The Wim Hof Method summary

Do you ever feel lethargic, foggy-headed, a bit de-tuned? Modern life, with all of its stresses and demands, can sometimes leave us disconnected. We feel as if we’re not quite inhabiting our bodies, or fully in touch with our thoughts. While, relatively speaking, we enjoy comfort and convenience, something’s still lacking. That’s because modern civilization, as marvelous as it is, has neglected something vital: deeper connection with ourselves.

In these blinks, you’ll learn about the method of “The Iceman,” Wim Hof, a Guinness World Record breaker in several feats of endurance and a specialist in self-actualization. You’ll discover how to reconnect with yourself by embracing the freezing cold, controlled breathing, and focusing your mind. And if you have a chronic illness or condition, you’ll find new ways in which you might alleviate your symptoms.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

• why we should embrace the cold;
• how deep breathing allowed some seriously ill people to climb Mount Kilimanjaro; and
• how having the right mindset can help overcome almost any difficulty.

These childhood and early adult experiences connected Hof to a deeper side of himself. Through exploring the outdoors and then embracing the cold, he believed he had awakened parts of the mind that lie dormant in many of us.

He notes that as we’ve become more and more civilized, we’ve forgotten how to connect with our deepest side. Though we’ve created a society with every possible comfort and convenience, we’ve lost the ability to understand our emotions.

Depression and anxiety continue to rise. We no longer know how to regulate our moods. Instead, we rely on antidepressants and stress-relieving medication.

The key message here is: We’ve lost touch with our truest selves.

There is a fable that sums up this state of affairs well. Some wise men had gathered to discuss what to do with the human soul. “What are we going to do about the soul, since people have made such a mess of it?” they asked.

At first, they suggested putting it at the top of the highest mountain. But people crawled up the mountain, found the soul, and made a trophy of it. So they suggested putting it at the bottom of the sea. Alas, the people dove to the bottom of the sea and put it in a museum. Then, the wise men suggested putting the soul beyond the furthest planet. But the people built spacecraft, found it, brought it back, and went to war over it.

Finally, one wise man suggested putting the soul in the people themselves. Here, at last, was the right answer. Why? Because people never look there. 

And so here we are. A world where many of us have lost touch with what matters most. Whether it’s called the soul, or simply the deepest part of the mind, it’s the same.

Our brains didn’t evolve over millions of years just to leave us helpless to our modern condition. We can be so much more, and indeed, have already been so much more. Our ancestors, before they grew conditioned and softened by modern civilization, understood this instinctively.

As Hof experimented with the cold and with controlled breathing in the squatters’ house as a young man, he began to understand this, too. He started to construct a method, which would reconnect him to his true self. In the following blinks, we’ll look closely at the techniques he devised.

Wim Hof’s method begins with embracing the cold. From the moment he was born in the chilly corridor, to his near-death experience in the igloo, to his wintry swims in Beatrixpark, the cold has always been a part of his life.

The more he experimented and researched the human response to the cold, the more he realized how healthy regular exposure to it could be.

The key message here is: Wim Hof advocates regular exposure to cold.

So what good does cold do for us? 

Well, first Hof outlines his view of the problem. Our vascular system is the network of veins and capillaries that carries deoxygenated blood back to our hearts. Hof’s method suggests that the smooth muscle and valves within this system aren’t stimulated by cold in modern life.

By wearing clothes and heating our environments, we’ve caused these muscles to become under-stimulated. This means that they’re not in their best condition, that they’re flaccid and “de-tuned.” As a result, the heart is forced to pump harder to maintain blood flow, becoming more strained. So for Hof, it hardly comes as a shock that cardiovascular diseases are the number one killers in Western societies.

So, what to do? For Hof, it’s very simple. We need to restimulate our vascular system and tone up all of these tiny muscles. And there’s a very simple way to do this: a daily cold shower. In fact, all you need to do is take your normal, warm shower, then turn the water to cold at the end. For the first week, you should begin with only 30 seconds under the cold water, gradually increasing the time, until you can manage two minutes.

At first, it may feel like quite a shock, and you’ll likely gasp at the sudden chill. But over time, you’ll adapt and your body will soon begin to awaken. After ten days, you’ll begin to change physiologically – your vascular system will begin to tone up, your heartbeat will slow, and your body will be less stressed. After a while, you might even enjoy the refreshing cold.

Along with your body, your mind will become sharper, too. You’ll awaken the deeper part of your consciousness, the part that once knew the cold. You’ll find that you have far greater reserves of willpower than you knew. And if you can hold off the cold like this, what else might you be able to do?

During his birth in that cold hospital corridor, Hof struggled for breath. Only after his tiny lungs filled with air did his body revive. Later in life, he would come to understand the power of this most basic of functions. Just as with the cold, breathing is a cornerstone of the Wim Hof Method.

