Below Heroes Zero
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Below Zero Freezing Health Shrinkage Mind Hippocrates, Laird Hamilton and 2 1 -1 -2 -3 -Beyoncé4 consider it a cold, hard- fact: 5find Heroes out why a Rockies-raised writer follows the wisdom of the world’s reigning expert on cold therapy and now feels, well, pretty darn cool. By Laura Yale “we have tried to control our environment rather than trying to control ourselves to adapt to our environment,” Wim Hof tells me via Skype from his home in the countryside, 70 kilometres outside of Amsterdam. Hof is a ruggedly handsome 57-year-old, with a cavernous, resonant voice that can only emanate from strong lungs. He has a lumberjack build, hair to his shoulders, and a bristly beard. “Cold has been my greatest teacher in life,” asserts Hof, whose nickname is “The Iceman.” He has performed seemingly impossible feats, like running a marathon in shorts and sandals above the Arctic Circle at a temperature of -20 C, or swimming under ice for 120 metres on one breath. He climbed 6,700 of Mount Everest’s 8,848 metres wearing nothing but shorts and shoes, but he had to turn back due to a reoc- curring foot injury. He holds 21 Guinness World Records, including sitting in an ice bath for one hour and 52 minutes, where he maintained a normal core body temperature as scientists in the Netherlands monitored his temperature and blood chemistry. The great crusader of cold, Wim Hof, doing what’s made him an international celebrity: Hof began his relationship with cold at not freezing his ass off. Photo: Henny Boogert age 17, after having an inexplicable urge to 128 KMC summer 2017 summer 2017 KMC 129 MUCH OF THE WORLD, ESPECIALLY THE WORLDLY PEOPLE WHO WESTERN HALF, HAS JUST CHILLIN’ LIKE IT REAL ICY. HEATED UP THE COLD AND AIR-CONDITIONED THE HOT. jump into a lake while walking through a park during a Netherlands winter. He made it a daily practice and began honing his skills to endure cold. It wasn’t until 1995, after his wife took her own life, that he recognized the full potential of his personal practice. He credits his relationship with cold as the reason he was able to recover from heartbreak and find the strength to century, causing these abilities to atrophy. raise their four children alone. He has felt “There is just more within us,” he pleads. impelled to share his discoveries with the “Once you get related to that, you always world ever since. have the energy; you’re always strong, healthy and happy. You think it’s normal, i put my face directly into the but you look around and you see it’s not stream of icy-cold water spraying from my normal. People are not so energized any showerhead and instantly get a cold head- more. They’re stressed.” Hof says he never ache. I feel like a dumbass; I’ve deliberately japan really feels a lack of energy, nor does he set out on a torturous, underprepared really ever get sick. expedition. I try to take deep breaths as I Misogi is a cold-water, purification ritual strongly associated with Shintoism, a Japanese ethnic religion Although he is self-taught, Hof is not focused on creating deep connections between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Whether it’s cold perform the small miracles of combing out water immersion, or swimming with giant ice cubes, for thousands of years the Japanese have believed the first to use cold as a tool to sharpen the antarctica my long, tangled hair with numbed fingers endurance in cold water purifies oneself and, by extension, the surrounding community. mind to influence the body. Thousands of and shaving my legs, which are covered in years ago, Hippocrates, considered “The It’s been called the Mount Everest of ice swimming feats: 32 minutes in -1 C water. For South African giant goose bumps. The course aims to help one achieve optimal for most of my twenties lived in a drafty, Father of Modern Medicine,” said that cold endurance swimmer Ryan Stamrood, completing the first official Ice Mile in Antarctic waters in 2014 was the ultimate accomplishment. His achievement inspired the formation of the International Ice Swimming It’s day one of the 10-week “Wim Hof health and well-being through ancient and 10-degree-Celsius cabin at 2,700 metres water “allays lassitude,” meaning physical Association, which holds events in sub-five-Celsius waters around the world. Method” course. I have been sweating modern strategies, the most unique of them in one of the coldest towns in the United or mental weakness. For 900 years, Tibetan through a hot, humid summer in Revelstoke, being cold-water therapy. The theory is that, States. The cabin was tucked behind a hill Buddhists have practiced tummo, which British Columbia, and am feeling soft in through exposure to cold, we