In response to Russia's shutdown of their natural gas pipeline, Germany's ZDF TV has reached out to Wim Hof, Dutch "human icicle" and cold-immersion Guinness World Record Holder, to shoot a TV series teaching his deep breathing "body warming" yoga techniques to ordinary Germans this winter.
(media.greatawakening.win)
🐴 CHECKMATE PUTIN! 💩
To be fair, his breathing techniques actually work.
The ice baths do help you curb anxiety in general.
You can test it right now. Go to your shower, turn it on to hot, soak for a bit, and then turn it to cold and stand there taking it for 30 seconds.
Can you do it?
Why not?
Anxiety building up just staring at the cold knob?
If you can't conquer that anxiety, then how can you hope to conquer your Self?
Beat the fear of putting yourself in uncomfortable climates and then nothing will hold you back.
I'm Canadian, so, YES. Love the cold water! There are rivers up here that are just NUTS how cold they are. Helps being used to it but you have to stay on it. When I was in Egypt I lost that ability a bit...
Extended family had a "cabin" (the thing was bigger than an average house) in Sicamous, and nobody else would go swimming, but I would jump in and find out that the lake was mostly melt and was sitting around 5°C.
Hard to do more than short bouts, but still, when you have so little access to a lake, you must take advantage.
I can handle the cold no problem. I don't need to test myself to see if I have mental strength. I had 18 years of my life in poverty that trained me to handle shitty environments
I'll be "that guy who is no fun at parties."
Don't get me wrong Mr. Hof seems like a great guy. And I think for mental health the stuff he talks about is a good idea.
But his "magic iceman" technique is 95% about conditioning one's mind to not overreact to cold, and then slowly conditioning his physiology to cold.
Because end of the day humans are really, really, really, really, really, really resistant to cold. Like a naked human has the same heat retention as a shaved grizzly bear despite the latter have 300% more mass and much more ball-like shape.
And the longer you expose yourself to cold, the more your body physically adapts to it, expressing new genes, altering the kind of fat you store under skin, changing your metabolism, and even creating anti-freezing proteins, thickening your blood and so on. Mr. Hof has spend his whole like exposing himself to cold. Its one of the reasons people 10+ climates handle it better than people who move there. Its not just a head-game, people "used to it" physically don't suffer in cold anywhere near as much and will get hypothermia much, much later than fresh transplants from a hot climate.
And then if your ancestors are from a cold climate, you will get several more degrees of cold-adaptation as humans with long histories in cold, like Scandinavians and Germanics start with a better baseline because they are literally evolved for it. Physical evolution to handle cold is how the Vikings were able to navigate the north Atlantic in their longships and not all turn into popsicles.
Oh look Mr. Hof is germanic and started his "cold adventures" in his youth, so has been doing it for decades.
He is not super natural, he is pushing the human design to its limits.
If you look into some of his lessons, he claims nothing but this.
Can you hold your breath for 2 minutes? Without training?
I didn't think I could, but I did his breathing technique and hot-damn it turns out you CAN hold your breath for 2 minutes RIGHT NOW and all it takes is hyperventilating 3 times in a short time frame.
When I started I could easily hold my breath for 2 minutes. I'm up to 3 minutes right now, not even trying hard either.
His logic was that we lost this technique that our ancestors knew about for millennia. How did our caveman ancestors manage to chase a wounded deer for miles without tiring? What was a Viking berserker? What are war dances meant to do?
In reality, it was just preparing for exertion by breathing so much so quickly that your body gets full up on oxygen content. That's the trick; simple really.
Who shaved the grizzly bear?
Wim Hifs techniques work like magic and you havent said anything he hasn't already said but you've completely missed the point of the excersize and you're creating a straw-man in your head that is your own psyche rationalizing an excuse to not do something because you're lazy or scared.
Fact is you tried to be that guy by your own admission but you're woefully underequipped mentally "to be that guy".
LMAO, I said I was the "no fun at parties guy" as in the guy who spoils the "fun" of a story by pointing out the science. I made no mention of trying it or even wanting to try doing it myself.
I've never attempted Hof's method myself, I don't see the point in it for me in my life. I'll stick with being good enough to skip a coat when grabbing the mail in the winter. I am indeed lazy, what is your point?
I'm sure you could go out and train to be a competitor in the World Strongest Man yourself, what are you lazy for not doing it? Wait, what is that, you don't wanna be a strongman so badly you are willing to ruthlessly training your body every day of every week for years? You too must be lazy.
If you want to go do the Hof, it, go do it. You will be cooler than me for the ability. I can't rock climb, deepwater dive, or BMX either. I'm good with this.
So its YOU you are attacking me on a strawman. I am just pointing it is well inside the human design to do what he does, if you have the time and inclination to do so.
I'm sure his techniques work. I am saying that they are not literally magic you dignus, I've seen plenty of people who think it is.
"I made no mention of trying it or even wanting to try doing it myself." Is all you needed to type.
Read about the mammalian dive reflex.
Might help with anxiety and lower one's heart rate.
Been doing it this way every day for 5+ years!