Training with the Iceman

I met Wim Hof, The Iceman, just a week ago for a one week workshop. It was a great experience. When I asked him about the content of the workshop all he said was "It will be a week of all kinds of thermo-fysiological activities, to awaken the nervous system, immune system, heart and blood circulation, last but not least the mind and spirit". And that was it, he didn't mention anything else, there was no schedule, no program, all I knew was only this so deciding to join the workshop and reaching the location in Poland was already an adventure but it was certainly worth it. Now I have a few new great friends and I even form part of this new project for which this blog has been created, "The Iceman Challenge". This is really exciting but there is still so much to be done. I need to be patience, step by step. Take a look at the video below that was edited by Justin so you can get a taste of what the week was like and about the project that we are working on. Subscribe to the YouTube account and to our blog so you can keep yourself informed about any updates.




The week with Wim was amazing, we did so much and everything so spontaneous, it was training but we had a lot of fun. The first day we went to a river nearby his country house to start getting adapted to the cold water. The water was about 9 degrees, I thought it wasn't that cold and since Wim and Justin dived in without hesitation I decided to do the same. Ohhh, it was so painful, I think I had never experience in my life such a cold temperature. Ok, maybe for some people is not so cold but I come from a tropical country, I leave like an hour from the sea and the temperature can easily reach 40 degrees Celsius, so it is always quite hot and even there I love to take very hot showers so doing these cold waters immersions are a really hard task for me. But that's why I went to meet The Iceman, like he says "sometimes you really need to challenge yourself".

In the same day we went two more times to the river, but then I just went into the water just above my knees and that was still quite difficult for me, but after a week I was able not only to immerse all my body but also to swim a bit, a big improvement! And although the improvement happened little by little, day by day it was all thanks to Wim, I would have never been able to do such a crazy thing by my own. It's a lot more easier if you have somebody next to you saying "breath.... breath.... focus!!! yes!! you can do it! go for it! easy easy." :-)

Now I don't have a river anymore where to train but I'm trying to take cold showers everyday (after a very hot shower of course :-)), ohh but it is still so difficult. I'm in Belgium now and the weather this week is between 10 and 3 degrees Celsius... so the cold water must be really cold :-) but like Wim says "It's all about regular practice... just do it!".

You can find more of "The Iceman Words of Wisdom" in my blog.