And Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength

The three pillars of health – diet, exercise, and environmental training.

For at least half a century the conventional wisdom about maintaining good physical health has rested on the twin pillars of diet and exercise. While those are no doubt vital, there’s an equally important, but completely ignored, third pillar – environmental training.

If you're interested in health, read this book.

The writing is enjoyable even mondain descriptions are woven with scenic descriptions that simply draw you into the story. The author found a nice balance between the magical and the earthly subjective experiences.

I had begun adding 30 seconds of barely-cold water to the end of my showers several years ago because I had read that it benefitted one's mitochondria, but it took reading an interview of Scott Carney by Dr. Mercola to make me start adding ten more seconds of true cold each time.

Then I made time to start this book, and it has left me so inspired that I feel motivated to work on healthy exercise (at age 60) more than I ever have. I don't need Kilimanjaro; just taking all the little self-discovery steps ahead are enough because this book is so compelling. Thank you, Scott, for taking us all up the mountain of your personal transformation. I not only share your awe of and respect for Wim Hof; I also feel that for you, and I marvel at the potential that regaining a living connection to my environment holds for me.

Anyone interested in cold therapy and the Wim Hof method will surely enjoy this book. It's a quick read and stays interesting throughout all 13 chapters. The book features many key players in the cold therapy/hypoxic breathwork arena including Laird Hamilton, Ray Cronise, and Rick Rubin. He also explores the evolutionary history of humans and their relationship with cold climates. A critical (and measured) evaluation of the Wim Hof method from a skeptic who is also a great story teller. It's a fascinating book you'll enjoy and want to share with others.

The experiment and analysis Scott Carney went through and researched and then told through this book is impressive. For anyone looking to connect more with then inner world as well as the world we see this is a great read. Practices meant for each of us to use.

This book should come with a warning label: following its example could kill you. It chronicles the journey of a journalist who converts from skeptic to zealot in following the teachings of Wim Hof, Dutch leader of what could be described as a human performance cult. His regimen is based on three foundations: breathing exercises, meditation, and subjecting the body to hypothermic challenges. The latter range from swimming beneath the ice in frozen lakes to climbing mountains shirtless. The author duly notes that there have been deaths among followers of this method, yet seems unfazed. This seems to be because, like most of the followers of this movement, he is a young, egocentric, Western male who dreams of “unlocking his inner superman”. There is some ongoing gibberish about evolutionary destiny and “driving a wedge between the mind and the autonomic nervous system”, a phrase that not only makes no sense to me, but seems to actually contradict what he is trying to achieve. Along the way, there are claims to health benefits ranging from weight loss to curing autoimmune diseases.

As a physician, I can assure you that these claims rest on very thin scientific ice. It is well established that physical torment results in endorphin release and immune suppression, which may explain some of the highly selected success stories reported here. More importantly, the two milder prongs of the Iceman method, breathing exercises and meditation, have been long documented to have the same benefits by themselves! This has been known to society for thousands of years as yoga. Something to think about before you jump in a frozen lake.

This book really opened my eyes about how complacent and constantly comfortable we've become. Our ancestors crossed deserts and oceans and frozen tundras without even the slightest hint of what we would consider modern technology. Vikings and pilgrims didn't have Gore-Tex base layers, and yet our ancestors were able to survive, and even flourish. Now we complain about being hot if a room is over 78 degrees Fahrenheit or we're cold if it's less than 65!

An extraordinary account by an investigative journalist that is as pleasurable to read as a good novel. An inspiring nudge to reconnect with the environment if you have been living an a narrow comfort zone.

I am in the process of working my way through Wim Hof's ten week course but even though I am familiar with the method this book added to my knowledge of it.

This book has reinforced my view that breathing exercise, meditation and embracing cold is possibly as close to the mythical panacea for improving health as I am likely to find.

The bottom line is that this is both an informative and enjoyable read.

I must admit for starters I haven't finished reading the whole book yet. That's where the difference will come in between a 5 and a 3 star rating. So far the book has covered more about his achievements in life and the writers feeling on how it can all be a scam. There's been very little regarding actually giving you information on how to better yourself by utilizing some or all of his techniques.