I tried Wim Hof-ing on my own in the past, with some exciting discoveries.
I wanted more. I set a goal to do the real Wim Hof Fundamentals course. Now here I am!
Week 4 review below. You can also check out my week 1, week 2, and week 3 thoughts.
Week 4 included the three main parts of the Wim Hof Method: breathing, cold water training, and stretching. Our homework was to hold a certain squat position for longer than I thought possible…
Here’s what I thought about week four:
Wim Hof Breathing
Best:
- Real Release
- The breathing holds during stretching provided an incredible release. Supposedly this is addressing inflammation in the body. I liked what happened!
Worst:
- Tightness when breathing
- The energy breaths sometimes caused a pinching tightness in different areas of my chest cavity. Not every time, and never so painful I wanted to stop. Definitely made me wonder if I was doing something wrong!
- Hold times dropping
- Only 66% of my hold times this week were above 1:30. And only 40% were above 1:40. I’ve discovered when I don’t stay focused on the breathing and the holds, my times are shorter.
Wim Hof Cold Water Training
Best:
- Pleasant?!
- My reaction to the cold continued to drop this week. I even lingered at the end of a few showers, I was so un-phased! Supposedly we are mentally commanding our vascular systems to close. Am I doing it? If yes, very cool skill.
Worst:
- Warm required?
- We were supposed to start with 30 seconds cold, then warm for as long as we wanted, finishing with two minutes cold. Sometimes I just did two minutes, since I wouldn’t have been in the shower if it weren’t for this training. Hope I’m not skipping benefits?
- Cold Day
- On a day I skipped the 30 second start followed by warm (e.g. I just took a 2 minute cold shower), I FROZE. Never “zenned” or relaxed into it. It was tough. I think I was in a hurry? The importance of focus in this training just keeps coming up again and again.
Wim Hof Stretching
I did the video stretches b/c they incorporate inflammation control breathing. I also did my regular yoga about half the time.
Homework: Horse Pose
Supposedly your thighs are directly connected to your hormone system. Apparently holding a yoga position known as “horse” or “goddess” pose ignites an adrenaline response in your brain. The goal was for us to control our body chemistry to stay alkaline in our thighs instead of getting the usual lactic acid build up and burning out the muscles to the point of failure.
It. worked.
Whoa.
On my first try, I held the squat for 3:15, which was only my first sign of fatigue. The next day I held it for 7:10 and only stopped because I was nervous about a delayed consequence. I use my quads as transportation. Not having them introduces some major logistical issues to my life. The last day I held the squat for 10:30 and only stopped, because I had so many other things to do.
Major game changer. Can’t wait to apply this to running/biking/etc. I can just choose not to get acidic?!
Also did week 2 homework – submerging each hand and foot in a painful bath of ice water for three minutes each. I only managed to do it once, but was able to stay in past two mins! Between 1:00-1:45 all appendages were really painful. But by three minutes, I could have stayed in longer!
Wim Hof Fundamentals Course – Week 4 Review
The message this week was that adrenaline is central to process of being able to control inflammation, pain, and alkalinity.
I skipped one day this week (due to life drama).
It’s becoming more and more apparent how important focus and being present is for getting the benefits. When I’m in a hurry, I get less out of it. My holds are shorter, the cold showering turns unpleasant, and I get less “charge” during breathing.
Wim is a wild man. I find it endearing, but my academic, buttoned up friends might not be mentally flexible enough to think the same. Both my Wim Hof accountability partners think it’s hilarious.
Happy Hoffing! ♣
Read about week 5 here.
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.
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