Did it! 41F/5C air temp, water seemed to be about the same. It was a lot easier than I expected. Clear water, rocky bottom, and uncontrollable giggling once I got in!
Thirty deep inhales and passive exhales, on the last exhale I empty my lungs as much as possible and hold for as long as I can. On the controlled inhale, I hold again, but for not as long. Sometimes I bridge or happy baby during the inhale hold. I do five rounds of that every morning. I use nose-only breathing, The Iceman (Wim Hof) seems to use nose in/mouth out.
There are many benefits. It’s a time of meditation while fully waking the body in a relaxed manner (it works before bed too though, so I think it’s more about reaching an equilibrium). I also find a lot of body awareness, recognizing pain and discomfort and addressing it in a mental way that translates into increased recovery and healing.
It’s also the voluntary taking on of stress. The holds get uncomfortable, the body wants to panic (sometimes mine does), but you can control it with your mind. It trains the body to better recognize that stress is a physical reaction that can be controlled.
The cold is the same. The body says, “This is scary, I’m not okay.” You say back, “No it’s not, we’re okay.”
Hof has a lot of science behind his techniques and I’ll probably read his book. There’s stuff about ph balancing and shocking the body into balance. There’s also woo woo stuff about accessing ancient trauma in our DNA, addressing it, and healing it. All of which, I’m into.
And it just brings a sense of joy. I started laughing at myself in the water and couldn’t stop. A dude went by in a fishing boat, bundled up in camo, and must have thought I was crazy.
There are a lot more Whys. I knew about Hof, but I listened to an interview he gave with Russell Brand on April 1st. He discussed his journey after his wife committed suicide. He wanted to find the cure for depression. Simply put, he found it in the cold. He also claimed that covid couldn’t fuck with him, that his blood had been tested up against influenzas and wouldn’t get infected. I was in a bad place in April. I needed something as bold and simple as this and I started the next day.
I got out of the darkness and had a wonderful spring and summer. When soccer returned in June, I hadn’t done any cardio since mid-March, but I was good for a 90-minute game! Just from 15 minutes of breathing, a little yoga, and daily cold showers. I was hooked.