Everyone knows the feeling: You finish your shower, step out of the cozy warmth – and suddenly realize with horror that you forgot to lay out a towel. What follows feels like a fight for your bare survival. Torn between freezing and the urge to make it to the closet for a towel, you feel like you're passing through a frozen hell. In moments like these, it's hard to imagine how people manage to endure ice baths for minutes or even hours.
Wim Hof is one of the most famous seemingly cold-resistant extreme athletes and attributes his abilities to his self-developed and eponymous Wim Hof Method (WHM). This combination of breathing technique and cold therapy is said to strengthen the immune system and overall health, as well as boost performance and concentration in everyday life.
Klaus and Patrick, the founders of Orgainic, have also tried the Wim Hof Method and were amazed by their experiences. We're getting to the bottom of it and showing you exactly what the method is all about and how you can use it for yourself.
What is the Wim Hof Method?
The Wim Hof Method can best be described as a meditation technique. Inspired by Tibetan Tummo meditation, Wim incorporated his own experiences and practices into the development of his method. It is based on three core pillars:
The pillars of the Wim Hof Method: breathing technique, cold therapy, and commitment
How does the Wim Hof Method work?
Are you like us, and has Wim Hof piqued your interest with his crazy cold records and positive attitude? Totally understandable – let's take a look at what the first pillar of the WHM is all about.
The Wim Hof Breathing
To try out the special WHM breathing technique, Klaus from Orgainic signed up for an online course with the “Iceman” Wim Hof himself. An impressive experience: Right from the first breathing exercise, Klaus felt his body relax thanks to the oxygen saturation in his blood. “The lightbulbs went off for me. It felt like a high.”
Even without an online course, you can easily try the method yourself. We've put together an overview of the necessary steps for you. When practicing Wim Hof's breathing technique, you should definitely keep a few basic rules in mind before your first self-experiment:
- Always do the exercises in a safe place where you can relax and focus on your breathing.
- The method works best with regular practice. You'll get the best results if you integrate it into your daily routine – for example, as a morning ritual.
Ready? Pay attention to the order of the following steps and repeat the cycle from 1 to 5 a total of three times in a row.
- Breathe in through your nose as deeply as possible. Lift your chest as you do so.
- Next, breathe out again. The air should leave your chest gently – don't force it out.
- Repeat this process about 30 times. After about half, you might feel a slight tingling in your fingers and a bit of lightheadedness. Don't worry: that's just the high oxygen level in your body – it's all good.
- Then breathe out long and deep, and hold your breath for as long as you can right after. Thanks to the high oxygen level in your blood, even beginners can often manage 2–4 minutes.
- Now breathe in deeply again and hold your breath once more. That's the end of your first cycle – and you can start again at step 1.
Wim Hof recommends doing the exercise once or twice a day. Ideally, do it right before exposing yourself to cold – the second part of the WHM.
The Wim Hof Cold Therapy
The second pillar of the WHM is cold therapy. Cold helps you boost your concentration and focus, and is also an essential and healthy stimulus for your body. It strongly stimulates the autonomic nervous system and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is responsible for recovery, relaxation, and regeneration in your body, which is why the WHM is also said to have an antidepressant effect.
Ready to cool down? There's nothing wrong with starting gently: With the following steps, you can gradually work your way toward your goal. Remember to do the breathing exercise described above before exposing yourself to cold, and then start with the cold practice you can just about handle at first:
- The face bath: Fill your sink with cold water and dip your face in.
- The cool finish: After a regular shower, as you're used to, turn the handle and shower as cold as possible. A brief shock is totally normal – try to breathe calmly, your body will get used to it over time and it will get easier each time.
- The cold shower: If alternating between hot and cold showers is no longer a challenge for you, try skipping the warm water altogether.
- The cold bath: Already feeling advanced? Try a cold bath by filling the tub with cold water and lying in it until it becomes uncomfortable. It may take a few minutes for your body to get used to it—focus on your breathing. After about 10–15 minutes, it can become unpleasant and you should get out of the water.
- The ice bath: If you’re a true pro looking to push your limits, fill up a cold bath and add ice cubes to the tub. Alternatively, you can take this kind of bath in the great outdoors in a pond or lake—just like Klaus did in week ten of the WHM:
Bathing, but different: at -10 °C in the quarry lake
“It’s honestly pretty strange when people in thick winter coats walk past you on either side, and you strip down to your swim trunks, break the ice with your hands while continuing to breathe deeply, and then step into the cold water.” In a quarry lake at -10 °C, Klaus put his cold resistance—built up over weeks—to the test. After five minutes, he couldn’t feel his feet anymore and got out of the ice water—his only thought in that moment: “Holy moly, that’s cold.”
