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Wim Hof

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Dutch extreme athlete (born 1959)
Wim Hof
Hof in 2019
Born (1959-04-20) 20 April 1959 (age 65)
Sittard, Netherlands
Other namesThe Iceman
Occupation(s)Extreme athlete and motivational speaker, former karateka

Wim Hof (pronounced [ʋɪm ˈɦɔf]; born 20 April 1959), also known as The Iceman, is a Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand low temperatures.

He previously held a Guinness World Record for swimming under ice and prolonged full-body contact with ice, and he holds a record for a barefoot half marathon on ice and snow. He attributes these feats to his Wim Hof Method (WHM), a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques and meditation. Hof's method has been the subject of several scientific studies, with mixed results.

Early life

Wim Hof was born on 20 April 1959 in Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands. He was one of nine children.

Wim Hof Method

Hof immersed in an ice bath on 24 March 2007, Rotterdam

Hof is an extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand low temperatures. He attributes his feats to his Wim Hof Method (WHM).

Hof's first relevant experiences with the cold goes back to when he was 17: he felt a sudden urge to jump into the freezing cold water of the Beatrixpark canal. The first relevant scientific investigation began in 2011 at Radboud University. On 19 April 2011, the results of this study were broadcast on Dutch national television.

Hof markets a regimen called the Wim Hof Method (WHM), which involves willpower, exposure to cold water, and breathing techniques. Wim Hof's method seems to be inspired by thousands-year-old technique where the Indian Saints used to practice Yoga and Meditation in the Himalayas under extreme cold weather. While Hof claims his method has beneficial effects on various conditions, there is little scientific basis for these claims. Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, a scientist who has studied Hof, said: " scientific vocabulary is galimatias. With conviction, he mixes in a non-sensical way scientific terms as irrefutable evidence." Wim's identical twin brother Andre has a similar tolerance for cold, despite living a different lifestyle, suggesting that much if not all of Hof's abilities are innate. A 2024 meta-analysis of eight studies found that the method may reduce inflammation, through the increase of epinephrine. However, effects on exercise performance and respiratory parameters were mixed. And most of the articles were judged as "high concern due to the difficulty in blinding the participants and researchers to the intervention." The authors cautioned that "the quality of the studies is very low, meaning that all the results must be interpreted with caution. Additionally, the low sample size (15–48 individuals per study) and large proportion of males in the studies (86.4%) make the results non-generalizable to the public," and suggested that further research is needed.

Method-related deaths

Concerning cold exposure, The American Heart Association and the British Heart Foundation have issued warnings about cold therapy, advising consulting with a physician before attempting, and noting that there is poor evidence supporting the practice. As of March 2024 there are 32 reports of people dying allegedly due to the Wim Hof Method. According to one expert, immersion in cold water can produce cardiac arrhythmia in 1 to 3 percent of young healthy subjects, but up to 63 percent will suffer arrhythmia when asked to hold their breath before the plunge. “It’s an incredible way of reproducing cardiac arrhythmias in otherwise fit and healthy individuals,” he said. Some experts say that practicing Wim Hof method is "Gambling with your life".

Four practitioners drowned in 2015 and 2016, and relatives suspected the breathing exercises were to blame. In 2021, a Singaporean man drowned in a condominium pool when attempting the method. One person died after cold water therapy session in the UK in 2022. A $67 million lawsuit was filed against Innerfire and Wim Hof in 2022 that alleged 17-year-old Madelyn Rose Metzger died after performing the Wim Hof Method in her pool in Long Beach, California. Wim Hof was found not liable in 2024.

Records and stunts

Wim Hof has said he has attained 26 world records, but he has held only three different records. The higher numbers that are reported can be attributed mainly to breaking the record ''Full-body contact with ice'' 15 times, often by beating his own previous record.

Records

The fastest half-marathon run while barefoot on ice or snow is 2 hr 16 min 34 sec by Hof near Oulu, Finland, on 26 January 2007. Done for the Discovery Channel program Real Super-humans and the Quest for the Future Fantastic, this is the only current Guinness record in Hof's name.

