what’s that belief nation so in January
I got really sick and meeting a goal for
myself to never get sick again to always
be healthy and a key part of that was
going to be studying the message of wim
HOF applying it to my life and see if it
worked we made a first video is it
really well
a lot of you guys are asking feedback in
the comments afterwards doesn’t really
work what was the impact and today we’re
going to follow a long investigative
journalists and author of what doesn’t
kill a Scott Carney as the investigates
does the wim HOF method actually work I
[Music]
traveled to Poland to expose a charlatan
a prophet who claimed he could give
ordinary people superpowers
he said he control body temperature at
will hijack his immune system and
conquer the world’s tallest mountains no
cold Levin here I’d built my career as
an investigative journalist debunking
people like him but to prove it was a
liar or a madman
had to try his method I’m not an athlete
I’m not exceptional but I found a power
that I never knew humans had I hike to
the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro without
a shirt i sat on the snowy bank of a
river until the ice melted around me I
trained with top athletes across the
finish line of the world’s most
notorious cold-weather obstacle course
race wearing nothing like shorts and
smile I can do 80 pushups on a single
breath and I lost seven pounds of fat in
seven days if I can do it anyone can
I’m Scott Carney I’m an investigative
journalist and I’m here to climb
Kilimanjaro with wim HOF the the madman
we’re going to do it in just two days
till we get to the top we’re doing it
because we can because this is the way
to show our bodies physical potential by
unlocking some of what evolution has
given us using very simple techniques
breathing and cold exposure and mental
focus and if we feel like if we have all
of that we’re going to do something
really really special
so the normal ascent is between five and
eight days to get to the summit of
Kilimanjaro we’re doing it in two when I
asked the US Army’s environment or unit
what our success rate should be they
said that we would have a sixty to
seventy-five percent of the people in
this group come down with acute mountain
sickness they think that most of us are
not going to make it to the top and
we’re here to prove that this technique
will let us toast of us gets the top
hopefully all of us and safety
we should go yeah you ever like show the
jungle now that happened
come on yeah I’ll pick up my it’s a good
question one card for the best out it is
now sunshine our baby I heard some local
drag on the treatment of Gokul Tibet
they don’t see my vagina
oh yeah right up holy Sh that is not
easier that goes Valley
another model we have done it with the
wim hof himself with Salim
who Salim our guide he keep set the pace
he was amazing and we got Dennis here
the man who looked better to 1z than
I’ve ever seen in my life
like look wait it’s beautiful one big
wind and snow man cold wind and snow
yeah it’s snowing didn’t go bare-chested
the whole way but you know what that
doesn’t matter
we did it
[Music]
so I’m an investigative journalist and
and over the course of my career I’ve
examined a lot of sort of false gurus
people who make really advanced
spiritual claims and and occasionally
end with people dying or getting hurt
losing all their money that sort of
thing and actually the previous book
that I’ve written a death on Diamond
Mountain explores not only my personal
experience with a friend of mine who
died on a meditation retreat in northern
India but also the death of a man named
Ian Thorson in the deserts of Arizona
while studying with it sort of very
controversial Tibetan guru named Michael
Roach and Roach made this these claims
that he could give you super powers
through meditation things like
levitating things like walking through
the walls like things like telepathy
these these things that which are in the
Yoga Sutras considered sydney’s or
miracles now when I heard about wim HOF
I thought that he was going to be
another very sketchy guru like Michael
Roach because his claims were that he
could control his body temperature at
will consciously control his autonomic
nervous system and his immune system
which aren’t quite as grandiose claims
as this guy other guy I looked at but
potentially dangerous when because what
wim hof is famous for is his incredible
resilience but to the firm I saw there
was the sure of him sitting on an
iceberg somewhere north of the Arctic
Circle and just shorts you know dirt
listen Nicole he looked sort of happy he
has the record for an Arctic marathon
again barefoot in his shorts he’s done
marathons in the Sahara
he’s like 2/3 of the way Mount Everest
also in his shorts and so I knew he had
some of these abilities he had a history
with this however what I worried was
that when he claims that he can teach
these things what might be his innate
biological abilities are really the
false claims that could get someone
killed
so I had a assignment from Playboy
magazine to go there and
know right about his training and you
know I got off the plane and initially
he’s not a very impressive person you
know he’s a dutch fitness guru is not
you know not incredibly tall’s got a big
ruddy nose from years of alcoholism he’s
a smoker he doesn’t smell so great his
speech is very disorganized and I was
you know I was like oh this guy is
probably a sham and when I get off the
you know so he needs me at the airport
were in Wroclaw this is the Polish
winter you know I’d like to say it’s the
same winter that you know stopped the
Nazi army it’s the same winter that
Napoleon you know turned his armies
around and Here I am I’m taking a cab
with him into the the mountains of that
area and he says basically that in a
couple days I’ll be standing out in my
shorts and a shirt and heating myself up
consciously and have no trouble and I
thought that was sort of crazy but as an
anthropologist as an investigative
journalist so somebody who believes in
this facts I can’t just go there and say
you know just write them off full stop
