Meet Wim Hof

 Wim Hof - The Iceman Cometh

Why the extreme athlete’s appearance at this year’s Moving Ahead Gender Balance Summit could change your life…

Rolling Stone magazine once described Wim Hof as a ‘global cultural phenomenon’.

That was back in 2017, at a moment in time when Hof had crossed over into the mainstream and was on heavy rotation on channels like Discovery and National Geographic.  Hof continued to push the boundaries of what the human body could endure. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts? Check. Running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot? Check. Standing in a container while covered with ice cubes for more than 112 minutes? Check.

But Hof is not just some kind of novelty act. To spend prolonged spells in sub-zero environments he developed a breathing technique - The Wim Hof Method (WHM) - which is based on the Buddhist method of meditation known as Tummo.

WHM is not just for taking on superhuman challenges. The method can be applied to all walks of life, allows him to control his heart rate, breathing and blood circulation, and has been adopted by people around the world. Indeed, his YouTube video titled Guided Wim Hof Method Breathing has been viewed over 21 million times.

Perhaps not surprisingly, WHM drew scepticism in some quarters. So, in 2011, a group of Dutch researchers from the Radboud University in Nijmegen examined samples of his blood. What they discovered was truly extraordinary.

Hof could manipulate his immune system to fight off all sorts of disease.

But maybe he was just a one-off freakish specimen. Subsequently, 12 people who had tried WHM were injected with a toxin that causes flu-like symptoms, such as nausea and a high temperature. The toxin had little or no effect on any one of the dozen people.

Hof later said, “We have much more control than we think. But we have to expose the body to the natural elements, such as cold and heat, and take it out of its comfort zone. It’s positive stress. It makes the body and mind work.”

CANAL LIFE

His incredible journey began just over 40 years ago. As a teenager he felt this compulsion to jump into an icy canal at Beatrixpark in Amsterdam. After the initial shock, he said that the experience cleared his mind.

“At the time, everybody said I was crazy to bathe in cold water. Everyone thought I was out of my mind. But it was the opposite, I was deep into my mind.”

Two incidents would dramatically shape his life and subsequently thrust him into the limelight. His wife, who had shown signs of mental illness one would most closely associate with schizophrenia and manic depression, committed suicide in 2004.

He has been left with this nagging sense that if he had known then what he knows now, had she learned his breathing techniques, he may have been able to save her.

“I can bring people back to tranquility. My method can give them back control,” he said.

Then he was caught on camera saving a man who had fallen into an icy lake. In that moment Hof became known in Holland as ‘The Iceman’. His newfound celebrity was followed by a series of ever more spectacular and improbable world record attempts. At the last count, he holds 21 Guinness World Records. When trying to explain what keeps driving him, he explains, “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid not to have lived fully.”

Hof’s story is uniquely fascinating in itself, and will be the subject of a film due to go into production this year - Joseph Fiennes has been cast in the lead role. The film will be written by BAFTA award winner Jeff Pope (Appropriate Adult, Stan & Ollie, Philomena) who says, "His has been a life full of tragedy, exploration, perseverance and, ultimately, redemption. Now is the right moment for Wim-time."

But what you can expect to learn from his talk on Monday?

The Wim Hof Method can improve your physical and mental wellbeing, awareness and levels of energy. And you’ll discover why taking a cold shower every day could just change your life.