Wim Hof Breathing vs Other Techniques: What It Does and When to Use It

Wim Hof breathing has become one of the most talked about techniques in Western breathwork, and for good reason: it produces an intense, fast-acting sense of euphoria and mental stillness that few other practices can match. But it works very differently from calming techniques like box breathing or 4-7-8 breathing, and it is not the right starting point for everyone.

In this guide we walk through what the method actually does in your body, which claims the research supports and which it does not, and how it compares to slower, calming practices and to CO2 tolerance training. If you are newer to the whole area, our overview of what breathwork is is a gentler place to begin.

Most importantly, we cover how to know if you are ready for it. Wim Hof is a powerful tool, but it deserves a bit more respect and preparation than the average calming breath practice.

What is the Wim Hof Method?

The technique is named after Wim Hof, the Dutch athlete known as “The Iceman,” who has done an enormous amount to raise awareness of breathwork in Western culture. But the practice itself is not new. A very similar pattern has been used for centuries in Tibetan Buddhist practice under the name tummo breathing. Hof popularised and systematised a version of it alongside cold exposure and meditation.

The study that put Wim Hof on the map

Hof’s method attracted serious scientific attention after a 2014 study at Radboud University Medical Center. Researchers trained 12 volunteers for 10 days in Hof’s combination of breathing, cold exposure, and meditation, while 12 untrained volunteers served as a control group. All 24 were then injected with a purified bacterial toxin (endotoxin) derived from E. coli. This was not a live infection, but a component that reliably triggers flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, and nausea in a controlled research setting.

The trained group showed a markedly smaller inflammatory response and reported significantly fewer and milder symptoms than the untrained group. It was the first solid evidence that people could voluntarily influence their innate immune response, something previously assumed to be automatic and outside conscious control. It is a genuinely striking result, and it is the strongest piece of research Wim Hof has behind him.

Hof himself has also set numerous Guinness World Records over the years for feats of cold endurance, among them a barefoot half-marathon on snow and ice, and prolonged full-body ice immersion. Records in this space get broken and re-broken over time, so if you want to cite an exact current record for your own content, it is worth checking Guinness’s site directly rather than relying on an older number.

How to do the Wim Hof breathing technique

1. Take 20-30 big, strong breaths. Inhale fully into the belly, ribs, and chest; let the exhale be passive and relaxed. No pause between inhale and exhale: just keep the rhythm going.
2. On the final breath, exhale and hold. Let go of the last breath, then hold on the exhale and let your body settle. You may notice tingling, sharp sensations, or a curling of the hands and fingers, often called “claw hand.” This is a real and well-known effect of hyperventilation called tetany (not to be confused with tetanus, the bacterial infection, which is a genuinely easy mix-up but a different thing entirely). It happens because rapid breathing shifts your blood’s pH and temporarily changes how calcium behaves in your nerves and muscles.
3. When you feel the urge to breathe, take a deep breath in and hold for 10 to 15 seconds, then release with a big sigh.
4. Repeat for 3 to 4 rounds.

What is actually happening in your body

CO2, not oxygen, is what triggers your urge to breathe. The 20-30 big breaths offload a large amount of CO2 from your blood, which is exactly why you can hold your breath for so long afterward: your CO2 has to climb back up from a much lower starting point before it trips the urge-to-breathe signal again. It is not that you have suddenly become better at breath-holding. You have temporarily emptied the tank that triggers the alarm.

This matters for how you interpret your results. If you stopped practising Wim Hof for a while and tried a breath hold cold, it would very likely go back to a similar length as before. That is different from breath retraining approaches like Buteyko or CO2 tolerance training, where the goal is the opposite: instead of offloading CO2, you deliberately let it build up in small, controlled doses to train your tolerance to it over time. That is why CO2 tolerance work tends to produce longer-term improvements in your BOLT score and breath-hold capacity, while Wim Hof is excellent for an in-the-moment shift but is not designed to build lasting breath-hold capacity.

