BECOMING SUPERHUMAN WITH ICE MAN - Wim Hof

uh

[Music]

ah

for everyone who is watching this

with this group in particular they are

all about discomfort

seeking discomfort this is not for

everybody

don't do this at home directly like

copying don't do it

these guys are experienced

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he's able to withstand extreme cold this

guy

runs the top of everest in his underwear

he says it's easy experts are baffled

how is he able to survive

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or as some of you may know him the

iceman

he might well be one of the most unique

humans currently alive

for the past 20 years he's been breaking

countless endurance records

mostly around his ability to resist

extreme cold

temperatures

from spending nearly two hours submerged

in ice water without his core body

temperature changing

to climbing past the death zone of mount

everest barefoot

wearing nothing but shorts or running a

full marathon in the desert of namibia

without drinking water

he surpassed what anyone thought the

human body was capable of

over and over and for a while

that's what he was known for as the

iceman

the freak of nature who breaks

impossible records but after a series of

independent scientific studies

he's proven that with his specific

training

we're all capable of pushing our minds

and bodies way past what was thought

possible

thank you and he calls it the wim hof

method

how is it possible for a human being to

be exposed

in an ice bath for one hour and 44

minutes

wim hof is changing scientists

understanding of how the body works

he recently shook the scientific

community after injecting himself and a

few of his students

with the form of an infectious e coli

bacteria

we saw less fever he had less flu-like

symptoms

and he also had lessened concentrations

of inflammatory proteins in his blood

together they fought off the disease

through breathing and meditation

both of which are major pillars of his

method leaving the world

confused and us like many others

fascinated while wim may seem superhuman

and a total anomaly to the human race

there are now millions of people around

the world practicing his method

[Applause]

