A while back was the completion of the 10 week course I did for cold weather yoga as presented through Wim Hof’s method, I began getting focused on winter yoga training about a year before I finally took the practice to the point of financial investment

This program was designed to stimulate the fundamental exercises found within the Tibetan Tummo Hei Gung ( breathing) practices…so these roots are deep. However, Wim has focused on a few very basic principle exercises that he felt most valuable in the activation of this superpower. Wims belief is that if one spends the honest amount of time to practice these methods religiously then they too can find the value in cold weather training and they can do it in way less time then previously thought.

I enrolled in the 10 week course after some self exploration starting last autumn (2015). After my prestudies through the typical means IE: Some podcasts, a few videos,lots of reading and of course asking my teachers and even some random people a lot of questions on this topic.BUT I still had questions that I wanted to know the full answer to.

Sometimes you get different responses to the same questions and to me, this speaks volumes.

So I entered the official correspondence program to see what I could find out. I am somewhat skeptical of online education programs knowing they are hit or miss in terms of quality, respectability and productivity. I decided to take a chance.

My main questions where:

Does the WHM really work? Is the WHM more then just being able to withstand cold weather ? How exactly is the breath used in WHM? How does this overlap or reflect with my current studies?

OK, Lets get to it.

first and foremost let me say yes! without a doubt the 10 week program does in fact produce noticeable results, if you engage it with a very focused mindset. I found myself amazed as I became mentally comfortable in the cold water and infact how I now begin to get excited simply thinking about entering cold water. Growing up in the Midwest I’m no stranger to the cold but I’ve never really enjoyed it.

Without a doubt the steady daily focus does reprogram the nervous system in a seemingly expedited fashion. I am only at the early stages of this skill but it does feel amazing so far.

What the cold does in conjunction with hei gung ( focused breathing) is really interesting to experience…and you only need be in the cold for a few minutes at a time to find some real benefit, although you must do it on a regular schedule. However, it is far more then just cold weather conditioning that we are exploring here..

The sensations and the very meditative states that you can enter through proper meditations are real indeed. This program is no different. In practice I have felt things that one would probably not normally notice; like blood flow for example. I am convinced that it has much to do with practicing in conjunction with the cold water and/or open weather just as Wim says.

Warmth spreads through my body while I am submerged in the ice water and I feel hot for a good 30 minutes after finishing a cold water session.

Like all really good breathing meditation sessions the effects are nothing short of intoxicating. You may find yourself experiencing insanely powerful vibrations, sounds and lights brightly permeating the minds eye. Your body feels light and fully charged with energy for a long time after each session. You feel inner peace while saturated with life.

The breathing methods are not 100% new to me, although the emphasis is a bit different; as I will explain. The main breathing methods are commonly called vase breathing ( deep abdominal breathing with up and down contractions of the diaphragm ) and fire breathing (a more rapid deep inhale and a full but unforced exhale).

These hei gung concepts are found in many esoteric disciplines–including southern Shaolin and Daoist martial art; infact, Juk Lam Kyun has areas of focus where breath retention is useful both martially as well as meditatively and is practiced along many variables of breathing patterns. In Pak Mei breath is also used for specific purpose…the breath is also a huge part of taiji chuan.

In advanced Gung Fu there is a heavy focus on breath retention which is a subject of great interest to me. Breath retention was something we learn about for advanced training in martial arts but we were advised not to stress it during early development. This makes sense, as you can cause yourself issues ranging from headaches to passing out or even possibly stroking out, if done incorrectly.

The benefits of proper breathing, ( including retention) are real and this worst case scenario hardly seems that common, so why not jump right in?

Well , I mostly see a lack ofawareness in people who hold their breath incorrectly ( and almost everyone does it incorrectly). For gung fu, improper breath is not a good thing. So we heed our teachers advice and we practice breathing exercises with a systematic accumulation of the variables. Retention being only one of many roads. Wim Hof method puts great amount of focus on this one method but I advise caution.