without giving him a chance so I say
okay I’m going to try your method for a
few days and the second that I start
feeling this is sketchy that this is no
good I’m out and it turns out things are
pretty cool you expose yourself to sort
of extreme ish cold but not like space
temperatures right but but you know ice
baths and things like that and then when
you’re in this stimulus that which we’re
getting which would trigger your
fight-or-flight responsive you suppress
and redirect that response to make it
not happen so to give an example in a in
an ice bath you get in this bathroom
instead of tensing up and be like oh my
god this is horrible if you relax in
that environment and try to trigger a
different way to warm your body through
metabolic action instead of tension of
your muscles and then he also has a
breathing respond a method where you
basically you hyperventilate and hold
your breath and you hyperventilate and
hold your breath and what you’re trying
to do is when you’re holding your breath
you stretch out that point where you
need where you
feel the need to gasp and I do think
that you’re also you know tweaking that
fight-or-flight response you’re tweaking
that that feeling in your in your body
that that that seems autonomic but
you’re actually realizing that there’s
some negotiation that you have over that
when you start the the method right if
you know the type of ventilation and
then there’s the cold exposure and the
first thing we did was the
hyperventilation routine and I knew
beforehand that I could hold my breath
for like 30 seconds or 45 seconds if I
just like you know and held it that’s
how long I had laughs I did his method
and we’re doing this hyperventilation
stuff a book which looks like for like 5
or 10 or 15 minutes that we’re doing
this and then I hold my breath and I can
hold my breath for two minutes and I
thought that was pretty cool I didn’t
think it was like a miracle but I
thought it was pretty cool and then we
kept undoing the hyperventilation and
then he said now let all the air out of
your lung and do push-ups and I knew I
could do 20 push-ups I am NOT a extreme
athlete or whatever especially at that
point and I usually do 20 push-ups but
here I am with no air in my lungs doing
push-ups um I put out 40 without
breathing and I thought that was just so
cool and that was probably the moment
where I’m like okay I’m gonna give this
guy a shot to see what what is actually
happening and then like you said he said
why don’t we go stand out in the snow
and this is the this is the winter that
you know of Poland so it’s the winters
of stop the Nazi army it’s the winter
they’ve stopped Napoleon right and and
it’s like January and we’re we stripped
down to nothing basically you know I
like a bathing suit on that’s it
stand in the snow and it’s freaking
hurts god damn it I tell you it sucked
hundred percent my feet are lit it’s
like they’re on coals and after five
minutes I run into a sauna and it hurts
even more when I’m in the sauna be
warming up sucks even more and then I
was like when you’re an asshole
and I don’t want to talk to you anymore
but he’s like yeah yeah I get that
that’s always what
the first time you expose yourself to
see what happens tomorrow on the next
session again Iceland ten minutes on
before that sort of same feeling of
horror shows up and the day after that
is thirty minutes the day of that is an
hour and I’m sweaty but I don’t know and
I’m like holy crap this is like big this
is like you know these are huge changes
that are happening really quickly I’m
you know I was just living in Los
Angeles before that so that’s like a
turn old summer and going from there to
this horrendously cold winter is crazy
and at the end of all of the polish
retreats you hike up this mountain
called snez cut which is a ski slope but
it had just snowed the day before and so
we had like like a foot of powder that
much powder on the ground and uh and it
took us eight hours to get to the top
and I was just in you know nothing face
because of shoes and and and shorts and
a hat and I was sweating the whole way
up and like it was just it just seems so
weird right like like who knew that my
body had this power and it’s not a
miracle right it’s not like like he like
shot prana energy I got this like the
clean it’s really cool is it that Wims
method is not a superpower it’s just an
ordinary human power that we have let
dormant because we’re all wimps and we
like being in this comfortable 72 degree
temperature all the time having no
variation and so what women is doing is
just putting variations into your daily
routine and then triggering what is
essentially evolutionary programming
program that we’ve had there’s a lot of
our species to survive and get us to now
he’s just saying here’s how we activate
that stuff
so when has done all these crazy things
you know he’s able to sit in the ice and
control his body temperature and if it a
rectal probe in him to search show that
is vitam sure rose in the ice instead of
declined and that was all very cool but
well then he made this claim that he
could consciously turn off hit or turn
up his immune system at will which is at
the point thought physiologically
impossible there’s no mental connection
between the the immune system and the
brain but he said he could do it and so
these immunologist over at Radford
University in 1900
named dr. Peter Pickers and Matthias Cox
what they did is devised a test to see
if he was right and the test originally
exists for testing cyclosporine and
other sort of immunosuppressants which
are used if you get like a kidney
transplant your body will usually reject
the kidney and it’ll eat up the kidney
and then and so what you need to do is
turn off your immune system in order
that you can keep the kidney around so
the way you test those drugs is you give
someone the drug and then inject them
with this key killed ecoli bacteria
which is called endotoxin which in 99%
of normal people you get injected with
it and you get a fever your runny nose
you have like all of the the primary