his records and his life raises the

question what if there is a world of

untapped potential and all of us just

waiting to be released an ability to tap

into deeper parts of our brain

to regain control and willpower over our

own bodies

and do things we never thought we were

capable of before

and so after meeting wim in la a few

months ago and hearing about all his

claims we were fully intrigued by the

possibility

of unlocking our full potential we felt

like we had no other choice but to fly

out to his training camp in poland

and experienced it in person our goal

was to understand whether wim

is simply a madman with superhuman

abilities whether he has actually made a

groundbreaking discovery

about what the human mind is capable of

we brought a group of friends and

filmmakers to help capture the process

and even though we arrived in poland

with over three years of experience and

seeking discomfort

none of us could have expected the wild

journey for answers

we were about to embark on and it begins

yes oh it hasn't started you don't have

to wear a t-shirt you can wear a jacket

well i'm acclimating

we haven't done like the breathing or

anything i went on a run last night

shirtless to acclimate this is good

they turned off the heaters at midnight

last night and then it progressively

kept getting colder and colder and i was

like

wow i was freezing yeah my feet are

freezing we're not in the snow yet we're

going to be walking and

we're talking about wood being cold yeah

i feel like women would give up on us

if we told them you're refusing to kind

of

show any emotion about everything that

is said on everything that is happening

i'm just patiently waiting just because

someone's message is good doesn't mean

that the messenger themself is like

anything special he said you have to

fully believe in order for it to work

and the men is here

yes that's me

i'm a simple man yet i'm going to change

the world

we are made to believe that a whole lot

of things a whole lot of crap

is normal like war and disease and

mental disorders it's made a

sort of playful like uh yeah that's life

life it can be a

tough [ __ ] and all that [ __ ] i don't

believe that

within four days i will bring you guys

into a state of mind

more than ever you have experienced

before

making you able to go in very stressful

environments like a freezing cold

mountain frozen over in short

four hours in four days it's not like a

training

it's an awakening and in this awakening

we show the world

that we have so much more power already

here right now

and it needs just a couple of steps

to this cover when it comes to climbing

the mountain

um what kind of gear are we going to

have

yeah just a a couple of spikes under

your shoes

and as short a little shorts little

shorts

shorts yeah yeah shows enough to cover

it all you know

how long is it going to take to go up we

don't know oh it depends on the mountain

a mountain in sunshine is a very nice

you can stay for hours there's nothing

going on but you will not do that when

there is a wind chill

of 100 kilometers it's like a whip on

you don't stay picnicking while a whip

is going on you just want to go as fast

as possible and

maybe it's not even possible the

mountain is a mirror

of our capacities coming up and we

got so much more within us and the

mountain will just bring it out

but before that is going to happen we're

going to pollute it

with a nice splash you better be ready

are you ready

do you feel ready yeah i don't know

ready for what but yeah

okay that's exactly what i need a

natural

expression let's do this

you want to ring the bells baby

right off the bat we got a feeling that

wim had no intention of treating us

like a regular group normally he begins

by teaching his breathing and meditation

techniques that allow you to cope with

the extreme cold

but his most recent study has indicated

that this may be possible to be achieved

all through the power of the mind so

instead of training us he thought it'd

be an interesting idea for the first day

to start off with a real life trial of

that study

by taking us straight to cliff jumping

into ice water

he doesn't usually do this where we go

in without any breath

work oh he doesn't specifically we've

been told if you're in

water without training that temperature

for three minutes your body shuts down

yeah i mean all he said was to put on

freaking choice so i'm assuming we're

about to get

really cold i'm down for the breathing

and the training

i'm not down for the jumping with

nothing and no training

and no breathing nothing just full-on

noobs all right we are about to go for

our first adventure with wim

to the waterfall we're jumping from six

meters up we have never

we have not done any training

what about frost bites no no pros right

here that is in the

long time exposure into gold don't you

do it

it's from that is the one where we jump

from

down into the ice water zero degrees and

floating

so it's colder than normal we're about

to discover

the definition of freezing your nuts off

dude i've never jumped in cold water why

are we doing a cliff jump

six meters up freezing shallow water

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oh [ __ ]

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as we were celebrating completing his

initiation without us realizing it

wim was carefully watching us and our

reactions we're about to completely

determine how our next three days

would pan out

i've never like pushed my body like that

before like every single voice inside

your mind is just like screaming at you

like are you insane

you cannot think about nothing than

surviving when you are in the cold

you don't think about your indulging

into your emotion

and your brother broken heart and all

those things

you just gotta survive thus you learn to

control your emotions

today when we went to jump off the cliff

you said that the anxiety and the fear

that we're facing is natural

yes uh what would you say your

relationship with anxiety and fear is

uh today it was a great day because i

saw

not only me having fun the the waterfall

but you hold it this ball game is going

to be good

this coming four days so how i'm dealing

with this anxiety

there is no anxiety there's only power

and that power is going to be ours it's

going to be our mind and

my challenge these four days is to bring

you to the full

understanding by feeling of your of the

power of your own

mind and send that into the world that

it is there

that we knock on your heaven's door

inside and that you are the master of

your own brain

you are the owner of your own brain

got that your own mind your own

happiness strength and health

is yours our first day in poland came to

an end

without training we went to bed hopeful

that the next day would finally start

preparing for the intense climb up the

mountain

in three days but when we woke up we

were told that whim

had other plans

normally i don't i go gradually into

step by step but not with this group

they are

all about discomfort seeking discomfort

is exactly what i needed so we jumped

straight into the depth

which normally i do absolutely not it's

bringing

heart attacks to people because the

vascular system is not right

but in this case i could specifically

with this group

i want to try out the last study i've

shown

that it is all in the mind we are built

to be happy strong and healthy we got

all the tools

but they are not awakened but who is

going to wake them up

that's us this week we're gonna do

things i've never done because i've been

a guinea pig

all my life and i changed the books

now i'm going to do that with yes theory

here's the plan there is no plan

we do whatever whim decides we were

supposed to have

do something up here but apparently

we're gonna go downstairs and figure out

what his plan is

if he tells you to jump in the water you

jump in the water if he tells you to

sleep you sleep

if he wants to slap you in the face you

get slapped in the face

that's what a master does

wim told me to do that whim said it dude

we're [ __ ]

