Be sure you're in good cardiovascular health before trying this at home! https://www.healthline.com/health/wim-hof-method If anyone here has been doing this form of breathwork, how long have you been doing it, and what benefits do you perceive from its practice?
I had done it for a year and a half. I did it along with regular meditation, but have gotten lax on both for the past 6 months. I still take a cold shower every morning and I do feel good afterwards. I have also done 1 ice bath and it felt good for me, painful initially. I also intend to hop in Lake Michigan on New Years and stick it out as long as I can. I missed doing it last year as I had Covid, but maybe should have anyway. The breath work started to feel like work for some reason, and I decided to take a break. I was trying to get longer hold times instead of just freeing my mind. I however will say when I was doing it regularly, I had a feeling of calm afterwards. I'm pretty sure between meditation and the breath work my resting heart rate dropped noticeably. I was in the high 50's to low 60's, and after doing both for awhile I was hitting the high 40's and low 50's regularly. The nurse at last year's physical took my pulse 3 times as she was surprised it was 52 in the middle of the day.
I'm going to hold off on the cold immersion, at least for now. I tried the guided breathwork in the video, and it was fairly intense. I barely made it through the breath holds since I'm not used to holding my breath for such durations after exhaling. But I did manage. I hope to incrementally increase the hold time. The routine left me feeling...different.
It is kind of funny you brought this up as this week I started up again on my meditation and breath work. The cold is something you get used to pretty quick. Work your way into it, no need to go all in the first time.
Do you inhale solely through your nose when doing the Wim Hop breathwork? I ask because I found it a bit difficult to follow at his pace without inhaling partly through my mouth. And it feels like I'm inhaling ice. Yeah, maybe I'll start with my toes, or just turn up the a/c a bit for starters. EDIT: Upon reflection, maybe it's better to do the Wim Hof breathwork entirely via mouth breathing. Here's why. The purpose of the breathwork is to induce immediate bodily stress. That process also involves the constriction of blood vessels. However, inhaling through the nose releases nitric oxide, which is a vasodilator. So while it is better to breathe throughout the rest of the day and night through the nose, and especially during meditation, it would work at cross purposes with the Wim Hof method's intended effect. No?
I would say a mixture of mouth and nose, but mostly through my mouth is how I have been doing it. I have tried lying down and sitting also, but can't say I found a difference between the two. As a side note, if you try it lying down, don't jump up right away when you are done. I almost took a tumble moving too fast to stand up.
That sounds like good advice. I only did it once thus far, sitting at my desk while following the video. Even doing it while sitting, it would not have been a good idea for me to stand up right away when I finished.
One other question (for now). A couple of sources on the method suggest doing it daily for about 20 minutes. However, the cycle in the video takes only about 11 minutes. How many cycles do you do, and how long does your typical session take.
I would say I am closer to 15 minutes in total. I am guessing if you start getting out to 3 minutes or more per hold you can hit 20 minutes. I've only hit 3 minutes 2 times form what I remember.
So, you have evolved towards WimHoff. If I remember correctly, I shared a video of his with you and you weren't all that impressed. Any hoo, my experience with his breathing techniques went on for about two years and I've gotten away from it in the last year or so. I did them every morning trying to get into a meditative state. I would typically do the deep inhale/exhale routine for about 3-5 minutes and then take a deep breath and hold it. Initially I could do about 2 minutes which increased to about 3 minutes in a month or so. As I continued over a period of months, I found that occasionally I could achieve a meditative state which I'll describe as a separation from mind and body. It was not a clearing of thought altogether, just less need to actively engaged in consciousness. It was during these states which I could hold my breath longer, usually about 3 min 30 seconds. If I couldn't get the meditative state the times were always less, sometimes substantially less. Then came the magical moment when I was truly separated from my body. I realized, maybe felt is a better word, that while my mind and body are connected, they are two completely different things, and one does not really need the other to survive. It was as if what my body is, and who/what I really am are separate, completely separate. On this day I was quite relaxed and casually opened my eyes, looked at my watch and found over four minutes had passed. I was a bit startled, but felt no need or urge to breath, but thought I should take a breath. There was no deep inhale, no sense of needed to catch a breath, just a casual breath. Things changed after that and suddenly it became a how long can I hold my breath contest, so I lost focus of the purpose to achieve the meditative state. I stopped it altogether shortly thereafter. I still do the cold shower thing, though not daily as I used to. Perhaps I should give it a go again.