It’s early 2021 – well mid March, we are still in the depths of the Covid pandemic, in lockdown at the moment. Over the last 6-12 months I’ve been noticing people referencing Wim Hof, mostly on social media, cos you know, we can’t actually meet up with people right now, and I’d not taken much notice of it cos you know… he’s the ice man and I don’t like the cold, so zero interest for me personally.
Then a participant in a Womens Circle talked about the breath work he does and I got a little more interested. I added the audible book to my library and figured I’d listen to that next. That was a few weeks ago, I’m not going to lie, it didn’t come next and two further audiobooks were consumed first.
The last couple of months have been great, off the back of the Total Food & Feminine Upgrade course I’ve been doing I’ve been directed to certain things and I felt in a really good place (more about that in the Total Food & Feminine Upgrade blog post here > Total Food & Feminine Upgrade Then some uncertainty around my work and therefore my future knocked me off balance… like way off balance. I feel stressed, my mind and body not quite my own. I’ve been here before and I know I’ll come out the other side but on searching for additional support I was drawn to the Wim Hof book… Rather than just reading the book… I’m putting it into practice, hopefully taking you along for the ride. Anything that follows is my interpretation of what I’ve read… I’m not advising anyone else tries this, if you are interested in the method then please seek out a version of it and follow direct from the Ice Man himself… not my interpretation. There are certain medical conditions contraindicated and if you fall into these categories you should not be trying this stuff out – so check out the book / audible book / online courses to find out more.
Day 1: Wednesday, 10th March 2021 – I started listening to the book this morning as I washed dishes. My dishwasher is broken at the moment and I’m not quite capable of resolving it so instead I wash dishes. I’m intrigued right from the start but also incredibly resistant. This guy does stuff with ice and really cold temperatures and have I mentioned I don’t like those. The book eases you in gently by starting with Wim’s back story… a brief encounter of his life from birth through to the formative years. I love hearing about other peoples lives and this is easy… I’m listening to a bloke tell me stuff about his life. Nice! At some point the tone changes and Wim moves onto talking about his methods for changing your physiology, making the body better able to cope with everything life has to through at it. The ‘Method’ is peppered with examples of how it has enabled him and others to achieve great things people believe to be impossible. Of course, the cold bit comes first… Great! Thankfully at this point I’m not looking at finding a frozen lake and jumping in… Instead, in the comfort of my own home I can add cold water to my shower routine. Ok… no excuses now I guess. If I had to find a frozen lake I could adopt a number of excuses 1) temperatures are above freezing so ya know.. no frozen lakes. 2) We’re in lockdown so venturing out for this is probably stretching the ‘exercise’ rule, especially if I have to travel to do so. I litterally go back and forth in my head all day. ‘it’s good for you give it a go’, ‘are you fucking kidding me, cold showers, I think not’ Welcome to the messy space inside my head! I end the day without reaching a conclusion….
Day 2: Thursday, 11th March 2021 – Ok, a little more listening as I wash dishes in the morning before working out… Wim is now onto talking about breath practice and the benefits of this. This I am totally on board with and have no issues in putting into practice. Ideally this is done before consuming anything so I’m going to do this in the morning after my alarm goes off, before I get up.. it’ll make a change from hitting the snooze button! That’s for tomorrow. Right now I’m heading into my workout which is followed by a shower. Great, time to suck it up buttercup. If you want change you’ve gotta get uncomfortable right… Yeah… Great! As I head to the shower I give myself a pep talk… it’s 15 seconds, that is a tiny part of your day, how bad can it be, really? Get it done! I definitely procrastinate by making the hot part of the shower a little longer than normal, but then I reach for the temp control and turn it as fast as I can to the cold side… I gasp as the icy water, ok, it’s not icy but it feels icy to me, hits my body. 😱 Then I realise I need to count the seconds ‘1 motherfucker, 2 motherfucker’ yup I replaced that Mississippi with the motherfucker and it feels great. I get to 10 and turn the shower off. Ok, so I didn’t make it for 15 seconds but I made a start… and due to the gasping between counts, I probably wasn’t that far off. Now… my house isn’t that warm… it’s old and drafty and although the heating was on it hadn’t been on that long… normally after a shower I feel instantly cold and desperately grab at the towel to provide some warmth… this morning was very different though. After the cold of the water the room felt lovely and warm and I felt as though I had a ready brek glow eminating from my whole body. That’s a reference only people of a certain age will get… I definitely felt alive and very awake! I can see how the benefits may outweight the pain in the moment. Which convinces me to keep going with this! That said… the time has to increase gradually… 🤔 Great!