Orgainic co-founder Patrick, who accompanied his colleague for support, drove him back home, where Klaus tried to thaw his feet with warm water and learned an important lesson: “Remember this: Never pour warm water over deeply frozen body parts”—because the rapid expansion of blood vessels in cold limbs can be extremely painful. It’s better to start with cool water and gradually make it warmer.
Thanks to good preparation with the WHM breathing technique and gradually building up his cold resistance, Klaus only ended up with a minor frostbite on his toe—and gained an unforgettable mental and physical experience.
Commitment – work on your mindset
Wim truly lives the message he wants to share with us. That’s what makes him so authentic: participants in his workshops describe him as extremely charismatic, full of joy, and with a positive outlook on life—that’s what he conveys and achieves with his method.
Still, a certain level of commitment is needed to see results, and that’s also the third pillar the WHM is based on. Integrate the Wim Hof Method into your daily routine and make it a habit. The breathing technique is especially great before working out, as it gives your body a solid boost of oxygen.
Klaus also found that commitment is an essential aspect for the effectiveness of the Wim Hof Method: “If you don’t regularly do all the cycles—breathing exercises, cold therapy, and ideally yoga stretches—you’ll quickly notice how you slip back into your original state.” So sticking with it is super important if you want to do something good for your body and mind in the long run.
Another important point is the effect of alcohol during intensive WHM practice: “Underestimating that really knocked me out. As soon as you have a drink in the evening, it affects your overall state. You immediately feel more like you’re catching a cold, the positive effects of the exercises are reduced, and you have to build your level back up again,” says Klaus. A holistic, responsible approach is key to your progress here.
Wim Hof Method in action: Klaus from Orgainic faces the cold
What does the Wim Hof Method do for you?
As mentioned, the Wim Hof Method is a meditation technique. Meditation itself isn’t just for a specific purpose—it’s a holistic therapy. It has positive effects on many aspects of the human body and helps restore a natural balance. The same goes for the WHM.
Through controlled breathing, which is a key part of the method, the pH value of your blood can be temporarily increased slightly. The reason for this is the change in the ratio of CO2 to oxygen. A higher pH level generally makes it harder for bacteria and the infections they cause to survive. In short, that already gives us benefit number one:
- Your immune system is strengthened and bacterial infections become less likely.
Cold therapy also brings many benefits for your immune system and your body’s performance:
- Your circulation is noticeably stimulated. This means your body is efficiently supplied with oxygen and the vitamins you get from food.
- Cold has a strong anti-inflammatory effect.
- The autonomic nervous system is activated. This leads to increased energy consumption and therefore more fat burning. So next time you’re on a diet, just stand in front of the open fridge a little longer.
- Your cold resistance in everyday life increases significantly—waiting for the bus in winter shouldn’t be a problem for you anymore.
Klaus has successfully integrated the Wim Hof Method into his daily life and has noticed many positive effects from this change – physically, but also mentally. “After the first cycle, I felt light, as if I was walking on clouds. And I noticed how the training keeps strengthening my immune system.”
Of course, there’s a habituation effect: “The high feeling from the first time has changed and become less intense. But still, every time you do it, you automatically get a rush of happiness. The cold jet washes away all your thoughts, you can just shower off all the little worries,” says Klaus. “You stop thinking for a while and just stick to the basic instincts – and I see that in a totally non-esoteric way. For me, the practical benefits are what matter, and those are definitely there.”
Ready to take back control of your body?
The Wim Hof Method guides you step by step towards more self-control and boosts your performance and stress resilience in everyday life. All you need is a quiet place for your breathing exercises and a cold shower in the morning to try out Wim’s practices and integrate them into your daily routine for the long term.
We think the WHM is awesome and see it as the perfect addition to an active and healthy lifestyle. Combine it with the right sport and a healthy, natural diet to boost your overall fitness and well-being. Don’t just be a passenger in your body – take the wheel. That’s Wim’s message, and ours too.
By now, there are plenty of groups on social media channels across cities all over Europe where you can find valuable tips, discussions, and like-minded people. If you want to dive deeper, you’ll find dates for various workshops and certified trainers in these groups or directly on Wim Hof’s homepage at www.wimhofmethod.com. Start tomorrow morning and feel the first noticeable changes after just a few days – your body will thank you for it.
Title image from Pexels. Graphic by Markus Henien.