How 1000 Days of the Wim Hof Method Will Evolve Your Life
The greatest benefits of the Wim Hof Method.
Created with Midjourney
Nearly 4 years ago I was at a friend's place watching him lay on the floor, breathing heavily, waiting to shower.
As I played Halo, I turned around and gave him a look.
He proceeded to do a bunch of push-ups without breathing and then jumped in a cold shower.
“Uh… okay,” I thought to myself.
After he came out, I asked him what the hell he was doing. He told me about Wim Hof, how he climbed Everest in his underwear, has a bunch of world records and is pretty much just crazy.
A few weeks later I saw another friend jump in a cold plunge and sit there for 10 minutes. In comparison, I lasted 1 minute. I asked him how he did that…
“Have you heard of Wim Hof?”
Now I was intrigued.
How I Started
From what I heard, I would be able to do more push-ups if I started practicing this method, and would learn to tolerate the cold. I hate the cold so the thought of this… well, it was intriguing, to say the least.
I looked up Wim Hof and ended up doing a deep dive watching hours and hours of videos on Youtube.
This guy is a psycho. I love psychos!
I decided it was time to try the breathing technique. Tim Ferriss said when he’s in a state of ketosis he can do the technique and hold his breath for up to 7 minutes.
I did 1 minute in my first round.
Needless to say, I kept trying. I’ve never gotten to 7 minutes but my record is over 3 minutes. Not bad for someone who used to smoke a hookah 8 hours a day!
Next, I wanted to try the push-ups.
At this point, I had been training in Muay Thai for about 10 years and had been working out fairly regularly. I could do about 40-50 push-ups in a row.
My first time trying the Wim Hof breath hold push-ups, I did 46… Within 1 week I could do over 70. Today, my record is 92.
That’s 92 push-ups in a row, without breathing.
The Breathing Method
If you rather hear Wim Hof explain, click here.
You lay down and breathe in and out 30-40 times. There’s a technique to it though.
You must breathe in through your mouth deeply. First into your stomach, then your chest, then your head. Afterwards, you exhale, but you only exhale halfway.
Make sure to not take a break between any breaths.
You will start to feel lightheaded, and your body may tingle.
After the 30-40 breaths, exhale all the way, and hold. It’s best to use a timer (there’s a great Wim Hof app) to track how long each round is.
Once you can no longer hold your breath, breathe in and hold that for 15 seconds. Now, exhale and restart for the next round.
Typically, you’ll do about 3-4 rounds of this.
However, if you start to do 5+ rounds, it can actually release DMT through your system and you can get some pretty sweet visuals. I’ve had some pretty significant psychedelic effects a few times when I did 10+ rounds.
Why Do This?
There are an enormous number of benefits.
Doing this method can help:
Fight disease
Increase immunity
Reduce stress
Better sleep
Increased focus
Increased willpower
Anti-inflammatory responses
Improved oxygen delivery during exercise
There are some crazy stories of what this method can do.
In fact, once Wim Hof voluntarily injected an endotoxin into his system and fought it off doing his breathing technique.
He’s actually working with scientists to see if it can help combat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and other mental health disorders.
What I’m getting at is… it’s good for you.
The Wim Hof Push-Ups
The push-ups are quite simple.
All you have to do is the breathing technique the same 30-40 times, and after you exhale, do as many push-ups as you can before breathing.
Don’t forget to hold your inhale afterwards for 15 seconds.
Most people will double the amount of pushups they can do when doing this, versus what they can do regularly.
It’s crazy and you should try it.
Cold Showers
Wim Hof heavily pushes cold showers and cold plunges. That is why I started taking them daily.
In January 2020, I told myself I would take them at least a couple of times a week. Within 2 weeks I was taking them every day.
There are many benefits of cold showers.
The ones that I’ve seen are a decrease in stress, a massive energy boost, increased focus, increased mood, better skin, and shorter showers.
Cold showers I would consider to be one of the greatest life hacks.
The Benefits I’ve Seen
Mood Regulation:
I’ve had struggles with anxiety and depression for years and one of the greatest ways I’ve found to help regulate that is by doing the Wim Hof Method (WHM) regularly.
Increased Focus:
After doing a few rounds of WHM, I am able to focus much better, and for longer periods of time. It’s incredible
Dreams:
I typically do the WHM right when I wake up. This helps me remember my dreams almost completely.
Regulate Body Temperature:
Whether I’m feeling cold or hot if I do a few rounds of WHM, my body temperature feels great and normalizes.
Reduced Stress:
If I’m feeling stressed and I do a few rounds of WHM, I’ll come out of it feeling a lot better. This works around 90% of the time.
Better Meditations:
I love doing the WHM before meditating. When I start meditating it feels as if I have already been meditating for 30 minutes. It pretty much launches you into the right state immediately.
Resistance To Cold:
After doing a few rounds of WHM, I have been able to meditate in my underwear in -30 weather for an extended period of time. In fact, I’ve done it for as long as 20 minutes and when I came inside my body was at a normal temperature.
I did this every morning in early 2021 during the winter. That winter, I only wore my winter jacket once. The cold couldn’t touch me.
Additional Comments
Once I started doing the WHM regularly, I decided I wanted to focus more on spirituality. That became my focus for 2020 and the timing worked out great since we got heavily locked down.
Since I started focusing on spirituality I have gained more peace and balance in my life than I could have ever imagined prior.
The Wim Hof Method was one of the main reasons I started this journey.
I couldn’t recommend it more.
On top of everything I listed, WHM also helped me regulate my weight. Cold showers help you burn fat and proper breathwork does too.
It’s truly incredible.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if you want to just try something new, lose weight, improve your mood, bring more balance in your life or improve your health - whatever your reason, the WHM can help you.
I couldn’t recommend you try it more. It changed my life, and it can change yours too.
WHM is one of the greatest life hacks out there.
Thanks for reading.
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