i woke up at half past three and since

then i've been thinking oh [ __ ] this is

gonna go a completely different way we

don't want a

another vice documentary we want

something new

right now i'm preparing a 10 minutes ice

bath

for you guys 10 minutes all of you

set your mind the latest study

showed we are able to tap into the

deepest part of the brain

just at will we will show and without

you

how to handle the brain how to handle

the mind

set your mind your mind

will make your body able and survive

from a 10 minutes

ice bath as a treat we come back up here

and we have a great festival in the

sauna

and then you get food okay what about

breath

bruh yeah one mouth method baby tomorrow

we're gonna do

breathing we make it a shortcut because

you guys

all from going out of comfort

into the discomfort there is the comfort

i will

show you what is comfort perfect we're

ready let's go

ice bath baby let's go okay stop look at

them

i wish we could replace just his face

we're supposed to learn the breathing

techniques to cope with the cold today

but

he decided to skip that step and just

throw it

straight in the cold and see if we can

just with the power of our mind

adapt to it

what does that mean man i was freezing

when i had my toes in the snow i was

supposed to sit

in the freaking ice bath do you know 10

minutes is a very long time

thanks man yeah i had no idea it's a

very long time in ice water

involves breathing and that's a big part

of it

and the fact that we're surpassing that

and just trying to go straight to the

mindset

i've never done like a full ice bath

without the breath

if you've never done ice baths you're

not gonna do more than three minutes

or even two to start and we're doing 10.

the whole point of us being here is

to learn and i feel like we're just

being thrown into [ __ ]

being like the power of your mind

just shut up and do it when your house

is on fire you run fast

you don't need to think you go because

adrenaline is there

so it's like the house is on fire it's

not on fire

but you are on fire follow me in this

and it's going to happen begin to doubt

and

something else is going to happen so is

there something physically i do

or something mentally that i need to do

to like center my mind

just follow the breath okay

here you are the only thing is don't

interfere what the body is able to do

with what the body is able to do

adaptation meditation is dynamic

it's real it's a deeper part of the

brain having a sufficient

blood flow now they studied mindfulness

of research

and they saw that within 10 minutes what

we do

people even after years of training in

mindfulness

are not able to get into now put the

signs out of there

and get back to your sense you are the

one in command

over yourself you got that yeah

three minutes is hypothermia right yeah

and we're doing 10 minutes without

training that's good

okay in alaska we were in the water for

probably 30 seconds and i

never in my wildest dreams thought that

i could stay in cold water for three

more than like two minutes this is

testing every assumption i've ever made

about myself

in the cold i hate the cold and in a way

there's like a method to his madness you

know at first i was i was mad at him

i was like why are you training us and

then the other part of me

after a while thinking about it was like

[ __ ] just happens in life and you have

no control over it and

there's no training you just have to

like react

the house is on fire what are you going

to do survive

actually surviving is something that we

never do you never have to survive

you know yeah you have to survive

hypothermia like if you lose control

over your body

you will literally just collapse

i'm already freezing you go down put

your hands here

tight on your thighs long exhalation

and let the body do what the body is

able to do don't interfere

let it go you got it yeah

are you ready yeah it's just talking to

thomas that's how we're saying

yes let's do it let's do it baby let's

go

here [ __ ] it

here's what i've come to terms with

without training without any of this

the only thing we can rely on is our own

mind

if we can accomplish this something that

i legitimately think is impossible right

now

then we should be able to push our minds

beyond anything else

in regular life

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your brain knows what to

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let's do let's do it

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you got it

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get them on your thighs ties feel the

palms of your hands

they are walk this is the way you learn

how to deal with utmost stress

let it go you are thinking

uh

thomas i'm afraid of my hands

halfway through halfway

thomas you got that you got this

it's good together

[Applause]

[Music]

oh

how do you feel

hey guys good job ten minutes

like no preparation just the power of

the mind

dealing with stress severe stress

i have never ever seen thomas like in

that much just that much pain and that

much discomfort

like the vein on his on the side of his

neck was just popping i've never seen

like that suffering on a human's face

yeah

i'm so proud of thomas you just feel so

alive like all your primal instincts

just kick in

to save you i could do this again i'm

the egyptian iceman

not born for this weather but [ __ ] it

survive anything

i can't feel my hands i can't feel my

feet

is it a myth that if you stay a minute

and a half to two minutes in freezing

water like that you would just get

hypothermia

there are people who could collapse

because their vascular system is not

right

okay they're not in good condition but i

prepared you and you

working well now yeah you feel good

amazing

10 minutes no preparation just the power

of the mind

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this is so painful things around the

corner opening up

so your extremities the blood from your

extremities and from your arms your legs

are now mixing in with your

warm core blood you know

like you feel the cold blood going

through your body it feels wow this

feels cold

it's coming back like i did not shiver

for a second in the cold water but

here you're like my entire body is just

going to do it

[Applause]

