Wim Hof Method Fundamentals – Best (and WORST!) Parts – Week 5 Review

Halfway through the ten week training?!

Week 5 review below.

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

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Week 5 combined the Wim Hof breathing with exercise.    We increased our cold water training.   Our homework was to do an endurance plank.

Here’s what I thought about week five:

Wim Hof Breathing

Best:

• Two rounds
  • Life is busy.   I love doing this training, but fitting it in every day makes it obvious just how full my life is.   This week there were only two breathing holds, which made it much easier to stay committed.
• Capacity increasing?
  • We did push-ups during the holds this week.   One set was an inhale hold, the other an exhale hold.   At first I quickly ran out of air on the holds.   But throughout the week my limiting factor became my tricep strength during the push-ups.   I guess I should have tried continuing to hold my breath, even when my arm strength fizzled!

Worst:

• Capacity loss?
  • It was disappointing at first to see just how limited I was during the push ups during the first few days.   As above, my capacity quickly increased, but I was so surprised about where I was to begin with after such long, previous holds.

Wim Hof Cold Water Training

Best:

• Committed
  • Nothing majorly amazing this week.   But I’m still doing it.   And getting at least passive benefits, right?

Worst:

• Water Access
  • I was house sitting this week, and the cold water in the shower just wasn’t as cold as the well water I’ve had access to for the first four weeks of the training.
• Focus Fail
  • Despite lacking genuinely cold water, I still got properly cold at least twice.   While I focused on controlling my breathing in the shower, I didn’t control my mind well many times.   Any time I allowed my mind to wander, the cold would creep in.

Wim Hof Stretching

The video stretches this week were just a singular toe stretch that added in addition to  my regular yoga  before doing the breathing and pushups.

Homework: Endurance Plank & pH Strips

I only fit in the plank twice this week.   I wished I could go longer each time.   I hit about two minutes, but would lose focus and start becoming acidic.

When I watched the video for the week, the class does horse stance together… it was my worst one ever!   I got acidic, maybe because I couldn’t focus on breathing?

I ordered pH strips, but they won’t be here this week.   The premise of doing the pH testing seems to be learning what alkaline feels like in my body.   I’m looking forward to it.

Wim Hof Fundamentals Course – Week 5 Review

Wim continues to be wacky and hilarious!

My big takeaway this week is that focus is clearly so important.   When I don’t focus on the training, whether it’s acidicty muscle challenges, cold water training, or the breathing holds, my performance significantly decreases.

I’m coming to see the Wim Hof Fundamentals course as an exposure to a bunch of ideas, possibilities, and techniques.   Some have really been game changers for me.

I’m excited to see what Wim Hof benefits the next five weeks will bring!  ♣

Read about week 6 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.