How I Do The Wim Hof Method: Cold Exposure
Note: This is part three of a three-part series where an average, middle-aged dude — me — tells you my step-by-step method for how I do…
Note: This is part three of a three-part series where an average, middle-aged dude — me — tells you my step-by-step method for how I do each of the three aspects of the Wim Hof Method. Part one was about the breathing technique and part two was focused on meditation. This post is about cold exposure.
I’ve got four layers on, a scarf around my neck, two hoodies covering up my baseball cap and I’m still freakin’ cold. Such is the life of a night-time bike ride in mid-January on the central island of Japan.
“Thank you, cold,” I force myself to say.
The chill in my bones is nothing that some heavy riding encouraged by some up-tempo music like my boys the Disco Biscuits provide on the regular can’t solve. So I put on a Biscuits playlist on my earbuds and off I go…
15 minutes later and once again, I’m reminded: Yes, this is why I like winter. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and of all four seasons, none come close to winter for making us stronger.
And that’s why, despite it logically seeming like a bad idea, I continue to take my cold showers on these cold days. Below, I’ll explain exactly how I do it.
My Step-By-Step Process For Taking a Cold Shower
Before I begin, let me be clear. The cold showers in winter are not an easy thing to do. Thus, I tell people that while it’s extremely admirable to start taking them during the coldest season, I’m not going to knock you for waiting until it’s warmer. After all, I began the Wim Hof Method in May 2019 and had a whole summer and fall to get used to the cold showers.
Having said that, Wim Hof here will explain to you why starting now is the best way to improve the results from cold exposure.
Then, when you do decide to start, here’s how I do it so perhaps this method will work as well for you as it does for me.
Follow the Nike motto: Just Do It. As you’re getting ready for the shower, don’t think about it. Think about other stuff. The only thought you need is, “I’m doing it and that’s that.”
Turn the water onto the coldest setting. Some suggest doing a step-by-step process down from warmer water. This just prolongs the hard part which is getting used to the cold. In addition, part of what makes cold therapy work is the shock itself, for it acts as a kickstart to the body’s ability to heat itself. Last but not least on a mental health level, it tells you, “Wow, I can do this! I’m badass!” (But in a playful, not egotistical way)
Now that the water’s on cold and, I assume, you’re buck naked (where did that term come from?), go underneath the water headfirst so your hair absorbs the cold. Count to about 10 and then go straight to the chest for a few seconds and then turn around and do the back.
Perhaps the most important step here: Sing, dance, chant, rap, juke, jive, do the electric slide, do whatever it takes to express the energy moving through your body from the cold! Have some fun, dang it!
This one’s up to you, but I usually go through a reasonably rapid shampoo and soap routine because, hey, you may as well smell good when you are gone. Plus, this gives me something else to do and forces me to stay under the cold for at least a few minutes, which is my goal.
The last part is the head soak. So I divide my head into half (not literally, silly!), the front/back, and then into thirds. I put the water on the front left side of my head for 10 seconds, then go front middle for 10, front right for 10, back right for 10, back middle for 10, and back left for 10.
Having said this, the water temperature here in Japan is hardly above freezing so I’m sure my counting to 10 is, well, a bit fast. Much more important than the numbers — and this is key to all the steps of the Wim Hof Method — is I listen to my body. In this case, I start to notice when my head starts feeling like it is freezing, like I’m getting a cold headache from the top of my head. I’ll usually push for 5–10 seconds beyond that and stop. If that means I have to speed my counting so I get to all six sections, so be it!
Turn off the water and then take your hands and run them through your head as rapidly as possible, almost like you are a dog shaking after a dip into a watering hole.
(If you live in a house like mine where the water pipes freeze if you don’t keep the hot water turned on, press the button on the gas button! Don’t forget this or you might make your spouse mad! Take it from me!)
Dry off and appreciate how darn good you feel.
Okay, maybe you don’t feel good yet, so as you get dressed, appreciate how good you feel. I’m reasonably sure there will be some point in the process where you’ll feel that.
On my end, I always feel more alive and, almost counterintuitively, warmer after the cold shower. I’m not sure the science behind this, nor do I really care. I’ll leave that to someone else. If you’ve been reading these posts, you already know I’m reporting on my direct experience of using the method, not reporting on what the science says. You can go to Wim Hof’s website or look around the ‘Net for information on that.
All I know is the method works and I’m grateful that I found it when I did as I’ve never had such a long, extended period of health as I’ve had these past almost 1,000 days. If these posts convince you to give the method a go, please let me know sometime how it is working for you. Perhaps you’ll discover some aspects of the method that work even better than what I’ve done. If so, I’d love to hear it as I’m always looking to level up!
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