challenge our- half a kilometre from the road, so for six translates to “inner fire.” Monks have Academy of Sciences, one of the largest explains that through controlled, deep both body and mind. I am ready to try selves in ways that have developed human months a year, I boot packed the snow-cov- learned to control body temperature strictly journals of peer-reviewed scientific research breathing you can change your own blood anything to cure my lethargy, even an online adaptation for existence. ered trail to and from my home. At age 29, through meditation and breath work. As in the world, published a study conducted chemistry. You can charge your blood with course taught by an eccentric Dutch man. I grew up in the Colorado Rockies, and I moved to the Selkirk Mountains of British a practice, they lie naked on the ground on Hof that stated he “demonstrates that, oxygen while decreasing carbon dioxide, Columbia and a series of warmer houses. I in winter and melt snow around them. A through practicing techniques learned in a resulting in alkalization at a cellular level. continuously found myself missing the cold Harvard study from the 1980s confirmed short-term training program, the automatic Decreasing blood acidity allows every and wondering why. I was dreaming of the that practitioners of tummo can sit in a nervous system and immune system can system in our body to function more days when I was challenged by my environ- four-degree-Celsius room, while quickly indeed be voluntarily influenced.” effectively. This becomes most instantly ment, by everyday survival, the days when and repeatedly drying out wet sheets they noticeable in our muscles, as higher oxygen I didn’t have to artificially create physical are wrapped in. They can raise their body i lie on my bedroom floor. My levels can curb lactic acid formation, the challenges to keep myself strong. temperatures up to a feverish state, just by entire body tingles and my ears ring as if I by-product from exercise that makes our thinking about it. cuddled with a blaring subwoofer last night. muscles ache. Deep breathing also causes an much of the world, especially the Hof doesn’t believe he or the Tibetan I’ve completely lost the use of my hands; increase in adrenaline levels, which releases western half, has heated up the cold and monks are superhuman. “It’s not some sort they have seized up like one in the midst of glucose and results in a boost of energy. air-conditioned the hot. We travel between of mysticism. No, mysticism is already there. an anxiety attack. I can feel my heart beat- Keeping your body warm in the cold uses temperature-controlled shelters in tempera- That’s you,” he exclaims, just short of yelling. ing against my sternum and blood pulsing a lot of energy, but in training your breath, ture-controlled vehicles. When we do wan- While Hof’s exceedingly optimistic through my legs. I look at my stopwatch you can stay warmer with less work. der out into the cold, we insulate ourselves approach lends itself to a new-age pseu- and can’t tell if I pushed the stop button In the last couple of years, Hof’s inbox with jackets made from other species’ cold doscience stereotype, there are numerous hard enough to stop the clock. The num- has exploded with teaching inquiries. defenses, like goose plumage or merino scientific studies, growing in number by the bers still look like they’re moving, but then Health icons Laird Hamilton and Tim wool or a synthetic version that mimics an year, that back his theories. Universities in I realize everything in the room is crawling Ferriss swear by him. He trains several animal’s natural protection. the Netherlands, Finland and the Feinstein and swaying. My self-induced hyperventila- Olympic athletes and has recently attended Hof believes this has caused major Institute for Medical Studies in New York tion begins to subside as I return to normal both The North Face and Red Bull team netherlands damage to our culture. It’s not just the show that Hof can control his hormones, breathing for 15 seconds before starting athlete summits to teach his method. He’s ability to withstand heat and cold that blood pressure, anti-inflammatory proteins another round. I quickly understand why chilled with Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Oprah. And Polar bear swims have become a quirky staple in northern climes. Perhaps, most notably in the Netherlands. we’ve lost — it’s much deeper than that. He and metabolism, all things believed to be Hof warns to only do breath work while while he’s getting a lot of recent attention Their annual swim, known as Nieuwjaarsduik (New Year’s dive), draws over 52,000 people to 150 sites believes we’ve been neglecting to engage the uncontrollable in modern medicine.