Day 3 – Friday 12th March 2021 – I noted towards the end of yesterday how I was feeling so much brighter and hopeful than I had in a few days and generally my energy had been better. I don’t know whether it’s attributable to my cold shower that morning, doing some creative work during the day, a combination of those or some other reason… whatever it was I’m grateful. I listened to some more of Wims book last night too… some information on the third pillar of his method – mindset and more on his life story. I don’t need convincing that mindset is important, how you need to be committed and disciplined. I’ve pretty much achieved this in how I move my body through exercise at least five days a week… even when I really don’t want to I do, becasue it’s part of my routine. Getting there takes time though. My intention is to embrace this and so far I’m doing so… In last night’s instalment of the book, Wim talked about a study he took part in where he was injected with a virus. It had zero impact on his body becasue his immune response has been effected, positively, by all the work he does. He then went on to train people to respond in a similar way in a very short space of time. Maybe I’m being brainwashed but I can’t help thinking how relevant this is right now and shouldn’t we be prescribing cold showers and breath work along side all of the conventional medicine. We are in the middle of a pandemic… strengthened immunity should be key right now!
This morning when I woke I switched off my alarm and got to the breathing. Like I said, I was really up for this as I totally get how powerful breath can be in the body. I downloaded the app last night as it has a guided practice in it and for now, at least, that makes things a little easier. I’m glad I did becasue i hadn’t appreciated how quick the breath is. I’d have approached it in a more yogic way if I’d gone in without guidance based on my interpretation of how it was described. So I’m not going to lie… I found the practice odd and counter intuitive. However when I was done I did feel more awake, ready for the day. I guess over time it’ll normalise.
I worked out after the breath practice and it was a tough workout – I’m in phase three of a nine week programme which is a mix of strength work and tabata cardio. This final phase has really upped the ante and I was done by the end of it… fatigued! I also needed to wash my hair today so knew the icy blast would be beneficial for my hair, I’m not sure if either or both of those contributed to me being way less resistant than yesterday but I was. On account of the hair washing my hot shower was extra long but when i was done, I grabbed the temperature control and turned it to icy blastiness… ‘Motherfucker’ in response to the change in temperature… then count ‘1 Motherfucker, 2 Motherfucker…’ I stopped at 15 becasue that was all I needed to count to but stayed under the water a little longer for good measure, I don’t know if subconciously I was making up for yesterday, just found it a bit easier, know that the time jumps to 30 seconds next week and I was testing myself… who knows but I definitely went over those 15 seconds. I turned off the water and waited… no ready brek glow this morning. Maybe my expectation set me up for disappointment or the fatigue my body was feeling changed the experience 🤷 only persisting will give me more information to establish whether there are patterns or not. So this is what I shall do.
Day 4 – Monday 15th March 2021 – Lots more listening over the weekend but less practicing. Which is ok… and planned. No new elements to ‘The Method’ now just more practical examples which is nice, reinforcing the message.
Started the morning with the breathing exercises after one snooze of the alarm clock. I found I was really distracted this morning and even using the app fro prompts I’m not sure I did it all 100%. It still feels unnatural. It didn’t fill me with energy and motivation this morning… A little procrastination before hauling my ass out of bed and working out.
My workout felt a little more manageable this morning. I remember how this workout from the previous week felt, and it goes up in complexity over the weeks so I was expecting it to be tough… but it felt more manageable and I’m convinced I didn’t back off. So maybe this schizzle is helping 🤷. Post workout it was time for the cold shower routine. I’m not dreading it so much now as I know what I’m in for and honestly… it’s not that bad. I went for 20 Motherfuckers today and managed it which I’m pleased about… the ready brek glow was back this morning as well so stepping out of the shower was lovely. I feel ready to take on the day now.
Day 5 – Tuesday 16th March 2021 – LIstened to an hour or so of the book last night as I washed up and prepared dinner. No new method techniques now, just lots of examples of the way in which it has helped people and the practical pllications it can have. All interpersed with a reminder of how it works.
I found that in the app you can change the breathing speed so I’ve slowed it down a smidge which I think helps me. I find it hard to get a full deep breath when going really fast. I was still a little distracted this morning and zoned out, but afterwards felt more awake. Today was the first time I’ve woken up before my alarm in ages… so I guess I was starting out from a better point that I have been too. The retentions were a smidge longer this morning… so maybe that is down to slower deeper breathing!
