WIM HOF Breathing Exercise Challenge (Week 1)

A few months back, I read about an amazing guy by name Wim Hof and his numerous daredevil feats and how he has broken and set many world records particularly in the areas of defying extreme cold and freezing temperatures. The ones I was fascinated about were when he got submerged in Ice and when he did a marathon on ice without shoes. After a while, I thought to myself that this man must be doing something to give him an edge over these extremely insane conditions.

_{Image from Pixabay}

With all these feats achieved by Wim Hof, one will be piqued to know the secret behind this. This brings me to one of the secrets; the Wim Hof Breathing exercise. Many thanks to @crypto.piotr for raising this challenge to look into the breathing exercise popularized by Wim Hof. First of all, let us take a look at what this breathing exercise entails and the benefits in it.

Wim Hof Breathing Exercise

I am sure that you must have seen martial artists used to have a practice of ceasing their breath or even doing underwater diving without oxygen masks. That is; controlling their breath. Wim Hof's Exercise is a practical approach to achieving this. When people talk about meditation, the first thing that should come to your mind is the "breathing and concentration" and of course, slowly exposing oneself to cold environment.

Though I did not understand fully how all these are connected, I decided to give it a try. My main reason of trying the exercise is not to be submerged in ice like Wim Hof but because of the other benefits that come along with it, like better immune system, higher release of energy, better sleep, improved stress tolerance, overall mental health and so many more as explained in the official Wim Hof website - https://www.wimhofmethod.com.

My breathing exercise routine

This routine may vary from person to person but one very important thing to note is that you should not force yourself to go beyond your breaking point. You can start gradually and then improve over time. According to Wim Hof, to get the best result, you need to do it before eating. One other thing to note is that you should always take a position you are comfortable with.

I started with sitting down and crossing my legs in a meditative form, then I drew in air from the nose and exhale from the mouth. The process was repeated for some seconds. Then the next round was to slowly take up air from the nose, I sustained my breath for a few seconds (I started with a little above 10 seconds) then exhaled the air from mouth, then the process was repeated.

I was able to repeat the process for a few minutes and each time, I tried increasing the time I ceased my breath. At the end of the first day, I was able to achieve my 20 seconds benchmark. Okay I know it is still very small but it is a major milestone for me.

_{Image from Pixabay}

Well, the is just the starting post. After this first week, I will make another post of the process so far and the noticeable changes. Till then, you can join me in the breathing exercise.

Thanks for reading