The Wim Hof Method by Hof Wim

Author:Hof, Wim [Hof, Wim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473574090
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2020-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 23 percent of American adults — more than fifty-four million people — have been diagnosed by a doctor with arthritis, a disease characterized by joint pain. Another forty million or so have reported symptoms consistent with an arthritis diagnosis. Among the fifty-four million who have been diagnosed, approximately twenty-four million report being limited in their activities as a result of their arthritis. That’s a lot of suffering.2 But it doesn’t have to be that way.

While physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture (in addition to medication) have all helped arthritis sufferers alleviate their pain and discomfort to various degrees, the disease is not believed to be curable. But like Crohn’s, it’s a disease that’s exacerbated by inflammation.3 This is why so many people with arthritis take anti-inflammatory medications and, in severe cases, steroids. But what if you could drastically reduce the inflammation in your joints without taking any medication at all? What if you could get back to enjoying the physical activities you love without having to endure the pain and discomfort you have come to associate with them?

Henk van den Bergh is a Dutch blacksmith who lost his mother at the age of fifty-six due to complications stemming from rheumatoid arthritis. Nearing fifty himself, he came to me because his own rheumatoid arthritis had become severely debilitating. He could hardly work in the forge, and he was facing the likelihood of wrist and elbow surgery. He was in a lot of pain, and he was desperate. The medications his rheumatologist had prescribed weren’t working, and he’d reached the point where he could barely walk. A friend said to him, “Go see Wim Hof,” and figuring he had nothing to lose, he did.

Henk was one of about forty people who registered for one of my two-day workshops. It was held just a couple of towns over from where he lived, in Blaricum. At dinner on the first night, I sat across the table from him and got to know his story. He told me that he hated the cold and that his body was in such bad shape that he couldn’t even ride his motorcycle anymore. He doubted that he could do a single push-up, let alone twenty, and he was thinking of quitting his job even though his business, the van den Bergh family forge, dated back to the 1830s.

“Tomorrow you’re going to do forty push-ups,” I said.

“Are you crazy?” he said.

“Yeah, sort of,” I said. “But about life, you know.” I looked him dead in the eyes. “Tomorrow you’re going to do forty push-ups,” I repeated, and he could tell that I meant it.

The next morning after breakfast, I took Henk aside and walked him through the breathing. He was skeptical and reluctant, but sensing my conviction, I suppose, he went along with it. People started to gather around us, and Henk realized that he’d reached a point where he couldn’t turn back. He was convinced that it was madness, pure madness, but he resolved to try his best.

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