I’m not resistant to the cold showering now… I know it’s going to happen and given all I’ve heard thus far about the benefits it’s more of a ‘bring it on’ mindset. I still adopt the cussing technique to get through it as it’s hardly plesant… 25 ‘Motherfuckers’ this morning… which is good as tomorrow is the last of the 15 second showers and the time ups to 30 seconds. Gradually increasing over the week has made that seem less scary and I figure I may as well push myself each day as the longer the better.
Day 6 – Wednesday 17th March 2021 – I’ve about an hour left of the audio book and didn’t spend any time on it yesterday so my goal is to finish that today. I woke up during the night and so when my alarm goes off I’m groggy and tired. I start the breathing exercises but know I drift in and out of sleep a bit so after a few rounds I discard that and do two super focussed rounds. I’ll do another set later on, before lunch as I feel as though I’m cheating myself this morning. As I get up, I’m feeling slightly more awake but I could easily go back to bed for an hour.
Instead I get up and do my work out – its the final cardio workout in the 9 week programme I’m doing which finishes at the end of this week. I’m not a fan of cardio but I’m incredibly grateful that it’s one of the shorter workouts so at least it’s over fairly quickly. Fatigue is definitely effecting my ability and I do less than in other cardio workouts but I’m giving it everything I have and I’m done by the end. That is all I can do!
Shower follows workout… I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but I have some hope that the cold water will wake me up… bring some life into me. No hesitation in turning that temperature dial… I count 27 ‘Motherfuckers’ before turning the shower off and experiencing the ready brek glow. I’m definitely more awake and ready to take on the day. I’m hoping that the breathing at lunchtime will see me through and help prevent afternoon slumps too. 🤞
Day 7 – Thursday 18th March 2021 – Still not finished the damn book! I woke up grumpy and still hormonal AF, originally 45 minutes before my alarm was due to go off but as I was still really tired I drifted back to sleep til the alarm woke me a little later. I got up and decided to do the breathing exercises sat up rather than in bed to avoid drifting back to sleep like yesterday… speaking of which… I didn’t do additional breathing in the end. I was really hungry at lunchtime and forgot and then decided it was probably a bad idea to do them too late in the day in case they effected my sleep. Anyway… I’m not sure if it was being sat up or whether I’m just getting used to them now but the speed felt a little slow today so I can change the temp for tomorrow. I was really resistant this morning. Wanting ach round to be my last… whilst I did complete four rounds it felt really difficult, though my retention has improved a little.
Todays workout was weights based with very little cardio element which I prefer… got that done and then the cold shower. Wasn’t lookin forward to it as I knew there was a time increase and although I’ve been gradually increasing he time each day that was by choice… now i was being told I had to increase it. That’s a diffrent feeling. Minimum 30second shower for the next five days. I did it, with an extra second just for good measure. Its a long way from enjoyable but the feeling of cold hitting the skin is getting easier to cope with.
Days 8&9 – Friday 19th & Saturday 20th March 2021 – Friday morning I woke up grumpy, tired and with a headache. I decided in a rebellious way that I wasn’t breathing, doing the breathing exercises.. of course I’m actually breathing, that morning. Clearly in some self sabotaging mode! I went downstairs and got ready to work out, as I had a few minutes before I needed to start the workout I sat down and knocked out a couple of rounds, recognising that not doing it was only being detrimeental to me and super bloody childish! Cold showered at the end of the shower post workout… clearly nothing of note happened as it doesn’t stand out remembering and reflecting back… it’s done and I guess that’s what counts!
This morning I got up and pottered about a bit before doing the breathing pre workout. I felt a little light headed with it this time which wasn’t th nicest of feelings and so I only did a couple of rounds as I really wasn’t enjoying it! I showered later in the day and added the cold blast at the end. Not sure if I managed to turn the knob (tee hee) a little further than I have been doing but sweet jesus that water felt icy this morning! I had an internal dialogue of ‘it’s not that cold, get on with it, it’s 30 seconds just breathe’ versus ‘but it’s fucking cold, it’s really icy this morning, jesus this is unplesant’ all whilst counting interspersed with the usually Motherfuckers… So yeah… today not an enjoyable experience at all. Think of the greater good!
Day 10 – Thursday 25th March 2021 – Yeah, it’s been a while! I shut down for a few days. I’ve been tired and just regressed. No breath work and no cold showers. I got up this morning with slightly more vigour so jumped in the shower and did my thing… ending with an icy blast… I’m not gonna lie, after a break it was pretty torturous… that was the longes 30 seconds! No breathwork so far today. I may, I may not.