Extreme athlete Wim Hof is no stranger to shocking the world. From climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts to running a half marathon above the arctic circle barefoot, he is known for his ability to defy nature (and challenge our understanding of the limitations of human nature). But The Flying Dutchman’s latest trick has some fans worried…
Wim Hof has left some followers fretting, after falling backwards (and rotating all the way over, with his legs going above his head) and smacking down in a pond face first. In a rather Zlatan Ibrahimovic (or perhaps Bruce Lee) tone, he captioned the video: “Fear doesn’t come to me, I come to the fear.”
WATCH: Wim Hof backflips into pond
The cold plunge left the dog (who also appeared in the clip) worried for him, as well as a host of his Instagram followers, who wrote remarks like: “Okay that made me anxious” and “you could have killed yourself on those rocks.”
Another wrote: “It’s not the cold water that make[s] me nervous. It’s the back flip into a small pond between massive boulders that makes me cringe. I’ve never been comfortable or confident performing aerial rotations particularly backwards.”
Others were stoked, writing comments like: “You’re pure inspiration man!” and “I respect the fearlessness.”
“I do the breathing technique and the cold shower every single day for almost 3 years,” one follower wrote.
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Another, however, cautioned The Iceman against such stunts, fearing that if it were to go wrong the cold water community would lose an important guru. They wrote: “Just stay safe and in good health the world needs people like you, right now especially.”
Another Instagram user shared her own experience of jumping into water, writing: “I remember in Poland the first day you made us jump down from a 7 meter high waterfall into icewater! It was scary AF but when I jumped and survived the cold, I felt so strong!”
Yet another cheekily wrote: “Love it Hof. The front face splash must be another cold technique to wake the body up. Inspiration always.”
There you have it. Not something you can try in your shower (in fact, we don’t recommend you try it anywhere), but an interesting video to watch nonetheless…
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