Introduction: The Wim Hof method was created by the Dutch Wim Hof, who is known for his exceptional tolerance for the cold and is the title holder of numerous world records. His method is based on three pillars: breathing technique, cold exposure and meditation. In our research, we focused on the first pillar – breathing. Purpose: The purpose of the research was to measure the cardiovascular response of the human body to graded exercise, if before the exercise we perform the Wim Hof breathing method and compare it to the response in normal conditions – after the spontaneous breathing. Methods: 14 healthy young participants took part in the research which comprised of 3 visits to the laboratory, with at least a 48 hour pause between them. On their first visit, the participants learnt how to breathe accordingly to the Wim Hof method. The protocol of the second visit started with 5 minutes of resting / inactivity without any strain, followed by 1 minute of warming up by cycling at 30 W and later a graded exercise until maximum workload was achieved. What followed was a 5-minute active recovery phase with cycling at 30 W, and the end phase was 10 minutes of passive recovery of sitting on a bike without any strain. The third visit was like the second, except that the participants performed the Wim Hof breathing method prior to starting the graded exercise. During the second and third session, we measured the skin temperature and skin blood flow on the fingertip and on the forearm before the strain, during the maximum strain and after the strain. We also measured the cutaneous pO2mean arterial pressure and the heart rate Results: The analysis showed that the Wim Hof breathing method performed before graded exercise affects the skin temperature on the fingertip. This was significantly lower at the point of maximum workload (p = 0,01) and in recovery (p = 0,01) compared to the measurements without the Wim Hof breathing method. Discussion and conclusion: The lower skin temperature of the fingertip may be due to reduced blood flow, which we propose is due to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system by the Wim Hof breathing method, which causes vasoconstriction in the fingertip. Skin blood flow in the fingertip was also lower in the Wim Hof breathing method measurements, but due to the large error, this was not statistically significant, compared to the non-Wim Hof breathing method measurement.
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