In training we learn to manipulate deep breaths inorder to stretch for health as well as for power production; Gung Fu boxers use breath to hit and be hit and we hold breath to move heavy things. This stuff I can understand pretty easily.

What about a retention from breath while the lungs are void of air? Again Wim Hof places a great deal of focus on this extreme, i find this interesting indeed.

I began to read the various PDFs available through the course but the reasoning was vague at best.

Eventually while digging deep through the program material I found a post where Wim explained that the retention with inhalation will activate your sympathetic nervous system (action mode ) while the retention with exhalation will activate your parasymathetc nervous system ( rest mode)…and he has scientific evidence to support.

To reiterate this point, I also found a post by Wim where he said Holding the breath while empty is where the magic begins for cold weather and immune function.

Thanks to the efforts of Wim Hoff these traditional methods are being validated in laboratory. Science now shows that you infact do stimulate the two hidden parts of the nervous system; actions that are normally left on autopilot are controlled by doing proper breathing( heigung).

This is the process I was wondering about and he has documented scientific findings backing up the validity of these old exercises!

I again began practicing my gung fu with this info in mind; within a few sessions I had comfortably held my breath, without air in my lungs, for 3 minutes and 12 seconds.

but what’s with the dreaded cold water?

Within the ten weeks of the WHM I found that after 20-30 minutes focused breathing along with this two way retention pattern and lower abdominal meditation, I could calmly withstand 40 pounds of ice dumped into a bathtub of already cold water for 15 minutes and longer. I also found myself able to sit in the Kishwaukee River and enjoy the peaceful scenery in mid winter.

So Far I am rather pleased with my purchase of this information via WHM. I can see how it translates into my marital art. I find it relaxing and energizing at the same time. I find it both complex and simple, This is fitting nicely into the Daoist Yoga exercises that I love and the cold is one hell of a reality check on who you are inside.

Be here now takes on a new meaning.

But let me flip the scale for a moment as I do have a few things I did not like so much about the actual study program.

The course was designed and sold as an interactive learning process. I found that to not really be the case. The boardroom on the course site was not actively engaged by Wim Hof or his direct students, at least not that I saw. I read through many many comments and questions, looking for some sort of interaction with the course creator to no avail. I saw the same questions go unanswered week by week and the few times they did answer it was incredible short. The questions asked the most where about the way of proper breath retention. I think this could have should have been explained way better from the start to avoid all the confusion I saw. I could imagine the confusion can lead to errors made by beginners.

When it came to the use of muscle contractions, the vague nature of the directions offered in the program were pretty disappointing; especially considering the implications of physiological danger associated with improper training.

Wim himself stated that the brown fat activation was dangerous…but not how it was dangerous, to who it was dangerous, when it was dangerous or what was dangerous about it.

For this, I draw from my experience in martial arts. I would suggest that the danger comes from improper retention– especially with muscular tension. namely, internal pressure stuck in the neck and head as opposed to stacked deeply into the lower portion of the lungs/abdomen; a method to increase abdominal pressure. This pressure is then guided upward to various points of the body. This is a detailed practice. Note this pressure is to be felt moving into the head and then back down to the center (microcosmic orbit).

i found that Wim does (although) briefly talk of bringing the internal pressure upward but he seems to leave much to guess work.

This part of the program does not come until the last week of the course and is explained in an insufficient way, at least in my opinion. Please do your homework. (study micro cosmic/ macrocosmic orbit, kundalini, inner fire tummo etc).

Basic things to be mindful of:

Uneven or misaligned bone structure, such as with horse stance. Here The knees should NEVER pass the toe line. To do so is bad for your knees.

Also be very aware of Breathe retention, you can and will pass out if you try to hold your breathe for too long or improperly. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY and make sure you are in a safe environment free from fall/drowning dangers.

Improper use of muscular tension with breath retention can cause you to pass out.