On 16 March 2000, Hof set the Guinness World Record for farthest swim under ice on his second attempt, with a distance of 57.5 metres (188.6 feet). Hof's first attempt the day before failed when he began his swim without goggles and his corneas froze solid and blinded him. A rescue diver pulled him to the surface after he passed out. The record has been broken several times since and now stands at 81 metres (266 ft) as of 2022.

Hof has set the world record for longest time in direct, full-body contact with ice, 44 minutes in January 2010. Hof's record has been broken several times and as of 2023 it stands at 4 hours, 2 minutes.

Other

In 2007, Hof climbed to an altitude of 7,400 metres (24,300 ft) on Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts and shoes, but aborted the attempt due to a recurring foot injury. He managed to climb from base camp to about 6,700 metres (22,000 ft) wearing just shorts and sandals, but after that he wore boots, saying he needed to affix crampons at that point.

In 2016, Hof reached Gilman's Point on Mount Kilimanjaro with journalist Scott Carney in 28 hours, an event later documented in the book What Doesn't Kill Us.

Documentaries

A number of documentary films have been produced on Hof's life and ability. In 2015, Vice magazine produced a documentary The Super Human World of Wim Hof: The Iceman. In 2020, the YouTube channel Yes Theory published a short film about their experiences with Hof, titled Becoming Superhuman with Ice Man.

Personal life

Hof met his first wife Marivelle-Maria, also called "Olaya Rosino Fernandez", in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam in the garden of roses. She died by suicide in 1995 by jumping from an eight-story building. Hof stated that she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had a hard time psychologically with that incident and the freezing water was the only place he didn't think about it.

In 2024 the Dutch paper de Volkskrant published an extensive article which mentioned his domestic abuse, for which he was convicted in the Netherlands in 2012. In 2012 Hof was found guilty of domestic violence against the eighteen-year old child of his then girlfriend Caroline. He was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and fined €350, equivalent to €440 in 2023.

Publications

Cover of Becoming the Iceman
  • Hof, Wim (1998). Klimmen in stilte [Climbing in silence] (in Dutch). Altamira. ISBN 9789069634395.
  • Hof, Wim (2000). De top bereiken is je angst overwinnen [Reaching the top is overcoming your fear] (in Dutch). Andromeda. ISBN 9789055991136.
  • Hof, Wim; Rosales, Justin (2012). Becoming the Iceman : pushing past perceived limits. Mill City Press. ISBN 9781937600464.
  • Hof, Wim; Jong, Koen A.M. de (2015). Koud kunstje : wat kun je leren van de iceman?. Uitgeverij Water. ISBN 9789491729256.
  • Hof, Wim (2017). Introduction. What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength. By Carney, Scott. ISBN 9781635652413.
  • Hof, Wim (2020). The Wim Hof Method. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9781846046292.