Why it feels so good

The hyperventilation phase causes a temporary drop in CO2 (hypocapnia), which constricts blood vessels in the brain and reduces cerebral blood flow, including measurably reduced blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for a lot of analytical thinking and mental chatter. This is a genuinely well-documented physiological effect. It is a plausible part of why the mental noise quiets down so noticeably during and after a round: with less blood flow to that region, the “thinking and planning” part of the brain has less fuel to keep chattering, and many people describe real stillness setting in as a result. It is worth being clear that this is an interpretation of well-established physiology rather than something researchers have directly proven causes the sense of calm, but it is a reasonable and widely cited explanation.

What the research does and does not support

Be honest with yourself about what is proven here. The immune-response research is genuinely strong. But the euphoric, cathartic feeling Wim Hof produces, while real and valuable in the moment, is not yet backed by strong evidence for lasting downstream benefits like long-term stress reduction or mental health improvement. Research on the mental health side is still early: some small studies have shown promising results, while at least one larger controlled trial found no significant change in stress or mood measures. That does not mean it does not work for you personally. If it feels great and you want it in your regular practice, that is a legitimate reason to keep doing it. Just do not oversell it as proven for things it is not proven for yet.

By contrast, CO2 tolerance and slow-breathing techniques already have more consistent longer-term evidence behind them. A systematic review of slow breathing found reasonably consistent effects on heart rate variability, parasympathetic activity and self-reported relaxation, none of which depend on hyperventilating first.

Wim Hof vs box breathing and 4-7-8: two different jobs

Techniques like box breathing and 4-7-8 breathing work by directly calming the nervous system in the moment. You can see this on a heart rate monitor, with heart rate visibly slowing down as you practise. They are a more gentle, direct hit, and a better entry point if you are new to breathwork.

Wim Hof is a different tool entirely: a big cathartic release rather than a gentle wind-down. It is fantastic before a meditation practice, or when you want a genuine reset. It is not the technique to reach for when you need to stay calm and functional in the moment, or right before something that requires alertness.

Who should be cautious with Wim Hof

This is the part worth taking seriously if you are newer to breathwork. Wim Hof can be genuinely anxiety-inducing for people who already struggle with anxiety or tend toward shallow, chest-based breathing: the hyperventilation phase can reinforce exactly the pattern you are trying to move away from. If that describes you, our guide to breathwork for anxiety covers gentler options first. Think of it like lifting a heavy weight. If you build up to it gradually, you can handle a lot. If you go straight to your max without preparation, you can hurt yourself.

A useful benchmark: your BOLT score (the number of seconds you can comfortably hold your breath after a normal exhale, before the first urge to breathe). Measuring it is one of the things the Be Remindful app can help you track, and it is central to CO2 tolerance training. If yours is above 25 seconds, you are likely in reasonable shape to try Wim Hof. If it is under 10 seconds, it is worth holding off and building your foundational breathing first. Anywhere between 10 and 25, focus on box breathing, 4-7-8, and other diaphragm-based practices before layering in something as intense as Wim Hof.

A few hard safety rules, regardless of experience level:

• Never practise near or in water, including baths, pools, and open water. Hyperventilation suppresses your urge to breathe without actually raising your oxygen levels much, which has caused real drownings from loss of consciousness underwater. This is well documented enough that Wim Hof’s own organisation lists it as their first safety rule.
• Do not practise while driving or standing somewhere a fall could hurt you.
• If you have epilepsy, a cardiovascular condition, or are pregnant, check with a doctor first. Hyperventilation is a known trigger for seizures and causes significant swings in heart rate and blood pressure.
• If you already experience panic attacks, be cautious. Deliberately inducing a hyperventilation-like state can be genuinely distressing rather than cathartic for some people.

This is not meant to scare you off the technique. It is safe for most healthy adults when practised on dry land, seated or lying down, without pushing too hard on the holds. It is simply a technique that deserves a bit more respect and preparation than the average calming breath practice.

If you would like to explore this properly with guidance, we run private one-on-one sessions and group sessions where we can build your foundational breathing before layering in something more intense, and the Be Remindful app helps you track your BOLT score and practise a little every day.