No man is better associated with temperature extremes than the Dutch “Iceman” Wim Hoff. He earned his nickname by not only breaking world records for prolonged cold exposure (swimming under ice, barefoot marathon running over snow and ice) but nearly single-handedly making cold exposure popular.
“The Wim Hof Method” has become a bona-fide movement in the world of biohacking and his name is everywhere these days. He has been the subject of a bestselling book as well as a Vice documentary. This is a man who climbed Mount Everest in only shorts and shoes (coming just shy of the peak due to a foot injury). He also managed to climb Kilimanjaro in two days while in similar attire.
So what does Wim Hof credit his health and mental endurance to? Wim Hof believes that enduring the cold is a benefit to our bodies and can help us deal with disease such as MS, arthritis, and other ills. His method involves a combination of meditation, breathing exercises, and ice therapy.
So you may be asking yourself,does the Iceman like the heat? It turns out he is a big fan.
“Heat and cold are our great teachers.”- Wim Hof
Wim Hoff granted an exclusive interview to Sauna Times to talk about sauna which can be listened to here. He had a plethora of opinions on sauna use as well as how it can be used to complement cold exposure.
Using the sauna before and after cold exposure
“Sauna is great to start up with, dilatation with the veins and capillaries… so the sauna is able to open ours up, bring in the thermostat, thus we are able to go into cold water afterwards, and that’s a very good way to not forcefully go into the cold first. Because our vascular system is used to wearing clothes all the time hasn’t been stimulated for a long time.”
“First get used to going into the heat of the sauna then into the cold. If you do this on a regular basis then at a certain point you will see that your vascular system you get more energy, you feel better in your adrenal axis, that means powerful, and then you feel by yourself to go into the cold water and then into the sauna, and then if you do this it’s so, pardon my French, REWARDING”. So just get into it and then have great sharing both in the sauna and then into the cold. Have your vascular system optimized the way nature meant it to be to bring about all the energy you need, all the energy and take a bath therein, it’s just great.”
On breathing in the sauna
“If you are too hot then breath, you breath to your teeth, it’s making it cool. There are ways to cool yourself down while in the heat. I’ve done a full marathon in the desert in the heat without water… Whatever you learn in the cold allows you to go into the heat as well. That is the thermoregulator in the hypo-thalamus in deepest part of the brain, the brainstem. It’s all about heat, cold, impact on the body and learning how to handle is. So sauna is able to do that because it’s heat… Our neocortex is stimulated, that is about life and survival the sense of why we are here without words.”
On addressing criticism and skepticism
Wim Hof has his critics and skeptics but he feels seriously about putting his theories and results to the test. Several universities are studying the connections of temperature extremes on the mind and body with “spectacular results” and studies about to be published. He claims that this re-connection with our nature will help us heal anxiety, depression, and other health issues. He is critical of airy-fairy clickbait claims and by working with clinics and universities wants to see his method taken seriously. “No room for speculation,” he says.
A Place to Socialize
He feels that the sauna is both a great place to shut up and also to share in conversation. People are able to connect better and open up about their true nature in the sauna. Hof believes that the sauna fosters better social connections which researchers agree is a solution to the mounting depression rates caused by increasing isolation.
Wim has a barrel sauna next to his unheated swimming pool in the Netherlands. He dives into the pool even in the winter and afterwards heads to the sauna. He claims that after enduring the cold he relishes the contrast of the heat: “To go, so rewarding, into the barrel sauna is so amazing.”
To learn more about Wim Hof’s method and ideas visit his website.
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