See also

References

  1. Hof & Rosales 2012, p. 10.
  2. Shea, Daisy-May Hudson and Matt (16 July 2015). "ICEMAN". Vice. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  3. "Welcome to the Official Wim Hof Method Website". www.wimhofmethod.com. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  4. Elliott, Bryan (23 November 2021). "Behind the Brand with Wim Hof". Inc.com. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  5. "Research on 'Iceman' Wim Hof suggests it may be possible to influence autonomic nervous system and immune response". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  6. Wim Hof a.k.a. The Ice Man, Science Breakthrough! 19 April 2011, 29 April 2011, retrieved 26 August 2022
  7. "Zoeken". EenVandaag (in Dutch). Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  8. Wollaston, Sam (13 April 2022). "'Can I get out now please?': Could Wim Hof help me unleash my body's inner power?". The Guardian.
  9. Indian Monk practicing Yoga. "Indian guru covered in snow while meditating". msn.com. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  10. "Wim Hof, the Iceman | Science-Based Medicine". sciencebasedmedicine.org. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  11. van Marken Lichtenbelt, Wouter (11 July 2017). "Who is the Iceman?". Temperature. 4 (3): 202–205. doi:10.1080/23328940.2017.1329001. PMC 5605164. PMID 28944263.
  12. Vosselman, Maarten J; Vijgen, Guy H E J; Kingma, Boris R M; Brans, Boudewijn; Lichtenbelt, Wouter D van Marken (11 July 2014). "Frequent extreme cold exposure and brown fat and cold-induced thermogenesis: a study in a monozygotic twin". PLOS ONE. 9 (7): e101653. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j1653V. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101653. PMC 4094425. PMID 25014028.
  13. Almahayni, Omar; Hammond, Lucy (13 March 2024). "Does the Wim Hof Method have a beneficial impact on physiological and psychological outcomes in healthy and non-healthy participants? A systematic review". PLOS ONE. 19 (3): e0286933. Bibcode:2024PLoSO..1986933A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0286933. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 10936795. PMID 38478473.
  14. Tapper, James (1 October 2023). "Cure or killer? The rewards – and very real risks – of the cold water plunge". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  15. "You're not a polar bear: The plunge into cold water comes with risks". www.heart.org. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  16. Carney, Scott (March 2024). "Public Wim Hof Method Deaths and Incident Reports". Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  17. Southern, Katie Tarrant and Keiran (24 July 2024). "Wim Hof started a cold water therapy trend. Our daughters died trying it". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  18. ""Gambling with your life"". livescience. 5 April 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  19. Tijmstra, Fannie; Bomers, Loes (10 June 2016). "'Iceman' onder vuur" ['Iceman' under fire] (in Dutch). EenVandaag. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  20. Duin, Roelf Jan (2 July 2016). "'Iceman'-oefening eist opnieuw leven" ['Iceman' exercise claims a new life]. Het Parool (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  21. "Coroner cautions against practising Wim Hof breathing method underwater after man drowns". CNA. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  22. "Woman tragically dies after cold water therapy session favoured by celebs". finance.yahoo.com. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  23. ""Iceman" Wim Hof cleared of causing death of American teenager". DutchNews. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  24. "Iceman wins 26th world record as he runs up Mount Kilimanjaro in just 31 hours and 26 minutes". Daily Mirror. 23 January 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  25. gekogekogeko (26 April 2023). "Let's talk about Wim Hof's "World Records"". r/BecomingTheIceman. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  26. "Wim Hof: The Iceman | Guinness World Records". Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  27. "Fastest half marathon barefoot on ice/snow". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  28. ^ "Longest swim under ice - breath held (no fins, no diving suit)". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  29. Hof, Wim (2012). Becoming the Iceman (1st ed.). Mill City Press. p. 33. ISBN 9781937600464.
  30. Science Explains How the Iceman Resists Extreme Cold. Smithsonian Mag. January 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  31. Sunday, Alex (29 December 2010). "Dutchman Aims to Take Longest Ice Bath". CBS News. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  32. "Longest duration full body contact with ice". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  33. Kathmandu (29 May 2007). "Everest climber falls short". The Age. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  34. "What Doesn't Kill Us by Scott Carney". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  35. "The Superhuman World of Wim Hof: The Iceman". YouTube. Vice. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  36. "BECOMING SUPERHUMAN WITH ICE MAN - Wim Hof". YouTube. Yes Theory. 18 February 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  37. Joe Rogan (interviewer) and Wim Hof (21 October 2015). Wim Hof (podcast). Joe Rogan Experience. Vol. 712. Joe Rogan. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  38. "The outside world knows Wim Hof as the eccentric Iceman. His family suffered domestic violence". volkskrant.nl. 28 September 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  39. Eurostat, HICP - annual data (average index and rate of change); for Euro area (19 countries; 20 countries since 2023), retrieved 2 March 2024. DOI 10.2908/prc_hicp_aind
  40. Stoffelen, Anneke; van de Griend, Robert (28 September 2024). "De buitenwereld kent Wim Hof als de excentrieke Iceman. Zijn gezin ging gebukt onder huiselijk geweld" [The outside world knows Wim Hof as the eccentric Iceman. His family suffered from domestic violence.] (in Dutch). de Volkskrant. Retrieved 28 September 2024.

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