immuno responses until your body figures
out that it was been tricked and then it
says it gives the big middle finger and
then is it safe revert to normal now wim
said that he could do basically the same
thing of taking an immunosuppressant but
with his mind which sounds super woowoo
like if you’re not if you know nothing
about this this sounds like so woo woo
and continue can control your autonomic
nervous system any doctors going to say
that’s impossible the definition of
autonomic means you don’t frickin
control it is automatic right so and
actually a lot of stuff on this journey
is ends up sounding whoo and I am like
allergic
none of it but you know you got to keep
testing and some of this works out uh so
they injected them with endotoxin he was
supposed to get a fever and he was like
oh no I feel fine just have a minor
headache and that was all he said and
then they did the they were doing blood
tests and doing all these things and and
his blood actually remained resistant to
endotoxin even after it was extracted
out of his body and remained that way
for three days afterwards so it was like
shocking and there was this big journal
article that was like look at this crazy
and and then sometimes his from saw this
study and they’re like well wait a
minute when’s probably a genetic freak
remember I said 99% of people you know
don’t you know reactant in a predictable
way but 1% are able to to resist or
don’t have that reaction so that’s a
totally fair scientific assessment so
what they did is a year later tickers
and gathered twelve I chose a teen
volunteer six people in the control
group twelve and an active group and
they took those twelve guys and they put
them through wins Poland training the
same one that I did in Poland actually
there they were there the week after ID
was reporting on the Playboy story ha
same winter after that they brought them
all back to read them and inject them
all with endotoxin and they’ve repeated
the same results now that Journal
article it’s been the one that everyone
is now looking at because not only what
it proved is that not only was women
really interesting and look he goes to
present immune system but that he can
teach it and that it’s generalizable and
that is and there’s still ongoing
research but that is like the the key
because if you can suppress your immune
system then what does that mean for
autoimmune illnesses like arthritis or
lupus or Crohn’s disease where you have
lesions from your mouth to your butt and
and what it what what the implications
are and what I’ve seen personally from
interviews and meeting people that that
many folks are able to reverse
autoimmune illnesses by doing stuff like
the wim HOF met
it’s breathing this conscious focus this
ice bass and that sort of stuff and it’s
amazing this has potential impacts for
every autoimmune illness out there in
the world
anything where your body is attacking
itself so think arthritis think lupus
think Crohn’s disease to some degree
diabetes to some degree Parkinson’s and
and all of a sudden all these people are
starting to use the wim HOF method to
treat themselves for these for us or a
huge variety of autoimmune illnesses and
in the book I explore I look at four
case studies for different people who
are are you know using cold showers and
conscious breathing to to combat and
reverse in some cases Crohn’s disease
arthritis and and Parkinson’s and which
is you know they are amazing anecdotes I
totally randomized placebo-controlled
studies that have gone on for 15 years
but they are great bleeding edge results
and they’re real people and I’ve seen
them myself and I can say also from in
my own experience having done this
breathing method for about three years
for six years since a kid I have always
been generally healthy except for just
one thing which I’ve always gotten
canker sores which are sort of like
mouth ulcers and because I was exposed
to whatever the viruses that starts it
at a very young age I started getting
them at one they could grow to be like a
bet the size of a dime in my mouth which
means for me they’re just incredibly
painful difficult to talk difficult to
smile and and I had tried everything in
the world to try to combat this I tried
alternative medicines I tried Western
medicines I would I did stupid things
like putting salt on it cuz somebody
told me that would work it wasn’t
horrible thankful fit since doing this
method I haven’t gotten them at all I
said when I do the breathing when I do
the cold these things don’t surface and
the use of surface for me every two
weeks so for me that’s been amazing not
quite as impressive as Crohn’s disease
or arthritis but still very cool
there’s two really easy methods right to
just start seeing what your but the body
can do which is take a shower wash easy
so far right debris that one all right
now turn to the back of the shower and
do the hardest thing you’ll ever do in
your life and turn that knob to cold
which really is hard like it’s not like
I’m not this is really hard to do
because you’re like I was warm though
and then sit in that cold and then relax
just chill and and it can be hard at
first because your response could be
very strong but you can do it I promise
you and relax there and just feel that
cold and then realize like nine or you
probably swam in the ocean at some point
you know and you realize you first got
it it was cold because you tiptoed in
and then eventually you jumped in and
then you swim around it was alright
you’re gonna get to that same spot and
do that like that’s that’s really doing
that
that’s the enter that’s the entry point
that you can do every morning do it
first thing
and then you’ll you’ll get this great
rush when you get out you like oh like
everything’s sort of easier today and I
feel like a glow like that will totally
happen another thing that I recommend
people is a going if it’s winter going
in on a run outside with just your
skivvies on where you have your woman’s
horse broad yeah and and you know and
shoes and go for a run and this really
you know it’s not very much clothing and
just realize that the first minute or