in the water i was picturing like

headlines being like

youtuber loses his hands in polish i

don't know i was like so

scared for a lot of it like i

legitimately thought i was gonna get out

and

no longer have control of my hands when

i get out i couldn't move them

i was looking at my hands and they

couldn't i couldn't fold them in

they were stuck here i've never

experienced that before are you proud of

yourself though

yeah definitely i legitimately i was

convinced i would get out there's

several moments when i was like alright

i'm standing up now

and what made you stay in probably you

guys like looking around being like

if you guys can do it i can do it too

what do you think of thomas

he sucked oh no no no no

that's it that's the yeah thomas was

great

he had an issue but look how he got with

his focus

through his trauma through his issue and

you got an issue

you think looking at this hey man you

follow thomas during this wildly

unpredictable day

whim put us in the ice water five times

longer than what he ever usually does

with fully trained groups and by the end

of it we were promised that the

following morning

wim was finally going to introduce us to

his famous breathing technique

to help us cope with a cold

it's too early for this let's have some

[Music]

coffee

[Music]

crazy

right now we're about to do finally the

breathing he's going to be leading the

team for about 45 minutes and is in 45

minutes

okay are you relaxed yes

just move your body a little shake it

you know

get the [ __ ] out i'm here i'm here i

wake up

i'm gonna do my best and everybody is

gonna

possibly do three minutes without air in

the lungs

so think and feel as if you fill up your

belly

through your mouth or nose it doesn't

matter pull it in

then the chest and then into your heart

and then you let it go

belly check high light and go

belly chest hide

letting go belly guy

let him go would you

like to see waves on the shore

and letting go letting go

this is round number one if you feel

light-headed loose in the body

tingling it's all all right breathe

into it intensify whatever you feel

intensify and three boulier

as we're finally starting to learn the

method i think it might be a good time

to explain

what it consists of there's three main

components

breathing meditation and gradual cold

exposure

and its main objective is to awaken the

deeper parts of the brain that wim

claims we've lost control over first

whim's meditation technique differs from

traditional practices by preparing the

mind and body

to stay strong and calm during

situations of stress when the

fight-or-flight response

is activated he then gradually takes

people

through cold exposure countless

independent studies have shown that cold

exposure boosts the immune system

and decreases inflammation in the body

which is also why pro-athletes use it

all the time

for recovery but win believes the cold

can do

so much more and lastly his breathing

technique is designed to take deep

inhales and gentler exhales in order to

take in

more air than we're letting out this

allows your body to function at a higher

level than normal

it can get you to hold your breath for

three to four minutes

this process can in some cases cause a

wide variety of physical

and emotional responses

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yes

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it's all right all right

okay okay

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relax relax

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oh okay oh okay

breathe good and relax

deep enough and three full yet

letting go two

pull the end letting go

one fully head letting go

of anything relax guys relax

it's all right the blood has been

alkalized oh

good

at some point i was just just completely

out of my body

i feel amazing i've never been able to

like hold my breath longer than like 45

seconds so holding it for three minutes

was like

trippy it felt like 10 seconds

like you lose track of time like i'm

holding my breath

and then he's like good that's three

minutes i was like whoa that felt like

20 seconds

when you were holding the breath for

like three minutes i saw his hand was

like

like a little bit like that so i just

started filming and suddenly he was like

his eyes were like rolled up and i

thought he had like a seizure

what the [ __ ] just happened as we

thought we were finally going through

the full wim hof method

he decided to fully flip the script

again

and skip the rest of the training and go

straight to the mountain

today shut the [ __ ] up and let's climb

this mountain

it's about do it leave the mountain

alone with your pathetic

thoughts over done and now we go up

the mountain and do it buddy already

knows

what it is going up against

it is so cold outside

and it's snowing and we're about to

climb this mountain

hopefully we'll make it to the top

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so when decided to completely reverse

the

the whole setup for us so he started

with showing us the power of our minds

and then

training us but even with all of that he

still decided to skip day three of

training which is usually more

more breath work and like kind of ice

baths and take us straight up the

mountain

they've never done this with a group

before ever and all the groups they've

had here for training is the first time

he's done it like this

and it's like we're the guinea pigs for

it i mean the only thing we can rely on

is ourselves at this point

like in each other right like it's just

this is on like the verge of being

reckless

i mean it is pretty much reckless and i

think he even acknowledges it but i

guess we'll see uh

where recklessness can take us

wow climb the mountain already here

like your spikes

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hey baby let it snow

let it snow let it snow and let us go

pep talk so that's what we do yeah let's

go hey pep talk is over man

we are just gonna do it so here it is

and you

guys know what to do yeah what is it one

step

another one another one and then we

reach the top

this is it what's happening bro [ __ ] now

or never

dude nobody's even skiing that's how

it's

cold stop thinking it's cold it's hot

it's hot

it's hot

how does this make any [ __ ] sense can

somebody tell me please

no it doesn't none of it does

we picked a day where it's the worst

weather conditions possible no [ __ ] dude

my mom

she's going to watch this and she's

going to [ __ ] kill me

no way this is the speedo guy of the

group let's do this

you always have this right

[ __ ] are we doing it's minus [ __ ]

