An interview with Wim Hof, the ‘Iceman’ wellness guru who claims cold showers are the key to a happy life
The ‘Iceman’ has climbed Mount Everest in shorts, run across the Namibian desert without water and set numerous Guinness World Records for swimming under ice
Wim Hof is a household name among fitness and wellness enthusiasts. Known globally as “The Iceman”, he has set numerous Guinness World Records for swimming under ice and prolonged full-body contact with ice, and still holds the world record for a barefoot half-marathon on snow and ice.
Now, Hof is teaching his transformational Wim Hof Method all over the world.
Everybody said I was crazy to bathe in cold water. Everyone thought I was out of my mind. But it was the opposite, I was deep into my mind
The 60-year old Dutchman is also known for climbing Mount Everest in a pair of shorts, running across the Namibian desert at 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) without drinking any water, and running a marathon in the Arctic Circle at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) – again in his swimming trunks without any training.
The cold became Hof’s friend when he was still a teenager. He found solace in the cold later when his first wife committed suicide and he was left to raise four children on his own. He went on to combine breathing exercises and ice baths and coined them the Wim Hof Method, which he has perfected over many years and now teaches all over the world.
We sat down with Wim Hof to discuss his mission in life, what he does with sceptics – and how we can all unlock our unlimited power.
You hold 26 world records, such as remaining in ice for 1 hour and 52 minutes. You’ve climbed Mount Everest in only your shorts. How did it all start?
Everybody has a connection within, a desire to fight and discover the depths of your being. I soul searched early on in life, and I began to look into a lot of books, esoteric books. I also did a lot of yoga, karate, meditation and running.
At the age of 17, I eventually found a deeper connection, not through those disciplines, but when I found the cold. Swimming in cold water was just able to bring me right back into the depth of my physiology, more than any of those disciplines were able to do. So I got hooked on the cold, and to use it to get into this deep connection with my mind and my body. From there on, I trained on my own for 25 years. Naturally, I explored more and more aspects, led by my own instincts, and it was like celebrating the power of the mind and the body. At the time, everybody said I was crazy to bathe in cold water. Everyone thought I was out of my mind. But it was the opposite, I was deep into my mind.
So I was silent about it. I kept my discipline to myself, and I trained every day for 25 years. One day the newspaper came and they published an article about me. They couldn’t believe what I was telling them, and many other interviews and articles followed.
Tell us about your first Guinness world record.
In March 2000, Guinness World Records came to challenge me in the cold. I set the Guinness world record for the farthest swim under ice.
