Posted on 03/22/2021 9:29:23 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Sitting in a barrel chest-high in ice cubes seems more like torture than a birthday treat.
But not for Wim Hof. The eccentric Dutchman, who celebrated his 61st birthday last year by spending 61 minutes in ice, has gone from stuntman caricature to wellness guru during the pandemic.
His techniques, combining hypoxic breathing with ice baths and cold showers, have been adopted by a cult following of extreme athletes and tech entrepreneurs. Scientists are studying his almost superhuman ability to eliminate fear and control his immune response.
For years, the Iceman, as Mr. Hof is called, gained publicity—and some ridicule—for daredevil feats such as sitting for hours on bare ice and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and part of Mount Everest half naked. His ideas for a long time were considered fringe.
But scientists increasingly are interested in his ability to survive dangerous conditions and to influence physiological responses thought to be involuntary, like immune system and inflammatory responses.
Mr. Hof has spent a lot of time in labs as researchers have attached him to monitors, had him swallow sensors, run him through MRI machines, gauged his temperature and injected him with endotoxin to see how his immune system would react. Small pilot studies indicate that Mr. Hof is able to influence the autonomic part of the nervous system responsible for involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing and the fight-or-flight response. They suggest that his method could improve immune response and reduce chronic inflammation.
One of the records he has set was in 2000 for swimming under ice in Finland, after losing his way and almost dying during practice. He ran a half marathon barefoot on ice and snow in Finland and a full marathon in the Namib Desert without water.
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My athlete distance runner son in high school and college would take ice baths the night before races.
Brief ones though!
Something tells me this guy is heading for the kind of reality check that guy who befriended grizzly bears had.
The dude is simply a badass.
Bkmk
I take an eight minute shower. Six minutes of the hottest I can stand and then I turn it to the coldest for the last two minutes. It is exhilarating.
I was doing this in preparation for the New Years Day Polar Bear swim in Coney Island.
It really wakes you up.
I do the same. It’s called a “Scottish Shower.” http://www.thepathmag.com/how-to-build-your-way-up-to-taking-a-scottish-shower/
I read a book.
I don’t eat food that hurts me*.
And I don’t sit in barrels of ice up to my chest.
(*Exception: ice cream brain-freeze)
That alternation also enhances your innate immune system.
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