two is going to be cold and then you’re
going to build up some internal heat or
if you really want to be prepared you
can do some push-ups before you guys
you’ve already built with some heat
go run go for a mile or two in like 30
degree weather or 20 degree weather I
mean you know in a place where you can
look at a frostbite table if you want
you can approval cross by table and you
can see well I can say out for 30
minutes before us that might be
dangerous so do 29 minute and they’re
going to be alright and and you’re going
to generate so much heat anyway because
when you run you generate heat and you
will be
one that you’re going to rise this is
great and one what’s really cool what’s
happening is that your nerves even
though you’re joining internal heat the
nerves on your skin are getting those
messages saying it’s winter and winter
is coming and therefore I’m going to
have to go get ready for this and your
body starts to adapt super quickly and
it’s more or less painless to do and you
know I climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro I
made it to Gilman’s Point which is about
85 for 18,500 feet I was in a bathing
suit almost the whole way up you can do
it got down to negative vertical times
so so use that as a guidepost works very
mightily
I’m not saying to open jars we need to
pee that’s a good start if you just do
something like turn down the thermostat
in your house in the winter that you
notice about sixty degrees that will
give you some passive input but the the
method and also cold showers I mean this
will do something to do this will tell
your body you’re giving signals to your
body to start doing things right now if
you want to do more learn the wim HOF
breathing because it’s really quite
simple I do about 15 minutes a day of it
you can do more you don’t need to and
and you know read the book and there’s
like there’s stuff to think about and
remember these are guidelines but the
big the headline here is that the
environment is important than the
environment and one habit in your
relationship is important you should not
do the program I think the breathing
method is absolutely critical to the
method and I think it speeds it up I
think it helps a lot and what it is is
you know this is hyperventilation so
it’s like you know a like 30 or of 40
deep controlled breaths in which you’re
blowing off co2 out of your system and
you’re increasing your o2 saturation of
200% and and then you hold your breath
with your with the air out of your lungs
and you try to get to that point where
you need to gasp right where you feel
like you’re like I got a breeze and by
doing that what you’re doing is
interacting with an autonomic system
in your body which is where the gasp
reflexes and your your your telling your
body that you should have some control
over this one system and it’s the same
thing that you do in a cold shower when
you’re telling yourself not to shiver
it’s the same skill of becoming mentally
strong over sort of an autonomic reflex
and what this does and these two methods
for codes were different systems
parasympathetic and sympathetic systems
of the body but what that does is give
you it like more resistance in the cold
and has this autonomic trick this
autonomic ability to influence your ear
immune system down the road which is
incredibly useful so I wouldn’t
recommend I mean if you’re super lazy
and all you’re going to do is is is the
cold shower then great it’s not going to
be bad for you that’s awesome
that will help but really the breathing
method only adds 12 minutes to a morning
workout I wake up in the morning I don’t
even get out of bed I just lie there
next to my wife who’s also doing this
and we start with the breathing method
which is 30 deep controlled rapid
breaths that would look something like
this will go like a little stop at the
top and you go and you do about 30 those
you’ll get lightheaded
maybe a lap tingly fingers something
like that and then at the end of it you
let all the air out and hold it and I
use your love of stopwatch with me on my
iPhone there’s one and then I hold it
for about a minute like that and then I
repeat than I do I do 30 breaths and
then air out and I do a stopwatch and I
do it for two minutes I hold my breath
for two minutes and the third time I’ll
do the same repet I’ll hold it for three
minutes and that’s that you know and
people will have different times don’t
worry too much about the time just be
sure that you’re improving with everyone
and that’s usually not an issue and and
then I’ll do one more rep of breathing
and I’ll get out of my bed and I’ll and
I’ll do breath out push-ups so all the
air out of my lungs and I just start
doing push-ups and I do 50 every morning
and I end up with a I don’t know why I
do this I do a headstand at the end of
it and then I give my wife a hug and
then I’m ready to go eat breakfast
to tell you that it’s snowed in Denver
last night which means we got about a
foot of snow and you know according the
city needs to go shovel our walkway so I
wanted to give you a quick winter
workout that really anyone can do and
it’s a lot of fun at the moment it’s
about two degrees fahrenheit in Denver
let’s go all right that was a lot of fun
I hope you enjoy your winter I know I
will and if you need a little bit more
cold because you know you’ve worked up a
little bit there’s always the snow
pretty easy it feels great
[Laughter]
[Music]
so thank you guys so much for watching
I’d love to know what did you think in
this video what do you think of the wim
HOF method have you tried it I have
definitely noticed it improvement in my
health since getting started so I’m
extremely grateful for that let me know
in the comments below also if you want
to check out the first wim HOF video
that we made go check that out I think
you’ll learn a lot from it and you can
check out stop book what doesn’t kill us
where you pick up book thank you guys so
much for watching I believe in you I
hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever you’re one where it is what
you love see you soon
