Wim Hof Method 10-Week Video Course

Summary

Wim Hof Method is a good alternative mind / body training to improve overall physical fitness and awareness for traders. The training materials are not as organized as desirable but they are functional. The course is a bit pricey but if you find that you need a solution outside of classic meditation or physical training, it can be the right course for you.

Review

Mr. Wim Hof is a Dutch dare devil. His ability to withstand extremely cold envrionment and being able to carry out extreme sports under the same condition is well known all around the world. He has written a book, Becoming the Iceman, about his journey in figuring out his way to handle extreme cold weather. This review is about his 10-week video course on training normal people to benefit from his techniques. Since the book is throw in as an part of the course, it will be reviewed here too.

I was quite out of shape after dropping off from my regular daily routines for about a year due to some extreme circumstances. I figured I need a quick boost to help me get back in shape. I remember I have the book written by Mr. Hof lent to a friend long time ago. It is time to get it back.

It turns out, he likes what is written in the book so much that he has signed up for the video course too. He showed me the lessons and I have been practising some of the routines since. Just 2 weeks after, I no longer feel the need for big winter jacket while walking in the street here where the windchill is -10 C. It also improves my endurance as the recovery time from rigorous exercises is shorten significantly. This answered at least one aspect about the course. That is, the training works.

But this is a trading focus website. Why on Earth I review a physical training course?

For a lot of people, physical training may not be their first choice for improving awareness and mindfulness which are very important in trading. Many famous fund managers use meditation to achieve that. The problem, however, as I learned from teaching others basic meditation, is that not everyone can benefit from meditation quickly. For some people, it could mean months of practice with no results at all.

The Wim Hof method, based on breathing exercise as the foundation, actually works well to bridge people from not able to meditate at all, to the point they can at least forget everything else during the training. It is another form of meditative practice that may work well for those who find rigorous exercise regime not possible and that meditation has been a big challenge to produce results.

After all the good things about the course being said, there are quite a number of annoying issues we have to discuss here.

First, although the training methods are clearing shown in the video and much better than the book itself, which was written some years ago with only sketch description of his methods, Mr. Hof is clearly not a person who speak much in the public. Maybe he is not used to speak in English much as his native language is Dutch. At times re-watching the video is necessary to understand certain points better.

This also explains why the book itself was not well organized. Mr. Hof is clearly not the writer type. I guess we have to blame the editor of the book for not doing a good job in organizing the materials. The book can be read as an inspirational book as oppose to being a training manual because it is not. The book is quite enjoyable if you are the curious kind interested in what physical limitations Mr. Hof has overcome.

So, in terms of educative quality, the points are presented and can be understood but we do not really learn much about the scientific principles behind.

Many people on the net try to compare what Mr. Hof does with tummo, a Tibetan monk traditional training method to develop “internal fire”. From my limited knowledge of tummo, Mr. Hof’s technique and principles are not the same as tummo. If anything, his methods are more direct and result driven.

I have to say his training techniques are very original. That being said, he supplements his breathing and coldness techniques with a mix of simple meditation and yoga type exercises. Those are not the core of his techniques. You can replace those with your own exercise routines and meditation practices easily.

The course is priced at $247. But you can get the book at Amazon for just $10. So the question is whether the extra $200 plus dollars really buy you something that you cannot get from the book.

I asked myself if I have not watched the videos, could I extrapolate the techniques from the book correctly? My honest answer is no. But majority of the videos I find them lacking in terms of production quality. Hence if you are going to buy the course and watch the videos online by yourself only, the value feels lacking.

If you have someone else in your family interested in learning the method with you, the cost per person for the training materials immediately becomes more reasonable.

Overall, if you are not into regular meditation nor rigorous exercise regime, the Wim Hof method could be a good in-between solution that can improve your health and overall mental strength to deal with the tough trading environment we face nowadays.

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