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Famous lists · No. 4

Wim Hof has a list where you stop breathing halfway through.

Wim Hof, from Sittard in the Netherlands, became world-famous as The Iceman: the man who climbed mountains in shorts and sat in ice water as if it were a warm bath. His method rests on three pillars: breathing, cold and commitment. At its core, the breathing part is a short step-by-step list. Millions of people follow it. Most start the breathing with enthusiasm and push the cold shower to tomorrow.

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The breathing, in short

One round. Repeat three to four times.

  1. Sit or lie down, somewhere safe.
  2. Take 30 to 40 deep breaths in, and let them go relaxed.
  3. After the last one, breathe out and hold your breath until you feel the urge to breathe again.
  4. Breathe in deeply and hold that breath for a moment.
  5. Let go. Next round.

Summarised in our own words. The official instructions and safety rules are on wimhofmethod.com.

As a list in Stipp

Morning à la Wim Morning
Sit or lie down. Not in water, not in the car.
High priority
This one is at the top and it stays there. Stippy doesn't joke about this one.
Take 30 to 40 deep breaths
Counted along. Lost count at 23. Still counts.
Breathe out and hold
The only action where you don't breathe while doing it. Tick it off afterwards.
Breathe in deeply and hold for a moment
Three more rounds
Tick this one off and start again at the top. That simple. That hard.
Cold shower
Tomorrow
Pillar two. Yesterday it also said “tomorrow”. The day before, too.
Keep it up
Pillar three. You tick it off and tomorrow it's simply back.
First, seriously
Never do the breathing exercise in or near water (swimming, diving, in the bath) and never while driving. Sit or lie down. It can make you dizzy or even make you pass out briefly. If you have a medical condition or are pregnant, talk to your doctor first. Read the official safety warnings before you start.

Why this list is so famous

For a long time Wim Hof was mostly seen as a man who did strange things in the cold. Until researchers at Radboud university medical center in Nijmegen started testing him. In 2014 they published a study in which volunteers who had learned his method reacted less strongly to an injected bacterial toxin than a control group.

How big that effect really is and how it works, scientists still don't agree. But the list itself is rock solid: five steps, once a day. The hardest part isn't even on it. That's simply starting again tomorrow.

Pillar three

Commitment.

Anyone can take a cold shower once. The hard part is day two. Write down in a note in Stipp why you started, and turn it into an action today. Tomorrow another one. You tick off the action; the note stays and still knows why you're doing it.

More lists

Your list is allowed to breathe.

Notes and actions in one place, so tomorrow you know where you left off. Stipp is free, forever.

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Sources: Wim Hof Method: practice the method; Wim Hof Method: safety warnings; Kox et al., Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans, PNAS (2014); Simply Psychology; Live Science. The summary of the steps, the Stipp version and Stippy's comments are ours. This is not medical advice.

Stipp has nothing to do with Wim Hof or the Wim Hof Method. We just like a good list.