What Was Jon Scheyer Talking About When He Mentioned The Wim Hof Method?

During Jon Scheyer’s pre-season presser, almost casually, he mentioned the Wim Hof breathing method.

It seemed interesting and we wanted to go back and take a closer look at what it’s all about.

Turns out Wim Hof is Dutch and an extreme athlete. He is also known as the Iceman because he has done some stuff in extreme cold that, really, should have killed him.

But it didn’t.

His technique involves, according to Wikipedia, “willpower, exposure to cold water, and breathing techniques designed to lower body carbon dioxide levels.“

We’re not going to try to relay all the science because, inevitably, we’ll get it wrong. Basically though it seems that Hoff can evoke a controlled stress response. Essentially, he seems to be able to control certain functions that are generally considered involuntary. It also leads to a decrease in inflammation and helps produce a relaxed state with many concurrent health benefits including lowering your blood pressure.

We don’t know if Duke was doing this before Scheyer or if this is his idea. It is at least the first time that we can recall hearing it mentioned.

As it turns out there’s an app (ok a few apps) for that. We don’t guess many of you need to practice to be under Alaskan ice, but, generally speaking, it seems like something that could benefit a lot of people. Good of him to mention it.