Shadee Elmasry – Muslims React to the Wim Hof Method
AI: Summary ©
The theory of Wim Hof, a breathing expert, involves manipulating the breath to reduce body heat and increase heart rate, and it is important for people to breathe well at night to avoid burning fat. The technique involves sending people into anaphylactic shock, which is related to stress. People may have a positive or negative reaction to the technique, and it is possible to treat symptoms with positive thoughts. The root and symptoms of the stress are the root and symptoms of the breathing of players, and the root and symptoms of the stress are the root and symptoms of the breathing of players.
AI: Summary ©
Have you ever looked into Wim Hof? Yeah.
The the breathing expert. Wim Hof is amazing,
actually. This guy has done feats just by
the way he maneuvers the oxygen in his
body.
I haven't done any more than with him
than the 15 minute
exercise that he has. Yeah. I just you
know, I I read his book and the
course, and I actually wanted to talk to
you about it maybe offline one day around
what is in our tradition around vick. Like
we we must have access to all of
these things in our tradition. That Wim Hof,
how he manipulates his breath, because I I've
read about
people, you know,
who've went, you know, Muslims who've went to
mountains in in in the ice cold, and
and like sweat was, you know, coming off
their butt. Like, I I believe what we
have in our tradition, all of these things
that went off, but what I what I
was gonna say is that even in the
winter,
if you manipulate your breath and do certain
things and don't allow yourself to, you Yeah.
Actually, go for a run,
and and without even needing a face mask.
Okay.
With the Wim Hof method, one thing I
do know for sure is that one of
the reasons people feel tired
in the day is because they don't breathe
well at night.
Yeah.
If you don't breathe well at night, there's
usually 1 or 2 reasons.
Well, it's either the air is not circulating
or your nose
your septum is deviated or something.
I mean, breath breath is such a fascinating
subject. If you just read about
the fact that most of us do not
most everyone's shallow breathing all day.
You know? Like, people are not breathing. They're
not using the majority of the lung capacity.
Yeah. And
even in running,
like breathing and running is so important, like,
because you know, you, you, you burn fat
on the exhalation, on the
And so if, if you
manipulate your breathing when you're running, you can
go you can actually you can lower your
heart rate and go longer.
Mhmm. It means you can breathe right. If
you breathe right, most people, when they start
running, they go they just instinctually, before they
even need it, they go
you know, you you need to do that.
And so, you know, breathing from your nose,
diaphragmic breathing,
it really does go along with Can you
tell us summarize for us what Wim Hof's
theory is?
Oh, I mean, it's such a really it's
a big theory, and and
I what what I can summarize is a
is a is a he he believes
through manipulation of breath,
you can control what
most
people believe is uncontrollable.
So for example,
he had himself
in a controlled environment.
He was injected with a,
it was it was a poison of some
sort, and and this poison, if you give
it to a normal person, they go into
anaphylactic
shock, and the body will start basically going
like, you lose control, because
you don't you don't control that aspect of
your autonomic nervous system. And so poison goes
in, your body just,
you know, has a an act a reaction
that you cannot control. So his theory was
through breath, he can control that reaction. He
can basically
hey. Relax, buddy. It's okay. Don't don't.
And so he did. And so he through
controlling his breath, he basically signaled to his
body, his parasympathetic nervous system, everything is fine.
And and that that's what he that's how
he's able to run the marathon in Everest,
because the body wants to go into shock,
and he's saying, hey. Everything's okay. Do breath
to work. Don't don't don't go into shock.
Don't, you know, no need to go into
hypothermia.
Just relax. Mhmm.
And so then people thought, okay. He must
have been he must be a unicorn. Then
he taught people how to do this thing.
Yeah. Brought a bunch of people to Kilimanjaro,
wearing basically
boxers,
and then he had a bunch of people
injected.
So by through the manipulation
of breath, you can tell your body,
hey. It's gonna be okay. You know, that
that that's the theory of the Wim Hof
method. I remember,
listening or reading about something about tennis players
Yeah. And how in tennis, you may have
seen this too.
In tennis,
they try to separate what is it that
makes winners
keep winning
and people hit a wall
at the tough moments. And everyone says stuff
that it's it's all in in their head.
Right? And tennis players, they're getting their head
more than anyone else because he's the only
one on the court. Whereas a team,
you can maybe just transfer some of the
stress to another player.
It's a team sport. So tennis is different
in that regard. And it's also a moment.
Unlike boxing, you're in the moment. Right? But
in tennis, there's a pause,
and people get iced in that pause. And
that's where they separate winners from losers is
in the pause.
So
and they came upon ultimately the the the
the symptom
of the stress,
of the how they handle the stress is
how they breathe.
Okay. So they detected all of a sudden
in the stressful moment,
the loser
is somebody who who just he says stop
breathing.
He got tight. Stop breathing. When you do
that,
your body gets tired and your mind can't
think.
But the guys who made it through those
were the guys who,
who kept breathing normally.
And they said, like, what did you do
at that point? Well, I I started to
think of hold on. We can turn this
around. So he had a positive thought, but
the positive thought impacted
the breathing.
So now they took these losers, and they
said, alright. Forget trying to control thoughts. That's
hard. Why don't we just tell them to
control breathing?
Right?
So they went to the symptom,
and they found that a lot of players,
all of a sudden,
they're more successful in these
pressure moments
because they treated the symptoms. So the the
root and the symptom may actually have an
interaction.
It's not just thoughts
that produce
tight breathing or good breathing. It could be
the opposite too.
I mean, it's it's amazing. I got there
was a there's a Sheikh here in Istanbul
that's constantly it's like you listen to him.
He's always saying, you know, yellow tea.
Yellow tea.
And,
and in in that, he's
exhaling a lot of oxygen. You know? Well,
you know, it's it's basically like, you know,
like Wim Hof is a practice. Even running
is a practice. You know? Just
improve my running and get into this, you
know, runner's high in the zone and breathing
and all this kind of stuff, and I
don't take that mentality of the salah. Like
how like salah to me is not a
practice. You know,
practice that I'm trying to improve, and it's
not it's just something like, in New Jersey,
I grew up and we both grew up
in New Jersey. It's something and I went
to Islamic school. I went to.
It's something you do so you don't go
to *. You know? Yeah. You know? You
know? And and and a lot of that
stuff continues into adulthood, and so I always
like, if if
if I treat Sala the same way I
treat, like, women, and study it in the
same way I studied breathing, you know, can
that open I'm sure it can open infinitely
more interesting and important doors than women walking.
It's just not something I
Mhmm. And and also,
I I wanna think about how
dhikr without trying has to regulate breathing. That's
why I think there there has to be
a physical as well as a spiritual and
a, like, a mental and a physical element.
The mental is the meaning of what you're
saying. The spiritual is what Allah has put
in the blessing of saying these words. Simple
as that. Just a he put a blessing.
If you say this, I send you blessings.
That's it.
Thirdly, there is must be physical because if
I repeat
without realizing within 5 minutes, I'm gonna be
less than that. Within 30 seconds, my breathing
is regulated.
Once your breathing is regulated, all of a
sudden, the the nervousness goes down.
Yeah. Right? So there has to be a
link.
And I and it doesn't and you don't
need to do controlled breathing. You just say
the right words.