The key message here is: Breathing is key to the Wim Hof Method.

Why breathing?

Well, according to Hof, it comes down to the way we live today. He asserts that all the stressful things we do on a daily basis leave behind a biochemical residue that causes inflammation. And deregulation of the immune, endocrine, and hormonal systems, through inflammation, is what causes many of the most widespread diseases and conditions, like Crohn’s disease, cancer, arthritis, asthma, and others.

By breathing in a deep and controlled manner, he opines, we’re able to “cleanse” this residue from our lymphatic system, reducing the inflammation, which, in turn, reduces our chances of becoming ill.

Another effect of deep breathing outlined in the method is a feeling of deep refreshment and connection. It alters the biochemistry of the body, according to Hof, changing the body’s makeup from acid to alkaline. We suddenly find that we have more energy, and feel much more alert, too.

So how do we breathe correctly, and enjoy these benefits?

First, find a comfortable place to sit or lie down; a sofa, bed, or even the floor will do. Next, close your eyes, and empty your head of thoughts. When your mind is calm and focused, take a deep breath: fill your chest, then your belly, then all the way up to your head. Then exhale in a relaxed way – you don’t need to force it. Repeat this for 40 breaths, and at the end of the last exhalation hold. Don’t breathe in until you feel the need to. Then, when you need to breathe in again, take a deep breath and hold for 15 to 20 seconds. After this, repeat the whole cycle three or four times.

The benefits of this breathing technique include a decreased chance of inflammation, less stress, and greater endurance. And on that last point – endurance – some of the achievements of those who’ve trained themselves in this method speak volumes.

In January 2014, Hof led a group of 26 people climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Some of these people had serious illnesses, such as arthritis, cancer, and multiple sclerosis. For most climbers, it takes five days to reach the peak of Kilimanjaro. Doing their breathing exercises all the way up, this team got there in just 44 hours!

Getting into that cold shower, or having the discipline to breathe in a controlled way, requires willpower. And to envisage yourself achieving a physical act of endurance, you need to use your imagination.

The third pillar of the Wim Hof method is harnessing the power of the mind. Without it, it’s impossible to fully embrace the method.

The key message here is: The right mindset is key to unlock your potential.

So how do you focus your mind properly?

Firstly, stillness is key. Stop thinking about work for a moment, put your phone away, and log off social media. In fact, you need to completely clear your head of all thoughts.

Then, you need a comfortable place to sit – the exact posture doesn’t matter, just make sure you’re comfortable. Then, start breathing: deeply on the inhale, then relaxing on the exhale. As you breathe, concentrate only on following the breath: in and out.

As calm settles over you, you can begin to align your mind and body. To do this, begin visualizing exactly what it is you want to achieve. Maybe that’s staying in the freezing cold shower a bit longer, beating your personal best in a marathon, or mastering a particularly challenging yoga pose.

While you visualize, pay close attention to the way your body feels. By doing this, you’ll be able to detect any discrepancy between your intention, and how your body feels. When both the body and the mind feel aligned, then you’ll know you’re ready.

By using this method to align body and mind, Hof has achieved some extraordinary feats. One of his more significant public achievements came in January 2008, in New York. He was invited to stand packed in ice, outside the Rubin Museum of Art. This demonstration of his technique was part of an exhibition on Himalayan art and culture. In full view of multiple television news teams, Hof’s temperature plummeted by 10 degrees, down to a level quite dangerous for an average person.

Then, through will alone, Hof raised his core temperature by 6 degrees. The assembled television crews and doctors were astonished as he seemed to defy nature. Hof has always insisted that he’s not special though. These abilities are available to us all.

As we’ve seen, the Wim Hof Method can be used to prepare our bodies for physical and mental activities. When it comes to athletic feats, the method is perfect for squeezing the best out of ourselves. The cold forges our will, the deep breathing oxygenates our bodies, and the mindset allows us to push our edge. By improving our endurance levels, the Wim Hof Method allows us to go further and longer than before.

The key message here is: The Wim Hof Method can enhance athletic performance and endurance.

There are some notable athletes who’ve used the method with great success. One is the Dutch mixed martial arts star, Alistair Overeem, who employs it to improve his fighting condition. Entering the ring professionally in 1999, he’s now 40, an age where most fighters retire. Yet he shows no sign of slowing down.

In 2015, Overeem faced Ultimate Fighting Heavyweight Champion, Junior dos Santos, who was then the highest-ranked heavyweight in the UFC. Santos was a formidable fighter, someone known for knocking his opponent out.

