Introduction

What if I told you that you could strengthen your immune system, decrease pain and inflammation, and find relief from a variety of health disorders just by practicing a few easy exercises every day?

This might sound too good to be true, but one Dutch man claims that through daily breathing exercises and cold exposure, you can reap immense physical and mental health benefits. Wim Hoff, who has run an entire marathon above the arctic circle in shorts and currently holds the world record for the longest time submerged in a tank of ICE (1 hour 52 minutes and 42 seconds!), claims that by practicing the breathing method that he has created, he can influence his autonomic nervous system and partially regulate his body temperature! This method has been proven to have immense health benefits such as boosting your immune system, lowering blood pressure, relieving symptoms from mental health disorders, arthritis, COPD, Asthma, and more!

What is the Wim Hof Method?

Breathing just makes up one of the three parts of what is called the, “Wim Hof Method”. The three different focuses are Breathwork, Cold Exposure, and Mindfulness training. This exercise method can be done almost anytime and anywhere as long as you set time aside to practice it. 

Breathing is normally an unconscious process that is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for controlling most of your body’s internal processes that are necessary for survival. These include body temperature, heart rate, digestion, metabolism, and more that are essential to our bodies. After studying Wim Hoff, scientists were able to determine that through his breathing method, he is able to consciously influence and partially override his autonomic nervous system through his breath. This is incredible because this revolutionary finding is rewriting textbooks, such as “Biology Now: With Physiology”, because it was previously thought of to be impossible! 

How do you perform the Wim Hof Method?

According to the Wim Hof method website, the breathing exercise is broken down into four very simple steps.

1. Start in a comfortable position where you can breathe deeply, freely, and unobstructed. In order to do this breathing exercise you must set aside 10-15 minutes in which you will be able to fully commit and dedicate your complete focus to the exercise. Once in this comfortable position, inhale as deep as you can through your nose and then exhale fully out of your mouth. Inhale and exhale rapidly for 30-40 breaths, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Although you potentially might start to feel a bit ‘tingly’ or light-headed afterwards, these side effects are reported to be harmless according to the Wim Hoff Method website.
2. After you have fully exhaled your last breath, you are supposed to inhale deeply once more and hold this breath for as long as you possibly can until you absolutely must take another breath. Like a child in an underwater breathing competition, you truly must hold this breath for as long as you can in order for this breathing practice to have the greatest results.
3. Once you can no longer hold this breath in, exhale and then inhale fully once more. Instead of holding this next breath for as long as you can, you must hold it for 15 seconds before you exhale. After this breath, one full cycle has been completed. It is advertised on the Wim Hof website that this can be done 3-4 times without any breaks and can also be used in conjunction with meditation or yoga. For more information on the benefits of meditation and cold exposure, check out our other blogs!

What are the Benefits of the Wim Hof Method?

The benefits of the Wim Hof Method can be achieved by anyone who simply takes the time to start a daily practice of breathing exercises, cold exposure, and mental commitment. Self-reported benefits by those who practice the Wim Hof method include improved overall energy and mental focus levels, reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, better mood, and even help with insomnia, chronic pain, and arthritis! In fact, according to Wim’s website, out of 2,147 written reviews, people gave the Wim Hof Method an amazing average of 9.5 out of 10 in terms of overall satisfaction and results.

One man writes…

‘I’ve been suffering from headaches and migraines for 30 years. I came across Wim Hof and in the following weeks the pain attacks were reduced and for the last 3 months I haven’t had any severe headaches. After decades of pain I have discovered the power to heal myself.” 

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Another writes…

‘“For 12 years now I have had rheumatism. Thanks to the Wim Hof Method I have been able to halve the amount of anti-inflammatory drugs. My goal is to completely stop the use of anti-inflammatory drugs after finishing the video course.”

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A landmark study performed at Radboud University in 2014 was determining the immune system response to endotoxins in Wim Hoff and others who practiced his method. A normal immune system response to these endotoxins would’ve caused the person to feel very sick for a few hours and induce symptoms like fever, nausea, headache and chills. When the researchers injected Wim Hof and others who practiced his method, however, they saw something very unique.

The researchers observed that they were able to influence their autonomic nervous system, which controls your immune response, and were able to flood their bodies with adrenaline which allowed them to fight off the endotoxins much quicker than those participants who did not practice the Wim Hof Method. This is incredibly profound considering that until this point, it was thought of to be impossible to have any sort of influence over your autonomic nervous system and your immune response; especially through something as simple as breathing! For more information on this particular study and other similar studies regarding the benefits of this practice, check out the Wim Hof Method website here

Conclusion

In summary, the Wim Hof Method is a revolutionary practice that will allow you to strengthen your mind and body by committing to just 15 minutes of work a day. There is still plenty of more research to be done on cold exposure and breathing exercises however the results are very clear that this all natural method DOES work and can have immense benefits for not only your mental health, but your physical health as well.