Doctor reviews the Wim Hof Method
Dr. Ned Flanders here and I have been hyperventilating and going into cold showers for around the last three years, stepping it up in the winter. You’re probably thinking like, why are you doing that to yourself?
I’ve been doing the Wim Hof method, which is a 10-week program of progressive cold exposure culminating in ice baths. I’ve just finished week 10 of the Wim Hof course. This is the final stage: ice bath for 10 minutes.
What you actually get from it
The subjective experience
The three main benefits that I’ve got from doing it are being able to see through walls, being able to smell the color green, and generally just feeling a bit better throughout the day. Generally, you get a slight improvement in your sense of focus and discipline.
Partly because you’ve woken up in the morning and you’ve essentially eaten a frog, like you’ve done the hardest thing of the day and then been able to see everything else as not as difficult. So, that’s the subjective side.
The science behind it
Objectively, there’s the famous study where they injected people with an endotoxin and made half of the participants do the Wim Hof method. The other half were the control group. The Wim Hof group were able to resolve their inflammatory markers and normalize their cortisol more rapidly than the control group. The endotoxin is like a simulacrum for some kind of stressor. The idea is that by having more control and being able to regulate your autonomic nervous system more effectively, you can normalize your response to stress better than people who don’t.
It gives you an acute stressor and then you’re more able to respond to chronic stresses.
You might remember the famous quote from Fight Club: after a fight, everything else in life has the volume turned down. It’s the same kind of thing.
Compare that to days where you’re just in full slug mode: sedentary, no exercise, a low-level background stress, and when you try to go to bed you can’t sleep because you haven’t exerted yourself. The Wim Hof method is basically clearing out the pipes of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and bringing you a little bit more into balance.
How to do the Wim Hof method
The breathing cycle
What I would do is 30 to 35 deep breaths. Go all the way in and then exhale halfway out. 35 times. You’ll start to feel your fingers and lips tingle a little bit. Then hold it on the exhale as long as you can. When you feel the urge to breathe in, take a full breath in. Hold it for as long as you can again. Repeat the cycle. You can do that two or three times.
Cold exposure and safety
Go into the cold shower while you’re doing this, and you will find that you’re more able to tolerate the cold compared to if you weren’t doing the breathing.
Be aware that the main danger of this is that you can tank your oxygen saturation quite quickly and it is easy to pass out without much warning. You’ve got to be aware of this, and if you even feel the slightest sense that you’re going to do that, sit down and reconsider whether this is something you should be doing.
Post-session integration
Once you’ve done three rounds and you’ve had the cold shower, dry yourself off, put on something warm, sit down and meditate. Just breathe normally, fully, deeply, slowly, and just feel your way into your body, and you will genuinely feel qualitatively different.
That’s all there is to it. The main benefit is the subjective sense of well-being that carries on throughout the day. To me, it’s better than coffee because you’re not overly stimulated for the rest of the day. You’ve just brought yourself into balance and you feel a little bit more focused without being jittery.
It’s better than coffee because you’re not overly stimulated for the rest of the day. You’ve just brought yourself into balance.
It’s not a superpower
Some people online are evangelical about the Wim Hof method, but it’s not a superpower. It’s definitely not the cure for cancer and it is definitely definitely not a penis enlarger. So, just bear that in mind.
Tips during meditation
Some tips for once you finish the rounds and you’re just sitting with yourself: get out of your head. No thinking, no analyzing. Just feel yourself in your body. Feel your breath, inhabit your body, and just be with it. Enjoy the sensation that comes up.
On the course itself
Would I recommend the course? Probably not. I think Wim Hof is a great guy. He’s very genuine, and unless you just want anything that he would make, then fine. But otherwise, the way that he steps outside of his remit into the science and going deep into the nervous system and endocrine system just discredits him.
You could design your own program where you’re just going deeper and deeper into the cold exposure. Either starting with a hot shower and then turning it cold for the final 30 seconds, and then starting cold, going warm, and then ending cold again, or whatever combination of that you need until you’re just having a straight cold shower and eventually a 10-minute ice bath.