In this interview, World's Strongest Man 2017 champion Eddie Hall discusses how he incorporated Wim Hof’s breathing and cold‑exposure techniques into his routine. Hall first encountered the Wim Hof Method in 2016 and began using the breathing exercises to quickly alleviate stress, anxiety, and tension. He describes the practice as an immediate “reset” that helped him through dark periods and improved his mental state. Hall also recounts his long‑standing use of cold therapy—dating back to 2012—for training recovery, noting that regular exposure to cold sharpens his focus, energy, mood, and reduces depressive feelings. He frames the method as a daily, hard‑challenge that builds resilience, making other life stresses feel easier. Hall praises Wim Hof as an inspiring figure dedicated to teaching simple, life‑enhancing practices, and expresses gratitude for the method’s lasting impact on his life and performance.
Chapters
I'm Eddie Hall. I'm the World's Strongest Man 2017. I'm the first man to ever pull 500 kilos off the floor.
It's been whispered about, but it's going up! How about the strongest shoulders? You bet he does! Oh my goodness me!
I'm tired. I became the World's Strongest Man, and now I've moved into fight sports, such as boxing and MMA.
Feed Daddy, run across.
There we go! Make it walk on it! Just lie down, relax. I'll follow your breathing now. Yes. Follow your rhythm. I sort of came across Wim Hof 2016, and I came across his breathing method. I started doing that, and I started using it as a tool when I was getting very stressed or getting like a high bout of anxiety. Or just general, you know, just feeling wound up and tense, I would do the breathing and just instantly feel better.
And always, but just let it go.
It's been such a good tool for me. You know, it's got me through some dark days, definitely. You get into these points of your life where you're like, you're getting wound up again, and you just bring yourself back to the breathing, to the breath, and it just works.
3, 2, 1, let it go.
It's a tool that I've got in my arsenal now that I'll probably carry for the rest of my life. Yeah, that just really just anchored me. Yes, sir. Just brought me back down, like, straight away. Chill. Okay, I've done cold therapy for a long time, uh, probably since 2012. I've used it for recovery from training.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck it up!
Oh, that hits your soul quick.
Yeah, Jesus. Well done, well done, well done.
That wakes you up. Wim just pushed this reality to me and myself and a lot of people that just going and putting yourself into the cold on a daily basis was changing your outlook on life. You go, I go.
Okay. There you go.
Okay.
Good, man. Good. Yeah.
Just putting your body into this huge amount of stress first thing in the morning then the rest of the day feels easy. Just noticed the stress levels just come down, just my focus better, my energy better, my mood better, you know, my depression, anxiety just dispersing. So it really did make a big difference to my life. It's just a way of making you a better person in that essence, you know, you're doing yourself something for yourself on a daily basis that's hard, and then when you come across something that, that's hard in life, it doesn't feel as bad because you've done something that's kind of on an equal level. Sounds daft to say, but doing the breathing, doing the cold therapy, it's a tough challenge. And I think once you've done that, everything else feels pretty easy. So it's, you know, it's got like a really good knock-on effect. So it's the nose, huh? I mean, I've been a fan of Wim for a good while now, and he's been to my house. We've hung out and I've been here. It's inspiring. You know, Wim's almost dedicated his whole life to helping others and just teaching simplistic things. And we need more people like Wim. I can't think of anyone else that's like Wim who goes around preaching the cold, the breathing. Wim's an inspiring guy to me. Very thankful for Wim for being a part of my life, and I'm sure he's going to change a lot of lives and has done for a long time.