Know your own personal health ( do you have high/low blood pressure?). If so than to avoid hassle, more involved direction would be a good idea.

Listen to your body!!

In my professional opinion, you should learn to breath deep and keep it deep, while relaxed. Do this before you move on to active stressed positions like push ups with breath retentions.

Again I’ d point out that the majority of people already breathe incorrectly, without knowing they are doing it at all. It is always a good idea to focus on fundamental training. This is a key point to Hei gung training, ie: the science of breathing.

I alsofound some of the physical exercises surprisingly advanced and I felt were a little extreme for the programs purpose.

Exercises such as headstands are not a beginners feat. I see no good way to instruct someone you know nothing about to alter breathing patterns and then encourage them to stand on their head. It might be better to see this as a Wim moment of “look what I can do”, as apposed to, “this week you should stand on your head”. Especially if practicing alone and most certainly if you are not trained in something comparable.

Other than these things which I’m sure will be addressed over time by Wim’s team, the program is solid and mirrors many traditional methods.

To Summarize:

This WHM has proven to be a fire course ( expedited) method of heigung that does in-fact work on a few levels. I have not learned any wholly new skills through the course although I have learned to look at things in a new light; which allows me to explore new facets of my training. This makes the course special and very much worthwhile to me.

I would not automatically recommend this course to just anyone and its probably better to have more then basic knowledge of heigung to start with but as many find its not mandatory. Despite Wims simplistic approach ( which I mostly applaud) I think by having a strong background in these principles really helped me in understanding efficiently.

I do think that many could benefit from this type of exercise and in that I encourage most folks to give it a go. I think it is probably unwise to force anything and its better to practice retention exercises with full focus and with complementary exercises such as Buddhist breathing ( slow even in and out breathing such as 6 count in 6 count out with a brief pause on the top and bottom of each action ).

Due to the monkey mind that sometimes chatters at you, it was difficult to get past the first two weeks of cold water acclimation. Per usual, the monkey mind is silenced though focused breathing mediation. After a certain point it is really very pleasant and you can begin to focus on the actual process.

Again, you must learn to focus on the moment and maintain the discipline of regular practice, that is if you expect any results.

Mantras and meditative visualizations are extremely beneficial.

The WHM will introduce you to the cold in a pretty excellent fashion. IE: A slow steady increase of exposure and in this you benefit from a proven method of cold weather acclimation.

From the repeated cold exposure your body begins to respond (change) rather quickly–the breath certainly facilitates this.

It’s the path you choose that makes the journey awesome. This is not to say I truly enjoy the cold all the time but I am becoming more comfortable interacting with it and I think I have experienced some of the perks of this training.

The breathing is simple but important. Study the vase breath…in fully out naturally. Fill from the bottom up as the breath settles deep. And fire breathing, this is done faster then normally done. This action is a strong power breathing method.

Half way through the 10 week program I was sent a survey asking for a rating. If I recall correctly it was a 0 to 100 scale rating or something like this. At the time I gave it about a 70% rating. Now that I have completed the program and reflected more I would have to move that up that to close 85% on a scale of awesome.

The program leaves many things to self research and cross reference which is good in the course of education but perhaps the crew could put a list of reference material into the official program such as the top informational podcasts , studies and literature found outside of the website. I would also include the traditional roots of this practice in the introductions as it may help people do more research ( although I could see how this might conflict with Wims branding).

More interaction with the board members would be good. I know there is a private Facebook page but I gave up on that site as a whole so I do not know if its more active then the official course board . That would be a shame if it is.

Anyway these are my thoughts at the moment. I am glad for this challenge and now it is up to me to continue on the path for however long its fun and applicable to my life work. I do not know for how long I will actively engage in the cold training but for now it still occupies every shower I take.

Thanks Wim I really do appreciate you man. I look forward to seeing your process evolve.

That’s it for now, train hard and live well.

Train Daily To Avoid Distraction