I got really sick and meeting a goal for
myself to never get sick again to always
be healthy and a key part of that was
going to be studying the message of wim
HOF applying it to my life and see if it
worked we made a first video is it
really well
a lot of you guys are asking feedback in
the comments afterwards doesn’t really
work what was the impact and today we’re
going to follow a long investigative
journalists and author of what doesn’t
kill a Scott Carney as the investigates
does the wim HOF method actually work I
[Music]
traveled to Poland to expose a charlatan
a prophet who claimed he could give
ordinary people superpowers
he said he control body temperature at
will hijack his immune system and
conquer the world’s tallest mountains no
cold Levin here I’d built my career as
an investigative journalist debunking
people like him but to prove it was a
liar or a madman
had to try his method I’m not an athlete
I’m not exceptional but I found a power
that I never knew humans had I hike to
the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro without
a shirt i sat on the snowy bank of a
river until the ice melted around me I
trained with top athletes across the
finish line of the world’s most
notorious cold-weather obstacle course
race wearing nothing like shorts and
smile I can do 80 pushups on a single
breath and I lost seven pounds of fat in
seven days if I can do it anyone can
I’m Scott Carney I’m an investigative
journalist and I’m here to climb
Kilimanjaro with wim HOF the the madman
we’re going to do it in just two days
till we get to the top we’re doing it
because we can because this is the way
to show our bodies physical potential by
unlocking some of what evolution has
given us using very simple techniques
breathing and cold exposure and mental
focus and if we feel like if we have all
of that we’re going to do something
really really special
so the normal ascent is between five and
eight days to get to the summit of
Kilimanjaro we’re doing it in two when I
asked the US Army’s environment or unit
what our success rate should be they
said that we would have a sixty to
seventy-five percent of the people in
this group come down with acute mountain
sickness they think that most of us are
not going to make it to the top and
we’re here to prove that this technique
will let us toast of us gets the top
hopefully all of us and safety
we should go yeah you ever like show the
jungle now that happened
come on yeah I’ll pick up my it’s a good
question one card for the best out it is
now sunshine our baby I heard some local
drag on the treatment of Gokul Tibet
they don’t see my vagina
oh yeah right up holy Sh that is not
easier that goes Valley
another model we have done it with the
wim hof himself with Salim
who Salim our guide he keep set the pace
he was amazing and we got Dennis here
the man who looked better to 1z than
I’ve ever seen in my life
like look wait it’s beautiful one big
wind and snow man cold wind and snow
yeah it’s snowing didn’t go bare-chested
the whole way but you know what that
doesn’t matter
we did it
[Music]
so I’m an investigative journalist and
and over the course of my career I’ve
examined a lot of sort of false gurus
people who make really advanced
spiritual claims and and occasionally
end with people dying or getting hurt
losing all their money that sort of
thing and actually the previous book
that I’ve written a death on Diamond
Mountain explores not only my personal
experience with a friend of mine who
died on a meditation retreat in northern
India but also the death of a man named
Ian Thorson in the deserts of Arizona
while studying with it sort of very
controversial Tibetan guru named Michael
Roach and Roach made this these claims
that he could give you super powers
through meditation things like
levitating things like walking through
the walls like things like telepathy
these these things that which are in the
Yoga Sutras considered sydney’s or
miracles now when I heard about wim HOF
I thought that he was going to be
another very sketchy guru like Michael
Roach because his claims were that he
could control his body temperature at
will consciously control his autonomic
nervous system and his immune system
which aren’t quite as grandiose claims
as this guy other guy I looked at but
potentially dangerous when because what
wim hof is famous for is his incredible
resilience but to the firm I saw there
was the sure of him sitting on an
iceberg somewhere north of the Arctic
Circle and just shorts you know dirt
listen Nicole he looked sort of happy he
has the record for an Arctic marathon
again barefoot in his shorts he’s done
marathons in the Sahara
he’s like 2/3 of the way Mount Everest
also in his shorts and so I knew he had
some of these abilities he had a history
with this however what I worried was
that when he claims that he can teach
these things what might be his innate
biological abilities are really the
false claims that could get someone
killed
so I had a assignment from Playboy
magazine to go there and
know right about his training and you
know I got off the plane and initially
he’s not a very impressive person you
know he’s a dutch fitness guru is not
you know not incredibly tall’s got a big
ruddy nose from years of alcoholism he’s
a smoker he doesn’t smell so great his
speech is very disorganized and I was
you know I was like oh this guy is
probably a sham and when I get off the
you know so he needs me at the airport
were in Wroclaw this is the Polish
winter you know I’d like to say it’s the
same winter that you know stopped the
Nazi army it’s the same winter that
Napoleon you know turned his armies
around and Here I am I’m taking a cab
with him into the the mountains of that
area and he says basically that in a
couple days I’ll be standing out in my
shorts and a shirt and heating myself up
consciously and have no trouble and I
thought that was sort of crazy but as an
anthropologist as an investigative
journalist so somebody who believes in
this facts I can’t just go there and say
you know just write them off full stop
without giving him a chance so I say
