The Secret of “The Iceman”

When it comes to defying the limit of the human body, the Dutch world record holder Wim Hof immediately springs to mind. Hof has earned himself the nickname “The Iceman” because of his immunity to extreme environments. Wearing only shorts, he climbed onto Mount Everest under harsh coldness and scarce oxygen in 2007. Two years later, again only in shorts, he completed a marathon in five and a half hours above the polar circle in Finland. In 2011, he proved that he was as good against extreme heat by completing a full marathon in the Namib Desert without drinking any water at all.

In the same year, he did something which was more interesting. Under the supervision of medical researchers, toxins were injected into Wim Hof’s body, so that he could prove that he was able to control his autonomic immune system to overcome the toxins through voluntary means. The result surprised the researchers, but they maintained that he was able to do it only because he had undergone a long period of training. Hof disagreed, and claimed that he could train normal people to do it within ten days. It turned out that it did not take that long at all. In just four days, Hof successfully trained a couple of people to defend themselves against the toxins just like he did.

By the way, Wim Hof actually came to Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong once to show off his ability. During the 2010 New Year Eve, near the Mody Road Park, the Empire Centre invited Hof to immerse himself in an ice bath in front of the countdown crowd:

So how was he able to do it? According to his ten-week video course and his book Becoming the Iceman (Hof & Rosales, 2012), Wim Hof’s training method is composed of three pillars:

• Breathing: the basics of Wim Hof’s method is about controlling your breathing. By learning a special way of breathing, one is able to begin to change his physiology and mood. Many of his students are able to feel the effect almost immediately.
• Coldness: by gradually exposing your body to increasing coldness, by means like taking a cold shower in winter, it puts pressure on the body to change its composition to become more resistant to extreme environment.
• Mind: the psychology of a person has a profound effect on his body. Through mental techniques like meditations, the concentration and willpower of a person could be increased.

Much of his method is protected by the copyright of his commercial material, but there are some basic exercises which are permitted to freely shared around the internet. Here is one simple one which could help you to feel different immediately. Note: the following is not intended as medical advice, so you are responsible for the consequences if you choose to perform the following exercise.

1) Close your eyes and sit in a comfortable position. Make sure you can expand your lungs freely without feeling any constriction. It is recommended to do this practice right after waking up since your stomach is still empty.

2) Inhale deeply. Really draw the breath in until you feel a slight pressure from inside your chest on your solar plexus. Hold this for a moment, then exhale completely by pushing all the air out, and hold this for a moment again. Repeat this warm up round fifteen times.

3) It follows thirty “power breaths”. Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth in short but powerful bursts, like blowing a balloon. The belly is pulled inward when you are breathing out and is pulled outward when you are breathing in. Do this around thirty times or until you feel your body is saturated with oxygen. There could be light-headedness, tingling sensations in the body.

4) Breathe in and fill the lungs to maximum capacity without using too much force. Then push all of the air out and hold for as long as you can. Draw the chin in to prevent air from coming in again. Simply relax and hold the breath until you experience the gasp reflex on the top of your chest. If you are more advanced, you can try to exercise like doing push-ups when you are holding your breath.

5) Finally, inhale to full capacity. Feel your chest expanding and release any tension in the solar plexus. Drop the chin to hold this for about fifteen seconds. Exhale and after that, you have completed one round of exercise.

In all, Wim Hof’s extraordinary feats are evidence that the human body is capable of doing more things than modern science can imagine, and the detailed records of his method is an encouraging proof that everyone can be trained to do that too. If you are serious about improving your health, you should never miss his materials.

Reference: Hof, W. & Rosales, J. (2012). Becoming the Iceman: Pushing past perceived limits. Minneapolis, MN: Mill City Press, Inc.