three or four

celsius climbing a freaking mountain in

poland why

we could be in hawaii right now you know

could be in hawaii

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we cross anyone right now coming up or

down

they think we're freaking kids there's

just like eight people

shirtless walking up this museum

mountain i mean

maybe we should take that advice and

just stop nope

okay okay just focus on like one step at

a time that's the only thing that works

for me right now

i think about the [ __ ] two hours

ahead of us

makes me very sad

it will not stop just go on

fourth of the way there starting to feel

it on my back mostly

but just trying to focus on the

breathing and just follow women's

footsteps

keeps you distracted just thinking of

your breath this is like

slow pain whereas the ice bath was

instant shock and so if you keep

keep your calm i think you can you can

make it up

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

it's a power of the moment

coming to you and then suddenly the body

is able to do so much more

[Music]

this guy's spot was sharp just like a

punch

whereas this is getting colder and

colder

and because we're climbing up a mountain

as well we're getting more tired

a little bit more altitude oh do you

feel that

that feels good that's a whip straight

to the chest

ah this fresh snow it's not helping the

situation though

it's the fingers they're like blocks

[Music]

ah some

[ __ ] wind we just got to the point

where the

wind is really starting to catch up and

there's snow

hitting it hard in the face it's so cold

look at these trees this is so crazy

let's go max

it's pretty deep we're getting too deep

we're about 1900 meters in elevation

which is almost

like it's over it's it's 5800 feet and

at this point the snow this one still

goes up all the way here so

can't it's almost lips anymore i can't

feel my hands but

other than that the internals are still

warm thomas is gone tom just wants to

[ __ ] run down there

and i second that let's go a few hundred

meters from the mountain summit

we got stuck the snow levels were

getting up to our waist and making the

call to continue the trek to the top

became extremely unsafe amidst the

intensifying

weather conditions we should be sensible

about this

together with the windchill it is more

than 20.

and it is impossible to to go up

still it's going to be here we did it we

did we bloody did it hell yeah we bloody

did it

continuing past this point would have

put us in real danger

but in our eyes and in whims eyes we did

it

[Music]

it took us a silent climb down of

reflection and a day of warming back up

to fully understand the purpose

of all the pain crazy like a monkey

crazy like a monkey i will

we begin to realize is that wim's

objective this entire week

hadn't been to teach us his method but

instead to show us that even without it

the human mind is capable of so much

more than we ever

thought possible that we were capable of

so much more than we thought possible

and that no matter what challenge we're

going through in our lives we should

never lose hope and underestimate our

ability to shine

and find the strength within us to

succeed we spent the morning after the

climb doing a group reflection with win

and he decided to end our trip

where it all began i wanted to complete

the make it full circle

and so now i want to end this

ritualistic basically he wants us to

take these torches

light them up and walk back to that

waterfall that you guys that everybody

jumped off the first day

normally i go and do not exceed

no longer than two minutes in ice water

immersion

you guys did five times you guys

jumped directly from seven meters down

even

gainers i saw hey what was going on here

because you have three years of working

together

or even more always going into

discomfort

that means you have gone out of the

normal

way of thinking and that made you

for me perfect to be my guinea pigs

for new research pioneering because we

gotta revolutionize something

in this world and show that we are made

of

much more than we think and for that we

have to dive into the depth

yeah and for that you got fear right now

because this is normal this is nature

this is for the guys who venture who

pioneer

who go past their fear and their

controlled

way of thinking they go past and show

new ways new directions and that was the

aim

of these last four days you guys

did bloody great to unlock your

potential

we have given ourselves fully the last

four days

to show new directions past fear

past fear there is a lot more coming to

us

you are the new generation you are the

youth you got to change this world

now unlock your own power of your own

mind because it's so beautiful

[Music]

[Applause]

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uh

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oh

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so

you