Stats:
Round 1: 29 seconds
Round 2: 35 seconds
Round 3: 58 seconds
These time were first thing in the morning, no burpees or anything else to interfere. I’m not sure why I was able to achieve a breath hold of 2 minute on one of the first days and now I’m not anywhere close to that.
I spent the day (in between working on a writing assignment) working on motivation to do some more WH breathing and to complete my burpees, all whilst pushing away thoughts of another ice bath. The ice bath yesterday wasn’t so bad, but the shivering afterwards is putting me off a bit today. Plus it’s uncharacteristically cold out. Come on, it’s January in Victoria! Time for spring! Two years ago I spent January studying on a beach watching kids in bathing suits skim boarding! This year I might have to go buy some gloves. I even had to buy one of those window scraper thingies for the windshield. I haven’t had one for years. (Life is hard here: )
Had to brave the cold for a client who didn’t show (I’m interning and someone booked an appointment for me today even though it’s a holiday and I was the only person in the office doing burpees waiting…and waiting…and waiting).
So far I have almost completed my burpees for the day (just 6 more to go:), I have taken a cold shower and began a second round of WH breathing just to see why my breath hold times are so low after achieving 2 minutes the other day.
Rereading this blog post again (because this is what happens when I have an assignment due in fewer than two days: /
From http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/301808-The-Wim-Hof-Method-Physical-training-that-changed-my-life
“When I began I was scared of cold showers, albeit admittedly intrigued. The program starts you off at 10 seconds in the cold, and you work your way up. (The ice bath challenge is at week 8) For reference, I’ll give my faucet a scale of 10 (hot) to 1 (cold) so you can understand where this is going-
Let’s imagine that–
10 is too hot, unbearable.
7 is that warm/hot I used for my showers for my whole life.
5 is fine, but getting cool.
3 is cold, uncomfortable.
1 is straight up unbearable. Needles.
I began going from 7 to 3 for ten seconds. Then back to 7 for a relief. I did that for a week. The next week was 30 seconds. The next week was 1 minute, etcetera, until things really shifted. And this is where it gets interesting. My relief temperature shifted. Once I could manage 1 for a few minutes, I found that my relief temperature would be around 3 or 4. And I found 7 to be annoying.
Enter ice buckets. I brought ice buckets into the shower to dunk my hands and feet when I took a break from the cold shower. I’d take a cold shower, turn off the faucet for relief, then rotate dunking my hands and feet in ice water. When I would enter the cold shower again, it felt warm. It felt rad.
When I would exit the shower, condensation would collect on my body, like beads of sweat. (It still does) At first, I had to call my wife into the room to touch me and tell me if I was warm or cold, she’d tell me I was cold. Condensation confirmed. WTF? Now my showers start at 3 and finish at 1. I often take two showers a day now because I like how it makes me feel. I love it.”
I have to say I preferred the ice bath to ice showers, and although I have stood in a bucket of ice under the cold shower, I did not try what this guy did, so that’ll be next.
Just did two more rounds of breathing whilst reading and achieved breath holds of 1 minute and 1:27, so a little better!
One Hundred Burpees a Day 