This may only work for people with a certain variation of obstructive sleep apnea. This is a very effortless way for me to block my airway, and thus, hold my breath proper. It is as if I am gulping but stopping the reflex halfway. To obstruct my airway, I slightly raise the back of my tongue and let it fall back towards my throat a bit. It is important to note that retention times cannot be objectively tracked if small amounts of air are getting to the lungs. However, I’ve kept my airways open with no air in my lungs and it does not seem to adversely effect the exercise. I recommend closing off the airway so you do not breath in small amounts of air.On the last power breath, let all the air out.I often throttle the last power breath or two since it seems to make for an easier transition into breath-holding and also seems to make my retention times longer. I can’t really go by the breath count because the efficiency of this in-breath changes from time to time according to how quiet I want the practice to be. This way, I don’t have to count my breaths and my conscious mind is more out of the way. If I am lightheaded to a certain degree, I will move on to step 2. I honestly go by how “sufficiently hyperventilated” I am by judging my lightheadedness. To do one round of Wim Hof’s main breathing practice: When it comes to the “reset nervous system” effect, the higher the intensity of breathing the better. Anything faster than this seems to create too much physical exertion and this causes extra oxygen consumption. The exhale should stay the same but everything else should be done a little bit faster. I find the best pattern to follow for longer retention times is the pace in this guided meditation increased in intensity by about 20%. Diaphragm breathing is recommended for power breathing. Wim Hof demonstrates diaphragm breathing by raising the diaphragm for the first 50% of the in-breath, then raising the chest for the rest. Start the next breath when no perceptible amount of air is leaving the body. Try to relax your body with a sinking effect as you breathe out. Do not expel all of the breath by pushing it out, let the breath out using the natural fall of the chest and diaphragm. I do 0.5 to 1 seconds as this timing seems more optimal for hyper-oxygenation and does not put unnecessary strain on the diaphragm. Hold for 1-2 seconds (in Wim Hof’s demonstrations, he is usually holding for 2 seconds but sometimes 3).This makes cold exposure a bit more comfortable. This is because the more-rapid inhalations cause my body to heat up quite a bit, especially my face, ears, and hands. I personally do this in-breath about 35% more rapidly when I plan on doing cold exposure afterwards. It should make for somewhat comfortable breathing at first, after some experience you will not find it uncomfortable in the slightest. This is somewhat forced but should not be so forced and so rapid that it is not sustainable for 90 breaths. I find it is easy to enter a trance state when doing this practice while sitting upright. Of course, a neophyte should start this practice supine or in a reclined seated position to be safe. However, this breathing method seems to work fine in any position. The supine position is safest, most relaxing, and is the best position to introduce diaphragm breathing in. The best position to do this in is supine with the head propped up a bit more than what a typical fluff pillow would allow. I snugly cover the lower (and sometimes upper) body with a soft blanket since I find my lower body gets a bit cool during the practice.I also might do a simple stretch, during the second round of power breathing, where I lean forward and try to touch my toes. This breathing exercise just doesn’t feel complete without the full-body tingles. This seems counterintuitive since a lack of blood circulation often leads to tingles, but I will literally feel no tingles in my legs during the practice when I don’t have good blood flow to them. I can use these tingles to relax those parts during the breath retentions, and the breathing practice will passively relax body parts better when I have proper circulation. This way, I can get tingles in my legs, feet, toes, etc. Sometimes I lack blood flow to my legs (probably from sitting at my computer), in which case I will do some stretches and/or movements to get the blood flowing a bit better.
I do the Eliot Hulse practice where you stretch backwards with the mouth wide open.Existing articles on the Wim Hof method lack detail - especially the info on actual performing the method. Much of the information here is meant to compliment WHM information easily found on the interwebs. This is general information and personal observations of the Wim Hof method.
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