Breathing New Life: A Wim Hof Expert’s Guide to Personal Growth
Founders Intro
Breathing – Nothing comes more naturally. We all do it until we don’t!
As an ex-smoker, the subject carried a mix of fear and fascination for me. I’ve often avoided activities that might expose the toll years of smoking have taken. But then I crossed paths with Gus Hoyt, and everything changed.
It all started with a simple online chat about the delivery options for the pair of Tabbed Work Pants he had ordered, as Gus mentioned he was heading off to lead a mountain retreat in Austria the very next day.
Naturally, I was intrigued. When he returned, our conversation deepened and took shape into the interview Blog; you’ll find below—one that I hope inspires and guides you on your ongoing journey towards a happier, healthier life.
James.
Interview Blog
By Gus Hoyt - Instagram @BreathAndIce
Personal Transformation
What motivated you to start Breath and Ice?
How long do you have?! The short answer is I was completely burnt-out. My mental and physical health was in tatters and I hadn’t reached 40.
I needed change. Deep reflection reminded me of the calm I felt in scuba and freediving. Common elements: Cold water and breathing exercises to moderate my physical and mental state.
Was there a turning point that made you commit to this journey?
It was a gradual path of discovery, and I love going down rabbit holes! But I guess it was during a guided breathwork session in Thailand where I had an out of body experience, my racing mind shut the hell-up and saw a beautiful possible future.
How has practicing breathwork and cold exposure impacted your physical and mental health?
Let’s just say I had crippling social anxiety, depression that meant I struggled to leave the house. I couldn’t open jars due to injury and arthritis and my gastro-intestinal tract was molten lava. As I edge towards 50 these issues have all gone and I’m now pretty much in the best shape of my life.
That is inspirational. And what was the most surprising change you noticed after starting your practice?
Great question! The calm is a biggie, the ability not to just ‘react’ to life. To feel agency and control in a world spiralling into chaos, but probably it’s where life has taken me - whether it’s standing next to my wheelie-bin full of ice on dark February morning or guiding others into a frozen lake at the top of a Norwegian Mountain. I’m often overcome with ecstatic joy!
Getting Started
For those new to this, what’s the easiest way to start?
Honestly - a cold shower. Finish your normal shower, smile, turn the dial down suddenly to as cold as it goes and exhale - always exhale as you go into the cold. Start small and build up in small incremental little time pockets.
Rather than time yourself obsessively, I’d suggest staying in till you either stop panicking or start to feel GOOD. That’s long enough - especially at first. But no more than 30 seconds at the start. Oh, and swearing is fully embraced!
What challenges did you face in the early-stages and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge is always taking the first step and actually doing it. Be Yoda, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Then doing it again because the first time isn’t always a ‘lovely’ experience. This is something I have really learnt, it’s all about momentum to build progress. One step at a time.
Of course back then people thought you were a complete nutter too, at least public perception is changing on these topics.
Are there any misconceptions about breathwork or cold exposure you would like to Address?
Oh gosh, so many. First up, it’s NOT a competition. NEVER push yourself beyond safe parameters. It’s about safely expanding your ‘possible’ and becoming who you are meant to be, not smashing it for Insta.
As for breathwork, again, many think you have to go hell for leather and of course with the rise of popularity, we are seeing more extreme versions emerge which can put participants in a lot of danger. We call this ‘YouTube Breathing’ as it bumped-up the algorithm. Find a local breath worker you relate to and start there. Honestly, nothing beats the energy of a good guided session.
What equipment or setup is needed to begin practicing breath and ice work at home?
This is one of the best things - none or very little. You don’t even need a yoga mat, you can do the breathing in bed under the duvet.
As for the cold exposure, most of us have showers, which can serve you in the colder months, but in the summer you may need to seek out alternatives.
If you have a garden or safe balcony you can use pods or even better a wheelie bin as they hold more water so you get a proper full immersion with cold getting in all the crevices. Pods are a great solution but you tend to be quite bunched-up. Both these options are under £100.
Do you need super expensive filters or nasty chemicals - course not. I would keep using it till it whiffs a bit then water your garden and refill. If you want to spend thousands of pounds for a self-filtering, ice producing tub in brushed aluminium or titanium - go for it, but I’m team wheelie bin all the way!
Is there a minimum amount of time someone needs to dedicate each day or week to See health benefits?
This is the exciting bit! 30 seconds! Yup, that’s right, just 30 seconds. The largest study of (physical) health benefits of cold exposure by Buijze et al. found that 30 seconds will bring you most of the benefits. Everyone can manage 30 seconds in the cold shower. Of course, to get the majority of benefits they found that a longer time of 90 seconds is recommended, and anything above this is essentially training mental resilience / strength.
With breathwork - even taking two to five minutes mid-morning and mid-afternoon to breathe consciously will bring a vast raft of benefits.
Fantastic, some easy-to-achieve goals straight out of the gates! And importantly, are there any safety tips you would recommend for beginners to keep in mind?
Go slow and always have someone else present if you are doing an ‘ice bath’ don’t overdo it. Of course, some of you will and you’ll learn important lessons on these days, and how to recognise real limits so not to do it again.
Certainly, don’t focus on time as you’re a different person every time you approach the cold. Feel into yourself instead and you’ll see far greater growth.
Never, NEVER do the WHM breathing in or next to a body of water - you can pass out and drown. Safety first. Always.
Obviously, if there are any professionals locally, hit them up for some advice and attend a class or workshop. (On this note as well, beware of ‘influencers’ and always check to see people’s accreditation, journey, first aid and insurance status.)