okay I’m going to try your method for a
few days and the second that I start
feeling this is sketchy that this is no
good I’m out and it turns out things are
pretty cool you expose yourself to sort
of extreme ish cold but not like space
temperatures right but but you know ice
baths and things like that and then when
you’re in this stimulus that which we’re
getting which would trigger your
fight-or-flight responsive you suppress
and redirect that response to make it
not happen so to give an example in a in
an ice bath you get in this bathroom
instead of tensing up and be like oh my
god this is horrible if you relax in
that environment and try to trigger a
different way to warm your body through
metabolic action instead of tension of
your muscles and then he also has a
breathing respond a method where you
basically you hyperventilate and hold
your breath and you hyperventilate and
hold your breath and what you’re trying
to do is when you’re holding your breath
you stretch out that point where you
need where you
feel the need to gasp and I do think
that you’re also you know tweaking that
fight-or-flight response you’re tweaking
that that feeling in your in your body
that that that seems autonomic but
you’re actually realizing that there’s
some negotiation that you have over that
when you start the the method right if
you know the type of ventilation and
then there’s the cold exposure and the
first thing we did was the
hyperventilation routine and I knew
beforehand that I could hold my breath
for like 30 seconds or 45 seconds if I
just like you know and held it that’s
how long I had laughs I did his method
and we’re doing this hyperventilation
stuff a book which looks like for like 5
or 10 or 15 minutes that we’re doing
this and then I hold my breath and I can
hold my breath for two minutes and I
thought that was pretty cool I didn’t
think it was like a miracle but I
thought it was pretty cool and then we
kept undoing the hyperventilation and
then he said now let all the air out of
your lung and do push-ups and I knew I
could do 20 push-ups I am NOT a extreme
athlete or whatever especially at that
point and I usually do 20 push-ups but
here I am with no air in my lungs doing
push-ups um I put out 40 without
breathing and I thought that was just so
cool and that was probably the moment
where I’m like okay I’m gonna give this
guy a shot to see what what is actually
happening and then like you said he said
why don’t we go stand out in the snow
and this is the this is the winter that
you know of Poland so it’s the winters
of stop the Nazi army it’s the winter
they’ve stopped Napoleon right and and
it’s like January and we’re we stripped
down to nothing basically you know I
like a bathing suit on that’s it
stand in the snow and it’s freaking
hurts god damn it I tell you it sucked
hundred percent my feet are lit it’s
like they’re on coals and after five
minutes I run into a sauna and it hurts
even more when I’m in the sauna be
warming up sucks even more and then I
was like when you’re an asshole
and I don’t want to talk to you anymore
but he’s like yeah yeah I get that
that’s always what
the first time you expose yourself to
see what happens tomorrow on the next
session again Iceland ten minutes on
before that sort of same feeling of
horror shows up and the day after that
is thirty minutes the day of that is an
hour and I’m sweaty but I don’t know and
I’m like holy crap this is like big this
is like you know these are huge changes
that are happening really quickly I’m
you know I was just living in Los
Angeles before that so that’s like a
turn old summer and going from there to
this horrendously cold winter is crazy
and at the end of all of the polish
retreats you hike up this mountain
called snez cut which is a ski slope but
it had just snowed the day before and so
we had like like a foot of powder that
much powder on the ground and uh and it
took us eight hours to get to the top
and I was just in you know nothing face
because of shoes and and and shorts and
a hat and I was sweating the whole way
up and like it was just it just seems so
weird right like like who knew that my
body had this power and it’s not a
miracle right it’s not like like he like
shot prana energy I got this like the
clean it’s really cool is it that Wims
method is not a superpower it’s just an
ordinary human power that we have let
dormant because we’re all wimps and we
like being in this comfortable 72 degree
temperature all the time having no
variation and so what women is doing is
just putting variations into your daily
routine and then triggering what is
essentially evolutionary programming
program that we’ve had there’s a lot of
our species to survive and get us to now
he’s just saying here’s how we activate
that stuff
so when has done all these crazy things
you know he’s able to sit in the ice and
control his body temperature and if it a
rectal probe in him to search show that
is vitam sure rose in the ice instead of
declined and that was all very cool but
well then he made this claim that he
could consciously turn off hit or turn
up his immune system at will which is at
the point thought physiologically
impossible there’s no mental connection
between the the immune system and the
brain but he said he could do it and so
these immunologist over at Radford
University in 1900
named dr. Peter Pickers and Matthias Cox
what they did is devised a test to see
if he was right and the test originally
exists for testing cyclosporine and
other sort of immunosuppressants which
are used if you get like a kidney
transplant your body will usually reject
the kidney and it’ll eat up the kidney
and then and so what you need to do is
turn off your immune system in order
that you can keep the kidney around so
the way you test those drugs is you give
someone the drug and then inject them
with this key killed ecoli bacteria
which is called endotoxin which in 99%
of normal people you get injected with
it and you get a fever your runny nose
you have like all of the the primary
immuno responses until your body figures
