Book Report – What Doesn’t Kill Us by Scott Carney

Subtitled “How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength”, this book is a fascinating story of the author’s experiences with the “Iceman” Wim Hof and the health benefits of cold exposure.  For those unaware, Wim Hof is a cold exposure guru / pioneer/ mad scientist / Superman of sorts who has developed a training and breathing technique that allows him to be seemingly impervious to cold exposure.  Treat yourself to a 15 minute Wikipedia read about him.  

“What Doesn’t Kill Us” is the story of Scott learning of Wim Hof and then eventually tracking him down and engaging as a follower of his methods.  It all sounds like complete BS, except that it’s been well documented, scientifically tracked and measured, and replicated through hundreds of students.  The feats these individuals accomplish sound impossible, except that they all happened, and were recorded and documented in detail. 

It’s a fascinating story and at 272 pages, or 9 hours 31 minutes, it’s a mid-length read that will inspire you to at least try the methods.  Full disclosure, I did the breathing for a full year and still do the cold showers to this day.