Practical Benefits
How does breathwork and cold exposure help with managing stress or anxiety?
We could chat about this all day, but essentially they work together in three main ways (but there’s so many more).
Both the WHM Breathwork and Ice Baths take us to an extreme stress response - but in a safe environment. This is known as EUStress and is the healthy short-intense bursts that our stress response evolved for. After these bursts we return to our base ‘factory settings’ rather than bouncing around in the fight or flight mode of chronic stress - the constant background stress which is the one slowly killing us.
Plus, after an ice bath we’re full of the ‘feel-good’ DOSE hormones. So we feel great with an instant reward!
By finding/remaining calm and even enjoying these states of high stress we redefine how our mind interprets stress in the body - so when we are next triggered at work or home, we just shrug it off.
Lastly, all of our bodily systems are firing on full volume following this. Our cardio-vascular and respiratory systems are operating more efficiently as is our digestion and everything else - so we’re working better and less prone to the effects of stress or are able to undo all the damage it’s done.
Can these practices complement a fitness or exercise routine? If so, how?
Certainly. It’s a very complex area though. But breathwork before exercise will supercharge your performance - by opening up your lungs, priming our red blood cell oxygen carrying ability. Afterwards it can speed up recovery and the Cori Cycle (turning lactic acid back to usable energy) and even cut injury time.
Likewise, a warmer ice bath / cold plunge (10-16 degrees) after training helps break down lactic acid build-up and inflammation of the muscles. But if you are a bodybuilder wanting hypertrophy, avoid an ice bath for at least an hour after training. A regular practice will mean a more efficient CV and energy delivery system within the body already
Do you think these practices help with creativity or productivity?
Absolutely, the commitment required to voluntarily expose ourselves to regular cold exposure creates a mental acuteness that allows us to tackle all kinds of previously ‘stressful’ elements of our work. We find ourselves just doing it. No bother.
Breathwork likewise helps build and create a mental space devoid of stress and anxiety, freeing us to reach new highs in our daily work/life performance.
I’ve done work with individuals, athletes, schools, creative industries, accountancy firms, executive management and world-leading corporations, all are amazed at the benefits - both short-term and continued.
Building a Routine
For someone juggling work, family, and other responsibilities, what’s the smallest consistent habit they can adopt for noticeable change?
Take a cold shower. The largest study has shown that just 30 seconds a day will bring a raft of positive health benefits. Add this to the end of your regular shower, and who knows, over time you may just stretch that to 60 and then 90 seconds to really cash-in on the maximum benefits.
Every mid-morning and mid-afternoon, stop what you are doing, bring your awareness to your breath and breathe just using your diaphragm. You can do this for just three breaths or keep going for five minutes. Reap the benefits of increased energy, concentration, and focus.
What’s your personal daily or weekly routine with breath and ice practices?
It does kind of depend on my workload but ideally it is breathwork after waking-up, a cold shower, then on Mondays and Wednesday and Saturdays a cold plunge in my wheelie bin, and on Fridays a cycle and then river swim with my buddies.
Every mid-morning and mid-afternoon a nice cheeky bit of introspective breathwork goes a long way.
How do you stay consistent, especially on busy or difficult days?
You’ve just got to do it. Time helps here as you will skip the showers some days, and then you’ll feel like crap in the afternoon. Time helps us understand this and what we need to do to make ourselves feel good.
The last time I got properly depressed it blind-sided me. That is until I could view it objectively and say that I was working too many hours editing and re-editing my book (the boring bit), skipping breathwork routines and even cold showers as i ‘was just too exhausted and need coffee’ and wild swims (my weeks social high-light) as I was too busy. No surprise I slid back into depression - I literally held my hand as I walked myself along the road towards it.
Are there any complementary habits (e.g., meditation, journaling) you recommend pairing with these practices?
I find that breathwork just naturally brings about a state of mindfulness. With this I enjoy and immerse myself in the task at hand, even if it’s doing the dishes. I sometimes meditate and always take a little time at the end of a breathwork practice if I have time.
Journaling is great but I’m working on lots of creative projects again now, so this is where I put that energy right now.
I’ve also got back into making models and sketching / painting just for the hell of it.
Advice and Inspiration
What’s been the most rewarding part of helping others through this work?
Pretty much every workshop I run, a couple of people will tell me that it was a life-changing experience. Almost everyone continues their own practice to their own needs and abilities, this is something I teach and stress in all my work. It’s just amazing to know I’ve helped so many people find themselves, be alright again in their own skin and also go on to completely smash their personal lives.
What advice would you give to someone feeling hesitant or skeptical about trying this for the first time?
Find someone locally who is trained, accredited and registered with first aid training and has insurance who you can trust and reach out to them. They should be happy to answer any basic questions and then, when you are ready, just sign-up and take a course or join an workshop. In person is 100% better than anything online, you’ll get a personal guide.
Maybe they aren’t so local - that’s OK too - I have taken time and travelled all over the place to visit the right person’s workshop and have never regretted it.
Call to Action
If you could give readers one piece of advice to improve their lives today, what would it be?
Stop what you are doing. Notice your breath. REALLY notice your breath. Close your eyes and feel within. Keep breathing but don’t control your breath. Repeat for as long as feels good or as long as you’re able. We take over 20,000 breaths a day, consciously becoming aware of our breath is a gateway into every element of ourselves. Oh, and take a f***ing cold shower tomorrow morning! ;)
Gus is available for consultation.
His Instagram account is @BreathAndIce
All his details can be found on his website, and he’ll be only too happy to hear from you.