out that it was been tricked and then it
says it gives the big middle finger and
then is it safe revert to normal now wim
said that he could do basically the same
thing of taking an immunosuppressant but
with his mind which sounds super woowoo
like if you’re not if you know nothing
about this this sounds like so woo woo
and continue can control your autonomic
nervous system any doctors going to say
that’s impossible the definition of
autonomic means you don’t frickin
control it is automatic right so and
actually a lot of stuff on this journey
is ends up sounding whoo and I am like
allergic
none of it but you know you got to keep
testing and some of this works out uh so
they injected them with endotoxin he was
supposed to get a fever and he was like
oh no I feel fine just have a minor
headache and that was all he said and
then they did the they were doing blood
tests and doing all these things and and
his blood actually remained resistant to
endotoxin even after it was extracted
out of his body and remained that way
for three days afterwards so it was like
shocking and there was this big journal
article that was like look at this crazy
and and then sometimes his from saw this
study and they’re like well wait a
minute when’s probably a genetic freak
remember I said 99% of people you know
don’t you know reactant in a predictable
way but 1% are able to to resist or
don’t have that reaction so that’s a
totally fair scientific assessment so
what they did is a year later tickers
and gathered twelve I chose a teen
volunteer six people in the control
group twelve and an active group and
they took those twelve guys and they put
them through wins Poland training the
same one that I did in Poland actually
there they were there the week after ID
was reporting on the Playboy story ha
same winter after that they brought them
all back to read them and inject them
all with endotoxin and they’ve repeated
the same results now that Journal
article it’s been the one that everyone
is now looking at because not only what
it proved is that not only was women
really interesting and look he goes to
present immune system but that he can
teach it and that it’s generalizable and
that is and there’s still ongoing
research but that is like the the key
because if you can suppress your immune
system then what does that mean for
autoimmune illnesses like arthritis or
lupus or Crohn’s disease where you have
lesions from your mouth to your butt and
and what it what what the implications
are and what I’ve seen personally from
interviews and meeting people that that
many folks are able to reverse
autoimmune illnesses by doing stuff like
the wim HOF met
it’s breathing this conscious focus this
ice bass and that sort of stuff and it’s
amazing this has potential impacts for
every autoimmune illness out there in
the world
anything where your body is attacking
itself so think arthritis think lupus
think Crohn’s disease to some degree
diabetes to some degree Parkinson’s and
and all of a sudden all these people are
starting to use the wim HOF method to
treat themselves for these for us or a
huge variety of autoimmune illnesses and
in the book I explore I look at four
case studies for different people who
are are you know using cold showers and
conscious breathing to to combat and
reverse in some cases Crohn’s disease
arthritis and and Parkinson’s and which
is you know they are amazing anecdotes I
totally randomized placebo-controlled
studies that have gone on for 15 years
but they are great bleeding edge results
and they’re real people and I’ve seen
them myself and I can say also from in
my own experience having done this
breathing method for about three years
for six years since a kid I have always
been generally healthy except for just
one thing which I’ve always gotten
canker sores which are sort of like
mouth ulcers and because I was exposed
to whatever the viruses that starts it
at a very young age I started getting
them at one they could grow to be like a
bet the size of a dime in my mouth which
means for me they’re just incredibly
painful difficult to talk difficult to
smile and and I had tried everything in
the world to try to combat this I tried
alternative medicines I tried Western
medicines I would I did stupid things
like putting salt on it cuz somebody
told me that would work it wasn’t
horrible thankful fit since doing this
method I haven’t gotten them at all I
said when I do the breathing when I do
the cold these things don’t surface and
the use of surface for me every two
weeks so for me that’s been amazing not
quite as impressive as Crohn’s disease
or arthritis but still very cool
there’s two really easy methods right to
just start seeing what your but the body
can do which is take a shower wash easy
so far right debris that one all right
now turn to the back of the shower and
do the hardest thing you’ll ever do in
your life and turn that knob to cold
which really is hard like it’s not like
I’m not this is really hard to do
because you’re like I was warm though
and then sit in that cold and then relax
just chill and and it can be hard at
first because your response could be
very strong but you can do it I promise
you and relax there and just feel that
cold and then realize like nine or you
probably swam in the ocean at some point
you know and you realize you first got
it it was cold because you tiptoed in
and then eventually you jumped in and
then you swim around it was alright
you’re gonna get to that same spot and
do that like that’s that’s really doing
that
that’s the enter that’s the entry point
that you can do every morning do it
first thing
and then you’ll you’ll get this great
rush when you get out you like oh like
everything’s sort of easier today and I
feel like a glow like that will totally
happen another thing that I recommend
people is a going if it’s winter going
in on a run outside with just your
skivvies on where you have your woman’s
horse broad yeah and and you know and
shoes and go for a run and this really
you know it’s not very much clothing and
just realize that the first minute or
two is going to be cold and then you’re
