Wim Hof Method Fundamentals – Best (and WORST!) Parts – Week 6 Review

I’m glad my Wim Hof Method Fundamentals approach includes accountability partners.   This is so much learning.   It’s hard to stay consistent and make that kind of space in my life week after week.    

Week 6 review below.

You can also check out my  week 1,  week 2, week 3, week 4, and  week 5 experiences.

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Week 6 we went back to the lovable style of Wim Hof breathing that you find most commonly referenced on the internet.   It’s also the breathing done in the first few weeks of the training with the cool, tingly results.

We increased our cold water training, now starting and ending with cold, with a stretch of warm in between.   Our homework was to try and find an oximeter to test our oxygen content during holds.   Spoiler alert – I didn’t!

Here’s what I thought about week six:

Wim Hof Breathing

Best:

• Charge Rocks!

  • I think I finally   figured out which space to breathe into to dependably get my “charge.”   One day, albeit breathing on a full stomach and rushing because I wanted to spend time with a friend, I got my charge better than ever!

  • Discovering that the last 10-20% of my capacity, which takes about half my inhale time, is where I really feel and enjoy the sense of “charge.”

• Impatience Gone

  • Especially on the weeks with more rounds of breathing, I’ve felt antsy and impatient on the final rounds at times.   Feeling like it takes forever to get to 30 inhales or whatever.   I’m finally enjoying “the wave” of my breath, getting lost in it, and feeling like the amount of time 30 breaths takes is normal… even losing track of time!

• Long-ish holds

  • I’ve never hit the 3+ minute holds of one of my accountability partners, but I got past the 1:30 mark several times this week.   On 25% of my holds.   I hit  the almost-2-minute range a few times: 1:47, 1:51, 1:49, 1:54.   Longest hold of the week happened after quicker breaths — maybe I should be filling less of my capacity and be more focused on speed?

Worst:

• Guide Not Helpful

  • Each week includes a video that is just the guided breathing part of the week’s class spliced out on its own.   These aren’t really useful to me, as I find the background noises provided (usually Wim playing the guitar and shout-singing the random stuff that comes into his wonderfully wacky head plus overlaid breathing noises) really distracting.

• Nymphomaniac?!

  • Three times this week I got an explosive or manic energy on my final two or three rounds of breathing, trending sexual or with an explicity sexual charge each time.   It’s very distracting and confusing.   My accountability partners have reported this a few times.   One says he had great sex after Wim Hof breathing.

• Hold Times not A+

  • A few days this week I had shorter hold times.   As my podcast co-host says about herself often, “… but I want to get the A+!”   I’m consoling myself that the point is to be alkaline, not to hold your breath a long time”¦ but I want to hold my breath a long time!

Wim Hof Cold Water Training

Best:

• Focus for the win!

  • When I managed to be present and concentrate, the cold showering went well.   I had some shivering one day, but didn’t get cold at my center.   Visualizations helped.   I did have my butt clenched most the time, inadvertently.   And my face froze.   The water I had access to in my nomad life this week was freaking FREEZING.

Worst:

• Chickened Out!

  • As above, the water where I stayed for most of this week felt like it was coming straight off a freaking glacier.   I caved at least once to bumping the temp up a tiny bit.   Still properly cold, but not, like ice-cube-painful cold.   #sorrynotsorry?   #okaykindofsorry    

• Planning Fail

  • Only ended up making four (possibly five, but forgot to write it down) of the encouraged “at least five” of the cold water training sessions this week.   Once I planned to go for a dip in the ocean upon arrival at the coast, but discovered a beach with “no swimming!” signs… apparently major rip tides where they hold the International Kite Festival in Washington?   On another day, I left it until evening and then didn’t want to crawl into bed cold.    

Wim Hof Stretching

I liked the stretches so much this week (seal or sphinx + child’s pose) that I added it to  my regular yoga  almost every day this week.   Apparently the Chinese believe that these stretches stimulate the kidneys and that they kidneys are the source of life energy.   I know for sure that they are good for spinal health and flexibility and that this part of my spine is remarkably inflexible, so I was into it!

Homework: Oximeter (but really pH testing)

I did the pH strip testing from last week instead.   Never got ahold of an oximeter.   The point is to measure the oxygen in your blood during holds, proving to yourself that it drops remarkably, from almost 100% capacity during inhales to below 30% on the hold.

Wim talked about activating the reptilian brain on the hold.   The panic from the reptilian brain thinking it may irreparably be out of oxygen supposedly increases your adrenaline and therefore changes your body chemistry in a way that promotes longevity.   The theme of the week!

When I first did Wim Hof breathing (not as part of a course), I really pushed myself on the holds, retaining my breath to a point of maximum desperation.   Wim, however, encourages “no force.”   So I’ve been following his coaching.   But when I do this course again ¹one my accountability partners has had less time than expected and wants to repeat the course immediately when he has more time, I might experiment with what changes (won’t I arguably change my chemistry even further with this reptilian panic?) if I go back to pushing my hold times.

Anyhoo – the pH results:

I did the tests pretty fastidiously. No definitive conclusions unfortunately.   My life is too topsy turvy with no consistent schedule, diet, location”¦ too many changing variables to be able to tweak and play with acidity/alkalinity and be able to confidently say what’s what.   Sometimes there was no change after breathing, sometimes there was.   No strong correlation in either direction.

Wim Hof Fundamentals Course – Week 6 Review

I’m continuing to learn and discover new facets of what works best with breathing and cold water training.

I’d appreciate having breathing/cold water/stretching notes columns on the beautifully designed but not super functional provided workbook pages.   It would be easier to see overall progress and connection to previous days/performance/experience.

I really liked the metaphor this week of thinking of the Wim Hof Fundamentals exercises as allowing oneself to take a mind vacation. It’s easy to think of the training (or anything healthful, really) as a task to be checked off, a responsibility to be done, rather than a luxury to enjoy.

Happy Breathing!  ♣

Read about week 7 here.

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Want to do the Wim Hof Course?!

If you’re grateful that I didn’t just take my Wim Hof benefits and keep them to myself, and you think you’re going to give the Wim Hof Fundamentals Course a try, I’d really appreciate you using any of the course links  on this page.  

It doesn’t cost you anything more.   Instead of keeping your whole purchase to themselves, the Wim Hof people will give me a little “thanks for spending hours of your time writing about your experience” funding.

At the end of the day, I have spent hours writing about my Wim Hof experience, because I love helping people.   If I can unlock a self-improvement opportunity for someone else by  spending hours in front of a screen, I will. (Wait… now that I’m “saying” this, it sounds kind of crazy.   But… I guess I am crazy!)    

Here’s more about my blogging ethos.