Mar 17, 2016
Wim Hof is known as "The Iceman" for his ability to withstand extreme cold and control his autonomic nervous system .Wim holds 21 world records, including one staying immersed in ice up to his neck for 1 hour and 52 min.He reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in his shorts within two days and taught a group of 27 people to do the same. He climbed Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts and shoes He completed a half marathon above the arctic circle in Finland, in temperatures close to −20 °C (−4 °F) dressed in nothing but shorts. He even went to the opposite extreme and ran a full marathon in the Namib Desert without water.
Pre-show banter (this is interesting stuff!)
Few people have established such a place of reverence in their particular field as Wim Hoff has. Wim is a very unorthodox example of a man who took his beliefs seriously and has fought to prove them to be true. Wim is affectionately known as “The Ice Man” because of his extreme endurance feats in cold temperatures. Wim has climbed Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro among others, in nothing but his shorts. But that’s not all. He’s also trained others to do the same thing in relatively short periods of time, in an effort to prove that the human brain and body are capable of so much more than we have believed in the past.
Wim is a native of the Netherlands and is not University trained in science or conditioned professionally to be an endurance athlete. Even so, he’s been able to accomplish some of the most spectacular and truly unbelievable feats in the world. He first came into contact with exposure to cold when he was 17 years old and in his words, “The cold became my teacher.” Somehow that experience put him in touch with his body in new ways and he’s been experimenting ever since.
What motivates a man to do the kinds of things Wim does? He says it’s for two reasons: #1 - to bring health, happiness, and strength to all the children of the world. He truly believes that the breathing and conditioning methods he’s discovered can not only bring healing to the body but also peace to the soul. And #2 - to gain attention for the research and beliefs he’s pioneering in regard to how breathing and pH levels in the body impact sickness and health, endurance, and the ability to perform at a much higher level mentally.
Some of the most incredible results of Wim’s experiments is the effect his breathing techniques have had on sickness. In one instance, after training a group of people with his breathing practices, they were intentionally subjected to a particular strain of bacteria and their bodies were able to fight it off with incredible strength. Wim attributes the result to the higher pH levels of their bodies because of the breathing techniques they’d been practicing.
In Wim Hoff’s own life, his breathing techniques and mindset practices enabled him to push beyond the grief that threatened to consume him when his wife was killed in an accident. Wim is convinced that the mind is much more powerful that we have believed and that the right personal practices and disciplines can eliminate things like stress, worry, grief, and even physical sickness.
This is a very interesting, unbelievable conversation that I know you’ll enjoy. Please meet my guest, Wim Hoff.