going to build up some internal heat or
if you really want to be prepared you
can do some push-ups before you guys
you’ve already built with some heat
go run go for a mile or two in like 30
degree weather or 20 degree weather I
mean you know in a place where you can
look at a frostbite table if you want
you can approval cross by table and you
can see well I can say out for 30
minutes before us that might be
dangerous so do 29 minute and they’re
going to be alright and and you’re going
to generate so much heat anyway because
when you run you generate heat and you
will be
one that you’re going to rise this is
great and one what’s really cool what’s
happening is that your nerves even
though you’re joining internal heat the
nerves on your skin are getting those
messages saying it’s winter and winter
is coming and therefore I’m going to
have to go get ready for this and your
body starts to adapt super quickly and
it’s more or less painless to do and you
know I climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro I
made it to Gilman’s Point which is about
85 for 18,500 feet I was in a bathing
suit almost the whole way up you can do
it got down to negative vertical times
so so use that as a guidepost works very
mightily
I’m not saying to open jars we need to
pee that’s a good start if you just do
something like turn down the thermostat
in your house in the winter that you
notice about sixty degrees that will
give you some passive input but the the
method and also cold showers I mean this
will do something to do this will tell
your body you’re giving signals to your
body to start doing things right now if
you want to do more learn the wim HOF
breathing because it’s really quite
simple I do about 15 minutes a day of it
you can do more you don’t need to and
and you know read the book and there’s
like there’s stuff to think about and
remember these are guidelines but the
big the headline here is that the
environment is important than the
environment and one habit in your
relationship is important you should not
do the program I think the breathing
method is absolutely critical to the
method and I think it speeds it up I
think it helps a lot and what it is is
you know this is hyperventilation so
it’s like you know a like 30 or of 40
deep controlled breaths in which you’re
blowing off co2 out of your system and
you’re increasing your o2 saturation of
200% and and then you hold your breath
with your with the air out of your lungs
and you try to get to that point where
you need to gasp right where you feel
like you’re like I got a breeze and by
doing that what you’re doing is
interacting with an autonomic system
in your body which is where the gasp
reflexes and your your your telling your
body that you should have some control
over this one system and it’s the same
thing that you do in a cold shower when
you’re telling yourself not to shiver
it’s the same skill of becoming mentally
strong over sort of an autonomic reflex
and what this does and these two methods
for codes were different systems
parasympathetic and sympathetic systems
of the body but what that does is give
you it like more resistance in the cold
and has this autonomic trick this
autonomic ability to influence your ear
immune system down the road which is
incredibly useful so I wouldn’t
recommend I mean if you’re super lazy
and all you’re going to do is is is the
cold shower then great it’s not going to
be bad for you that’s awesome
that will help but really the breathing
method only adds 12 minutes to a morning
workout I wake up in the morning I don’t
even get out of bed I just lie there
next to my wife who’s also doing this
and we start with the breathing method
which is 30 deep controlled rapid
breaths that would look something like
this will go like a little stop at the
top and you go and you do about 30 those
you’ll get lightheaded
maybe a lap tingly fingers something
like that and then at the end of it you
let all the air out and hold it and I
use your love of stopwatch with me on my
iPhone there’s one and then I hold it
for about a minute like that and then I
repeat than I do I do 30 breaths and
then air out and I do a stopwatch and I
do it for two minutes I hold my breath
for two minutes and the third time I’ll
do the same repet I’ll hold it for three
minutes and that’s that you know and
people will have different times don’t
worry too much about the time just be
sure that you’re improving with everyone
and that’s usually not an issue and and
then I’ll do one more rep of breathing
and I’ll get out of my bed and I’ll and
I’ll do breath out push-ups so all the
air out of my lungs and I just start
doing push-ups and I do 50 every morning
and I end up with a I don’t know why I
do this I do a headstand at the end of
it and then I give my wife a hug and
then I’m ready to go eat breakfast
to tell you that it’s snowed in Denver
last night which means we got about a
foot of snow and you know according the
city needs to go shovel our walkway so I
wanted to give you a quick winter
workout that really anyone can do and
it’s a lot of fun at the moment it’s
about two degrees fahrenheit in Denver
let’s go all right that was a lot of fun
I hope you enjoy your winter I know I
will and if you need a little bit more
cold because you know you’ve worked up a
little bit there’s always the snow
pretty easy it feels great
[Laughter]
[Music]
so thank you guys so much for watching
I’d love to know what did you think in
this video what do you think of the wim
HOF method have you tried it I have
definitely noticed it improvement in my
health since getting started so I’m
extremely grateful for that let me know
in the comments below also if you want
to check out the first wim HOF video
that we made go check that out I think
you’ll learn a lot from it and you can
check out stop book what doesn’t kill us
where you pick up book thank you guys so
much for watching I believe in you I
hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever you’re one where it is what
you love see you soon
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