Greetings, Steemians and Steemettes!

After yesterdays challenge, I got a good nights rest and am now willing and able to get back into posting again now! Today, I want to talk about something entirely unrelated to that topic. When I got my first job back in late 2016, I started to regrow my interest in physical activities. This also led to me learning about different practices and lifestyles that seemed to work well in conjunction with that. One of these practices is the so called Wim Hof Method. What is this method you ask? Let's find out!

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What is a Wim Hof?

The first time heard these words, I was ever so slightly confused. Being German, the word "Wim" meant nothing to me while "Hof" is the German word for "yard". That being said, "Wim Hof" isn't actually a thing. It's a man, a bearded man from the Netherlands. This one right here.

Found on https://www.flickr.com/photos/djandywdotcom/30633844964

Pretty cool guy, isn't he? I hope this was the last cold pun in this post, but I can't make any promises. Wim Hof made a name for himself by achieving several world records, all for extraordinary physical tasks. As you might have guessed from that picture, one of them involves ice bathing, but there are more. Climbing some of the highest mountains of the planet in shorts, running a marathon in frosty conditions in the region of Finland. In shorts again, of course. To name a few.

Just another freak of nature?

Now these things weren't what kept my interest in this man. There are a lot of humans who have been able to do all sorts of outstanding things in the past. There are people who have skin that is almost like rubber because of certain diseases existing, someone else is blue and I even saw someone who apparently is unconcerned about electrical currents running through his body.

What made Wim Hof stick out here is his claim that everyone can learn his ways. And that it is easy, according to him. Needless to say that I was intrigued. When someone makes big claims and promises that they only take little effort, I will be skeptical. If that person has proven himself to actually being the king of the iceberg though, I am willing and eager to listen.

What does the Wim Hof Method actually do?

These things about being able to resist cold temperatures like he did sounded interesting and enticing enough, but there was apparently more to it. Wim Hof further claims that ongoing training will enable people to consciously take control of a strengthened immune system, allowing you to actively work against diseases and/or keeping them out in the first place. The idea of never catching a cold again sounded appealing to me. Also too good to be true, so I kept reading. Apparently, they even went as far and did some scientific studies and experiments with and on him.

They went as far and infected him with some experimental bacteria. Being the cool guy he is, he did not break in sweat and actually defeated this infection. With me being me, I was still skeptical. But now I wanted to see what this so-called easy to learn and apply Wim Hof Method itself was all about.

That's it?

The Wim Hof Method turned out to stand on a three-legged chair.

1. Breathing Exercise

First and foremost, the Wim Hof exercise is all about breathing. In fact, the method is so simple and easy that you can try it out by yourself right now. Ideally done on an empty stomach. Also, don't drive or do anything dangerous while doing this.

1. Make yourself comfortable. Sitting or lying down, whatever tickles your fancy.
2. Inhale for 30-40 times. Mouth or nose doesn't matter, but he does it with his mouth. Inhale more than you exhale.
3. Once you feel a tingly sensation in your body, exhale everything and hold your breath for as long as possible.
4. Rest and enjoy the moment.
5. Don't fight it when you feel the need to breath in but when you do, do it deeply and hold your breath for another 15 seconds, keeping the air in.

And that is it. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Can be done multiple times in succession once you get the hang of it. Wim also promotes actually doing some form of exercise during point 4. Push-Ups for starters, some Yoga-Poses if you are into that topic, which he is.

2. Cold Exposure

After you are done with the breathing exercise, you expose yourself to the cold. Usually by taking cold showers. Sad thing this method wasn't present during the days of the ALS challenge, right? Just take a quick cold shower for as long as you see yourself being able to do it without. Remember, this isn't a contest, you are doing it for yourself, so don't overdue it.

3. Meditation

Meditation really does make everything better, right? I wasn't into this topic back when I learned about this method, so I generously skipped this step. Being a smarter and wiser man now, I suggest that you learn from my mistake and actually do meditate, regardless of what Wim Hof says.

That being said, Wim Hof does meditate and focuses heavily on the inner works of his body energy. He claims that after a couple weeks of training, you become much more sensible to the flow of your inner energy. Being able to sense and harness it comes over time.

Easy enough, right?

As I said before, super easy, barely an inconvenience. You can have all that done within 10-15 minutes. I still was in disbelief about the idea of him achieving such things with such an easy method. Because it was this easy, I ended up giving it a try.

I enjoy being in cool environments much more than in overly hot once, but I liked the idea to build up on this strength. Especially because I was working in a storage and it was winter, this idea became all the more appealing. Further reading implied that the method also works for very high temperatures, which was just as interesting. Of course, Wim also ran some marathon in some desert to proof this claim too. This guy....

Armed with all this knowledge, I decided to give it a try. It sounds simple enough and I saw no dangers to my health and I was young and naive. What could possibly go wrong?

Absolutely nothing went wrong!

As with every new task, the first steps are a bit rocky. It took me a while until I found a way of breathing that suited me and gave me the results asked for. There was also the topic of motivation. I wasn't as strong regarding this topic as I am now. Also, having your alarm ring you out of peaceful sleep at 4 am in the morning isn't helpful here either.

But I did it anyway, started doing the breathing exercise, went for the cold showers and completely neglected meditation because I considered that topic to be humbug back in my naive youthful days. Two years ago, by the way.

It really didn't take long for me to notice that the cold showers weren't as unpleasant as they were in the beginning. It took a bit longer for me to notice that the retention times during the breathing exercise got longer. I timed them from time to time. Remember when I said that the longest I was able to hold my breath was for one minute? A couple weeks into the exercise, I usually averaged at about two minutes! Even more, my highest time was just slightly below three minutes! That was huuuuge for me!

After a while, I started adding some push-ups in for the time I would use resting while holding my breath. Wim Hof claimed that while holding your breath, physical tasks like this would become easier. And he was actually right. I was able to do more push-ups during this retention time than I would be otherwise.

The defining moment

The thing that really showed me how much I improved happened a couple weeks later during work. I took a break and went outside so that I can chat with some colleagues. It was winter and one of the coldest days of the year. No snow, just sheer cold. The people went outside only because they were smokers, otherwise, they would have remained inside. Aaaah, the joys of addiction. Glad I never happened to be one of those.

These smoking colleagues of mine were packed into mantles, jackets, scarfs and all kinds of fancy warming head clothing. And they were freezing like crazy. I went out wearing nothing but a T-Shirt, sat down and was super cool with that. I noticed the cold and the effect it has on me, but it didn't seem to affect me as much as it would have otherwise. It certainly did not affect me as hard as my workmates!

Then what?

Around this time, I considered actually taking meditation into the equation. Everything Wim Hof said that I could apply ended up coming true, so I wanted to know how much further I can take it. Sadly, two tragedies occurred at that time. Christmas and Love. These two factors ended up being roadblocks for this and other exploits I was experimenting with during this time and made me stop for no particular reason. Unpleasant, but we live to learn from our failures.

But that was my personal failure. The Wim Hof Method worked for me, at least as far as I did take it and I intend to revive it and take it even further than I did before.

If you got some time on your hand, I highly suggest reading up on that topic. It is definitively one of the more interesting ones!

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