The Iceman: Ice in His Veins

High Existence

"Wim is internationally renowned for his countless ice endeavors that range from being up to his neck in a cylinder filled with ice cubes for over 90 minutes, swimming long distances under polar ice, running a marathon barefoot to climbing the Everest in nothing more than a pair of shorts. It gained him worldwide fame and his nickname: The Iceman. Wim has shown what the human body is capable of once you find the flow within your physical and mental state. Right now he especially sees his new challenge in passing on his method to others to give everyone the opportunity to reach out and do more than what they thought they were capable of. Through the right training and exercises, you can strengthen your inner nature and prevent disease."
Innerfire, Win Hof Academy, Workshops

High Existence

This 59-year-old Dutch man, father of five, has acquired quite the reputation. Known as the Iceman, he has demonstrated to an astonished world that humans are capable of restoring physical capabilities that nature bestowed on us to enable people to live within sometimes hostile environments where the atmosphere is extremely cold and seemingly forbidding to human endurance. However nature designed the human body to withstand extreme temperatures; she also designed the human brain to manipulate the environment to better suit humankind's idea of physical comfort.

And it is the latter inborn skill with which we were endowed that succeeded the primitive endowment enabling humans to acclimate their bodies to temperature extremes of icy-cold challenges to existence; the latter obviating the need for the initial design. Researchers at Maastricht University in Holland discovered that this extraordinary man had managed by the physical regimen he subjected himself to, to build up brown fat in his bodily reserves to enable him to produce five times the heat energy a typical 20-year-old can manage.

Brown body fat is rich in mitochondria whose purpose primarily is to enable the use of white fat taken from storage in the body, to burn; the energy consumed keeping the body warm, in exposure to freezing temperatures. Acclimating the human body to extremely cold temperatures in a systematic way has the effect of producing brown adipose tissue (brown fat). The more brown fat exists in the body, the more likely the body will remain lean since brown fat activates the burning of white fat, stored in body tissue.

When we're newborn, about five percent of body mass is brown fat, enabling us from infancy to resist freezing on exposure to cold temperatures. However, since humans have erected their environment of comfort where we're warm in the winter in our homes, and cool in the summer, we're protected from discomfort, with no need to manage our brown fat as a catalyst for the burning of stored white fat. The white fat remains, the brown fat disappears, and we become fat.

Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, professor of energetics and health at the Netherlands Maastricht University, gathered eight test subjects; overweight men of late 50s with Type 2 diabetes. The professor was interested in determining how short-term cold exposure might alter the bodies of his test subjects, so having the men dressed in shorts, and spending six hours daily in a 14C chamber for ten days with their insulin production and blood-sugar levels monitored, resulted in 43 percent more metabolized glucose in their blood levels.

Validating that experiencing cold has the capacity to spur the body to activate brown fat which in turn helps to burn white fat for energy. Wim Hof is able to control his body temperature during exposure to extreme cold conditions. In Poland he set up a training camp where he taught clients how they could remain warm in sub-zero temperatures without being clad against the cold. That exercise of consciously controlling the body's autoimmune system protects against sicknesses, improves mood, and increases energy.

In general agreement that human biology requires stress of the type spurred by environmental and physical oscillations to invigorate the nervous system which in turn sets up a cascade of physiological responses beyond the control of our brains, strictly autonomic, the scientific community studying the phenemenon that this man pioneered agrees with his contention. That exposure to icy temperatures triggers processes warming the body and also increases mental awareness, enhances insulin production and recalibrates the circulatory system.

Most people live primarily in the comfort of indoors environments, spurning the outdoor environment when the atmosphere becomes intemperate, and in the process this critical system of challenging the body's own capability of responding to the challenge of extreme cold never occurs. The result is that weak circulatory systems result, and circulatory diseases are responsible for close to 30 percent of mortality in the world. Obesity and diabetes represent common outcomes of human bodies accustomed to comfort int he avoidance of physical challenges linked to the circulatory system.

In his training camp, Mr. Hof teaches first and foremost his unique breathing routine, alternating between controlled hyperventilation and breath-holds. That training results in people being able to hold their breath for longer periods, reprogramming the nervous system's stress response and aiding in withstanding environmental stressors with the capacity to remain warm despite exposure to extremely cold temperatures.

High Existence

After having mastered Wim Hof's breathing technique, what is left is simple enough; becoming accustomed to suffering cold exposure and training yourself not to shiver; that autonomic body response to cold exposure to produce energy to warm the body. Relaxing, taking calm breaths aids in stilling the impulse to shiver, forcing the body to generate brown fat and burn white fat for energy rather than using muscle movement to produce heat.