I have no doubt that he is quite insane and also quite brilliant. It is clear to me that the two walk hand in hand. If you have a bad hangover, do 3-4 rounds of the Wim Hof Method and this can supposedly cure a hangover. Breathing alkalizes the blood, which eliminates the acidity caused by alcohol. When it comes to the breathing... its really profound, and some of the things he has claimed are world changing if they can be duplicated by us common mortals. I believe in it (due to a book I read last year called "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art" by James Nestor), and I believe that breathing the right way, and consciously breathing will be a boon for my health, and future in this very bleak world. (yeah I said that). Hof, in emotional agony, as well as facing bringing up four children himself with very little money, found some comfort in cold water, in the canyons around Pamplona. “I found that going into cold water stops whatever is going on in your mind, you’ve got to survive in cold water, it is merciless, but righteous.” It helped him heal, and he began to think it could help others heal, too. And the seeds of the Wim Hof Method were born.

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Through the breath, we become alkaline and oxygenated and become more able to regulate our nervous system. Through the cold, we are able to activate the blood flow and get it within our willful control. The Wim Hof Method: Own Your Mind, Master Your Biology, and Activate Your Full Human Potential is, perhaps not suprisingly, repetitive and peppered with all kinds of mysticism and pseudo-science. Take the journey with Wim through his stories, the science, and the method to discover that you are capable of more than you thought possible Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author of and host of The School of Greatness I would recommend the audiobook as Wim can be a bit repetitive at times (not read by him tho, but hey, Apolo Ohno is great too).