Overeem went into the fight as the underdog. But rather than let his nerves get to him, he employed the breathing exercises he’d done with Hof earlier that year. Keeping his cool, he defeated Santos by a technical knockout in the second round.

As well as improving performance, the Wim Hof Method allows athletes like Alistair Overeem to recover more quickly, to reduce their inflammation, and to sleep better.

There’s a simple exercise that you can do to demonstrate its power.

First, get down and do some push-ups. Then, relax and do one round of the breathing exercise we described earlier. Then, at the end of that round, when you’re holding your breath on the exhale, try doing the push-ups again. You might be surprised to discover that you can do twice or three times as many push-ups as you could before!

The most dramatic example of someone doing the push-up exercise comes from a man called Henk van den Bergh, a Dutch blacksmith. As someone with rheumatoid arthritis, he was advised to attend one of Hof’s special workshops. At dinner on the first night, Henk said he doubted that he could perform even a single push-up. Hof told him that the next day, he would do 40.

And the next day Henk, a man with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, after doing his breathing exercise, got down and did 40 push-ups as if they were nothing!

Rather than being frozen, DNA is changed by every life that it passes through. The stories of our ancestors are stored deep in our DNA. We carry the memory of ancient lives within us. Amazing, isn’t it?

Some of what’s stored, like our ancestors’ ordeals and pain, can even emerge to harm us. In fact, a research paper published in 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America documented that the sons of former American Civil War-era prisoners were many times more likely to die earlier than the sons of soldiers who’d escaped imprisonment. The ordeal of those prisoners, it seems to Hof, may have expressed itself in their children’s genes.

So, DNA can be modified within a lifetime, for better or worse. That being the case, Hof suggests that there are things we can do that may influence these changes.

The key message here is: By consciously changing our biochemistry, we may help release old traumas stored in our DNA.

For Hof, though it may sound far-fetched, if we’re able to change the biochemical make-up of our bodies, we may be able to alter our genetic expression. If this turns out to be correct, we may be able to release trauma inherited from our ancestors. Although science has yet to confirm this ability, the Wim Hof Method seeks to facilitate it for us.

When we breathe deeply and go into ourselves, we often encounter long-buried emotions. Many find themselves crying or laughing mysteriously when they follow the method’s controlled breathing. Others experience visions, like faces they’ve never seen before, but feel somehow familiar. It may be that these visions are deeply-encrypted genetic expressions. Or, more simply, the memory of our long-ago ancestors.

When people at Hof’s workshops have experienced this, they often report feeling better, as if a burden has been lifted. It’s as if the memory of an old trauma, from generations back, has been released.

As well as freeing ourselves from these traumas, we may be able to consciously rewrite our genetic legacy. Meaning, we may even be able to have an impact on what we pass down to future generations. By changing the biochemical composition of our bodies – as with Hof’s breathing method – we may be able to influence the expression of harmful genes.

Though more research is needed, it’s wonderful to think that we may be able to suppress future ailments, like arthritis and immune disorders, for our descendants through our actions in the present.

While it might be nice to imagine that we can affect our genes for future generations, the Wim Hof Method seeks to improve our health outcomes in the present. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it can be used to help alleviate serious illnesses and conditions.

Take Richard Ayling. In 2006, he was seriously depressed, and had begun to neglect his health and diet. He was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis, a debilitating condition causing intestinal pain and bleeding, and he was left with very little energy. He became quite restricted in what he could eat, and the amount of exercise he could do.

Following Hof’s method, however, Richard managed to reconnect with his body. Over a short period of time, he underwent a deep healing and renewal. Now, almost miraculously, he has completely recovered from his ulcerative colitis. He can once again eat and drink whatever he likes, and exercise without feeling exhausted.

The key message here is: The Wim Hof Method may relieve chronic symptoms and disease.

Another example is that of Anuschka Franken. In 2011, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, just months after she had given birth to her fourth child. This condition caused paralysis in her hand and arm, which meant that she could no longer work as a professional violinist. Her mother recommended Hof, and so she attended a workshop. Even during the first breathing exercise, she could feel tingling in her hand and arm – it turns out they weren’t paralyzed at all. After a short while practicing the Wim Hof Method, her hand and arm recovered almost completely. Now she’s back playing violin, full-time, with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

While these cases, and many others, offer only anecdotal evidence, it seems that human beings may, perhaps, willfully improve even serious ailments. 

All over the world, from Barcelona to Sydney, from Warsaw to Los Angeles, people are using the Wim Hof Method to help improve their health and fight back against serious illnesses and conditions. Others are simply using it to become their best self, to feel more connected and alive.

The Wim Hof Method isn’t a replacement for expert medical advice, but it may offer an alternative to pharmacological solutions – especially those which have damaging side effects.