OTH for Vitality-Promoting Habits (Part II)
Part II: Immune Revival
Have you ever tread in ice cold water for a polar bear challenge? Do you swear by cryotherapy like Jenn Anniston and LeBron James? When it comes to ice baths, do you say yea or nay? According to Dutch extreme athlete, Wim Hof— or “The Iceman,” as he is commonly known— these types of cold exposure will radically alter the alchemy of your body and mind…and furthermore, change your life.
His self-titled resilience technique, the Wim Hof Method, is not only used by professional athletes and bodybuilders to enhance performance and accelerate recovery, but is also meant to teach ordinary people how to take more control over their bodies. This is done through breathing, cold therapy, and meditation.
Here’s how it works.
The conscious breathing that Wim Hof teaches serves to alkalize the body, which physically prepares the nervous system to withstand extreme conditions and prevent inflammation. You can try it for yourself when you first wake up in the morning or before high-impact exercise. While sitting in a comfortable position, take 30 quick, deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Then, take a deep breath and exhale; hold until you need to breathe in. Inhale again, as deep as you can, and hold it for 10 seconds. 3-5 rounds is recommended, but as with most things, quality over quantity!
Cold body therapy is an important aspect of WHM and has scientifically reported health benefits ranging from higher energy levels and metabolism to elevated immune response. Hof recommends gradually exposing your body to low temperatures by taking cold showers. If this gives you shivers just thinking about it, start with 15-30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower and increase at your own pace until you’ve reached two minutes. By this point the endorphins will be flowing, and you’ll be surprised how instantly a cold shower will naturally elevate your mood…so don’t knock it ‘til you try it!
Supplementing breathing and cold exposure with mindfulness is also key so that we are always observing the state of our breath, heart rate, and mind. The commitment you bring to the practice will prime the body to reap the benefits and will dramatically enhance the experience overall. Once you have the right mindset, the breathing technique will become intuitive, which will make your cold showers a much more pleasurable and invigorating addition to your flow.
The most effective way to practice WMF is of course to incorporate the three elements consistently and in tandem. But if you only have the capacity to tackle one thing, try making cold showers a new daily habit, and just remember to breathe and have fun!
I hope you’ll be able to take away something from this piece in two parts. My challenge for you is to try implementing either (or both!) of these practices into your daily routine depending on your personal goals. It’s easy to get into a rut and feel the redundancy of well-worn habits, so take me at my word when I say it took some will power to get into a new groove! But the the tools I’ve offered here are meant to create a cascade of health benefits that will overflow into other areas of your life and bring you to a higher state of vitality.
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