This Video Will Teach You How to Hold Your Breath for an Incredibly Long Time.
As a lifelong asthmatic, I am the least likely to win a breath hold contest (which is fine, because that means I’m also more likely to win the coolest person you know contest because there’s nothing cooler than shortness of breath after jogging on a cold day). But thanks to the breathing meditation method that I have been practicing for the past few weeks, I feel ready to challenge all competitors. (Except for David Blaine ; lungs aside, he just seems like a jerk .)
He came to us from the Dutch “extreme athlete” Wim Hof, who holds the world record for low temperature underwater swimming and ice half marathon running, which pretty much identifies him as my polar opposite in terms of breathing . On his website, Hof promotes his self-proclaimed Wim Hof Method, “based on a foundation of three pillars; Breathing , cold therapy and adherence . ” As refreshing as “cold therapy” sounds in the midst of a hot Brooklyn summer, the first one is what interests me most. (In terms of commitment, yes, I can take it or leave it.)
Hof’s breathing method is based on alternating cycles of deep circular breaths with periods of holding the breath to induce a meditative state. This distinguishes a larger group of non-medical therapies, often referred to as ” breathwork “. Basically, you want to induce a kind of controlled hyperventilation that will increase oxygenation in your blood. As Wim Hof put it: “The amount of oxygen that we breathe in while breathing affects the amount of energy released into the cells of our body.” If this sounds too quick and easy to you, various breathing therapies have actually been studied for their health benefits and shown to possibly ” induce relaxation responses in the body and benefit both physical and mental health. ” … And this is what Wim Hof looks like:
The more intangible benefits of breathing work – relaxation, increased energy levels, some people even think you can use controlled breathing to induce a hallucinatory state – and Vin Hof’s video definitely helped me learn how to hold my breath for a long time (even though that it gave me a funny excuse to tell my wife with Hof’s hypnotic accent, “Take peace, get away with stress!” is like going through a guided meditation session led by Le Chiffre ). After practicing his techniques for just a few weeks, I can now easily hold my breath for three full minutes with minimal effort.
Of course, holding your breath is not really the goal of Hof’s exercises – and note that you should only do them while following these instructions, which include lying or sitting first and never doing them in or near water as controlled breath. can make you dizzy or even faint, but people in YouTube comments definitely love bragging about how they used his techniques to learn to walk for five minutes or more without inhaling. (Though I look askance at the guy who humbly brags that he holds his breath for up to 11 minutes.) The way the video above is structured – with three consecutive “rounds” of breathing and holding the breath, certainly adds an element of gamification to the mix that I love. Some stubborn Hofffers advertise the physical sensations of guided breathing sessions, ranging from auditory hallucinations to tingling in the arms and legs. The most I can tell you is that after I graduate, I always feel extremely relaxed and energetic, no doubt because – given my typical horrible habit of lounging at the computer while working – my brain finally has – that is, extra O₂ to work with after a day wasted feeding on what can be extracted from my sluggish blood cells. Breathing is good for your health; who knew? This story has been updated to include a disclaimer that you don’t have to be dumb when practicing controlled breathing – only when sitting or lying down and never in or near water.