what if you had real superpowers like withstanding deadly cold temperatures and having almost unlimited energy, drive and motivation? Wim Hof is a self-proclaimed daredevil and his stunts like breaking world records in staying in ice passes climbing mount everest over the death zone it just shorts and running a marathon in freezing temperatures barefooted made him famous people believe he has superpowers but it's not only him his breathing method and cold exposure practice found millions of followers and many of them performed similar stunts from never getting sick anymore to extreme cold tolerance but you know all this
and you don't feel any superpowers otherwise you wouldn't watch this video and today i'm going to show you common mistakes why your superpowers are not awakening when doing the Wim Hof method and how you can change that hey friends my name is katro and i'm a certified veim of method instructor if you're new here on my channel i cover everything related to breathwork and movement that help you live a more healthy and more mindful life. the inhale is an important aspect of the whim of method breathing because the image we have is that we should
inhale more than we exhale well technically that's not possible but it's still a good image to keep in mind perceived feeling of inhaling more than we exhale boils down to the intensity of inhales and the intensity is defined as the volume of air we inhale over the time it takes to reach the maximum capacity the quicker you inhale your maximum volume of air the more intense your inhales feel a common mistake is that people either have a too shallow inhale or too slow or both so how do we change that a too shallow inhale can
be from poor posture a lack of breath awareness or a tense body the posture can be easily fixed by lying down it's also helpful to take five to ten minutes to become aware of your normal breathing before the actual whim of method breathing you can do that by feeling and extending the movements of your breathing like expanding belly and chest movements and combining them in a wave like motion it's like a breastwork warm-up where you can go through the breathing movements in slow motion i have a full depth video on breast awareness so be sure
to check that out after this video the tension in your body can be addressed with the same breast awareness routine i mentioned before by doing that you most likely calm yourself down and be more relaxed additionally you can intensify your inhales even more by inhaling through the mouth the exhale is an often neglected part of the whim of method breathing the mistake i often see is that people either exhale too slow or too forceful the way to go about this is to let your breath go it's helpful to understand the breathing mechanics for this when
we inhale our diaphragm contracts stretching our lungs down and creating an undepression pressure which forces air in and when we exhale the diaphragm relaxes and pushes the lungs up again and pushes the air out so the important part here to remember is that the inhale is an active part contraction of the of the muscles in the diaphragm and the exhale is actually a passive part a process of relaxation also when we inhale our ribcage expands and builds up pressure by relaxing our body our chest falls back and with that we exhale on forcefully even faster
being relaxed while you exhale is essential for the overall breathing pace so when you relaxed when you exhale you can follow up with the inhale stronger and faster and increasing the overall breathing pace when you're doing the Wim Hof method conscious breathing is hard work and just like you wouldn't sprint if you want to go out for a half an hour run you shouldn't start with your maximum breathing pace instead as i mentioned before it's good to start with a short breath awareness practice and then gradually increase to a faster paced breathing written here it
can be extremely valuable to have a guided breast work session with somebody but if you're alone a protocol that i like to use is i do five minutes of breast awareness then one round of the whim of methods through the nose and the second round i will do through the mouth but at around 50 percent of my maximum freezing pace capacity and the third round with about 75 to 80 percent of breathing pace capacity and then at the fourth round i go all out and do it with the 100 breezing pace capacity additionally i like
to work with the music playlist that starts slow and relaxed and then builds up another mistake that i see people do is to sacrifice uh faster paced breathing with a shallow breathing pattern so be sure to still do quality in and exhale where you deeply fill your body with air and have a relaxed exhale but just like with most skills everything that takes time and hard work to perform well will look very easy and relaxed when doing it on a proficient level but just because we all breathe it doesn't mean that breathing fully and deeply
in a fast pace while staying relaxed simultaneously is something you develop overnight it takes skill and time to develop a proficient level and and when looking at the time scale we can look at that from a micro and macro level the time scale on a micro level is how long you practice the breast work per session for example if you only commit five minutes to a breast rock session you won't be able to go as deep and experience the same effects like you would when doing it for 30 to 40 minutes just like with the
physical workout it takes time to a find your pace and be expand to your maximum breathing volume while staying relaxed also the longer your breasts work session lasts the more effects you experience each round you flood your system with more adrenaline with your fast-paced inhales also your carbon dioxide levels drop further with each round leading to longer breast retention phases this enables you to dive deeper into your inner self and triggers a stronger hometic effect due to the lack of oxygen in your blood and all this cascades to more of these super human benefits so
i recommend doing four to five rounds of the way of method breathing or 20 to 40 minutes on a macro level time is how often or how regularly you do the weigh-move method breathing practice if you only do it once per week it's really tough to build up a habit or the necessary skills to perform it well but by implementing a daily breathing session or breastwork practice you not only build up a habit and the necessary skills but you also develop more lung capacity and co2 tolerance and speaking of time when asking me what the
best time during the day would be to do the whim of method breathing i would say it depends a schedule that lets you practice the way more method breathing regularly is better than the perfect timing but usually mornings are great to start your day with more energy and you're doing it on an empty stomach which can help and it's also easier to combine it with a cold shower because you can stack those two habits together to a time where we would take a shower anyway the wim off method is not only about breathing it's also
about the cold and of course the cold is uncomfortable now it's in fact really hard it's really hard to do and it's even harder doing it regularly so it's easy to actually just focus on the breathing because the breathing feels good and the cold shower isn't but people doing just uh breathing practice are missing a valuable thing which is a big reason why their superpowers are not awakening and the reason why is that they both nourish and enforce each other doing the whim of method breathing triggers the intercostal muscles the muscle muscles between our ribs
to chew up a tremendous amount of glucose that is transformed directly into heat and this helps us to be prepared additionally the combination of the adrenaline released from the breathing practice and the self-induced stress from the cold activates a brain area called periaqueductal gray which among other things modulates pain that means that the combo of the breathing and the cold can help us perceive pain differently and less intensely at the same time the activity spikes of the periaqueductal gray can stimulate the release of endogenous opioids and endocannabinoids which contribute to a deeper sense of well-being
and also the high feeling one can experience after the practice but also with the breezing practice it takes a little courage to face the discomfort of a cold shower the different ways how you can learn to overcome the challenge of a cold shower and i also have a dedicated video of how you can learn to do that but in a nutshell always try to do small improvements if you have difficulties to jump into a cold shower then start by showering lukewarm or finishing a warm shower with 30 seconds of cold showering and then slowly progress
from there and by doing the breast work right before your cold shower you can prime and prepare your body and mind to accept the cold i hope this video helps you to unlock the amazing benefits the Wim Hof method can have for you women have tons of free breastwork videos and paid full course which i can highly recommend but if you like a little of my flavor and like my voice or my wipe i'm about to release a short guided breastwork course you can find the link in the description as always thanks for watching and
see you in the next video