The point is to not push. If anything feels wrong, don't push. For example the first breath in after retention may be too much.
This guy is great. He doesn't try to push you. There's no intense music.
I can honestly say this has opened up my vascular system a bit. It's no cure but over time, doing things very gradually it's improved my erection, which is my best indicator of vascular health.
I can also feel the veins getting less scloraric in my thorax.
Please don't push...take it easy. We're all in sympathetic arousal anyway..but this is a good wU to face that and over time lessen it's effect.
The only trouble I have is if I push it, which I've learned not to do...I have what feels like vascular compression in the neck, so I'm careful on the return back to breathing not to do the first intake hold, unless it feels ok and then only for a few seconds. Not the fifteen wim suggests.
The good thing , at least for me, is that blowing off the carbon dioxide in the 30 breaths initially constructs the vessels. But as the hyperventilation temporarily alters your blood pH, it means you can have a long retention time.
In that retention, which is longer than you could normally do comfortably, your veins expand with the reintroduction of carbon dioxide, which is a vasodilator.
In this way, your endothelium gets a work out. The muscle of the endothelium gets exercised and ' unravels' making the veins and arteries more flexible and reopening them.
It's not a cure all but it definitely is my lived experience that it helps me.
Overtime it's also strengthened my diaphragm. I found thirty breaths very taxing for a few months. You have to put in the practice to see results.
But DO NOT PUSH.
This is an excellent meditation on how to face your sympathetic nervous system with calmness whilst having benefits to your cardio.
I've tried both the classical buteyko method and wim Hof over the last decade. Both strengthen your body and vasculature but Hof , done in this way is more gentle and helps emotionally.
I can only say my experience. But it definitely helps me
Do not do the cold water exposure. I've tried time and again and it makes me relapse. The breathing is enough.
You have to play with it and be gentle and experiment