Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was really looking forward to reading this book. But it was a let down. I think it has such high reviews because people really like the Wim Hoff method and want something to read on the topic as there isn't much. I think the subject matter is driving the ratings more than the book itself. But this book hardly has anything to do with the WHM. Basically Scott traveled all over talking to scientist and people that are interested in challenging themselves and their bodies. Problem is the book isn't about what he discovered so much as the story of him traveling and talking to people. Very little information in this book. I don't what to read the life story of every person you talked to. Just tell me what you found out. In particular on the WHM. I was very excited to read about what happened in the WH camp when he went for training in person and the techniques. I think the story about him taking a shower and flooding the house was given more space than anything to actually do with the WHM. I don't care. Also the story about climbing Kilimanjaro was a bit anticlimactic SPOILER ALERT (kind of you already know the ending from the start basically). I thought it was going to be a group of guys that climbed the mountain with just shorts and no shirts in record time. Instead they just took their shirts off sometimes and put them back on when they felt like it. It's still cool that there's some extra cold resistance but it's not the same as climbing the whole mountain shirtless. Also they didn't climb to the top. They just raced up part of it and got close to the top and said we have nothing further to prove once they got tired and said well it's a record to this point. Well I could sprint up the first mile of the trail and collapse and say there I set the record for this point. But nobody's racing to that point. They're pacing themselves to the top. I think the biggest take away was that they climbed the mountain at a faster pace and didn't acclimate to it by using the breathing techniques. I think there's something substantial there. But the climb is a bit hyped up. If you read this expect to read a lot more about Scott entering tough mudders and similar obstacle courses and finishing in the middle of the pack than WM or his methods. Nothing wrong with entering and finishing 53rd. But nobody really wants to read about the guy who did and how he did it. WM is a champion, I want to read about that guy. How does he do it, not how strange he is. If you're looking to learn more about the WHM and techniques to implement just go to youtube. There's nothing new or deeper here. Only one breathing method in the book and it's the same as the one on youtube. Probably about 2 pages of technique in here. The rest is him talking to people and his conversation with Wim Hoff about how he want's to go to Kilmanjaro with him and what a quirky guy Wim is and oh we missed our turn in our blue 2004 chevy van with a rusty bumper and we'll have to turn around probably cost us about 5 maybe 6 minutes to make up for... Seriously about 75% of this book could just be cut out. It's mostly fill and the book knows it. It starts out talking about the end and climbing Kilimanjaro but stops for 15 chapters of fill (maybe 2-3 good ones in there) and holds the rest of the story over your head to keep you reading. Also I got frostbite following the instruction in this book. After reading his story about their first day in camp going out in the cold for 5 minutes in their underwear and rolling in the snow and returning to a sauna. I followed the guidelines in the book and tried it for myself. Basically the story told about how painful it was to stand in the cold for the first time. It's part of the process, how you have to earn your immunity to the cold. Then they came in to the warmth and it was even more painful than the cold. All part of the process. Just have to get through it. There was a chart (page 61) that had on one axis the temperature and the other the wind speed. By connecting the 2 points the chart would tell you how long you can be outside and exposed before getting frostbite. So I rounded down the temperature and rounded up the wind speed to give me a windchill of -17. According to the chart it should take 30 minutes of exposure before frostbite sets in. Although one degree less and it would be in the 10 minute range. A big drop off. But it was day one so I was only doing 5 minutes so I'd be more then fine. Right? So I went out bare foot wearing only some gym shorts and ran around in the snow for 5 minutes. Overall I was just fine but my feet were killing me. But I just reminded myself, it's all part of the process. It's supposed to hurt. And I have a pretty good pain tolerance so I rolled with it. I came inside and as they warmed the pain was almost unbearable. It's all part of the process. I held my feet up to the fire like the guy in the book and took the pain. Well for a short period of time, then it was too much I had to stop that to lay on the floor in agony. I kept waiting and it kept hurting. The next day my feet were still killing me and walking was difficult. I looked up the symptoms of frostbite and it turns out that they are identical to all the symptoms of it's all part of the process. I was peeling dead skin off my feet and toes for a few months. Luckily no permanent damage. I didn't think about it at the time but we had just come out of an extremely cold stretch here in WI where the temp (not windchill) was about -20 to -30 at night. So even though it was 7 out when I did it the ground was still probably -20. So you might want to factor that in prior to trying for yourself. In fact I would have stayed for much longer if it wasn't for my feet hurting so bad as the rest of my body wasn't even cold. Maybe wear some sandals or water shoes or something so you still have the exposure to the air but not the direct contact with the ground. I don't hold this against the book. I was aware of the risk. Although, I think readers should be aware that what he describes as how to know it's working is the exact same as the symptoms of frostbite and it's not working. It's just a question of degree to how much it hurts. Which he describes as a lot, so it's hard to tell. And air temp is not ground temp. But I went back for more with shoes on until my feet healed. So overall the vibe I get from Scott is that he's probably not a bad guy. Seems rather likable. And the book has some tidbits, but it needs some major editing of the delete button kind. I'd much rather read a highly informative pamphlet than a long drawn out book with the same amount of info.