Superhuman Mindset Training With Farid Hashemi

I was recently searching for cold water therapy experts and came across Farid Hashemi.

In my opinion, Farid has reached a totally different level of fitness; we’re talking top 1% of 1% of 1%. He does one arm pull ups and high level gymnastics exercises like unassisted handstand push ups to name a couple of his strength feats.

There are some people who simply do not accept limitations and go beyond what most believe is possible. Farid is one of these people.

If you’re sensitive to curse words or don’t have an interest in the mindset aspect of fitness, then skip this podcast.

If on the other hand you are open to learning about how to build a superhuman mindset to accomplish anything you could possibly imagine, then the podcast will be illuminating for you.

What You’ll Learn

Farid’s #1 mindset training technique
The method he uses to build superhuman resilience
When to do cold showers or cold plunges
The benefits & risks of cold therapy
How to calm the monkey brain in minutes

Listen Now

Listen on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.

Links

Farid Hashemi Links

Resources Mentioned

Farid Hashemi Highlight Reel

About Farid Hashemi

Farid is a health & fitness coach based in LA who uses primarily bodyweight training, natural foods, and the mind to help his clients systematically reach their goals and achieve an optimal state of well-being. As one of the first 25 instructors to be certified in the Wim Hof method in the U.S., he trained his mind and body by meditating in subzero waters, doing barefoot hikes over ice covered terrain, and climbing the 5,500 foot frozen Mount Sn?žka wearing only swimming trunks.

Transcript

Marc Perry: Hey guys, welcome to the BuiltLean podcast, I’m Marc Perry, the creator of BuiltLean, which helps busy men with demanding careers get lean, strong and functionally fit with exceptional vitality. And so for the last 10 years, we’ve helped thousands of busy men in over 80 countries improve their health and well-being with our free articles and videos and through our flagship BuiltLean Transformation Program. And so today, I have Farid Hashemi with me, and Farid is a health and fitness coach based in LA, who uses primarily bodyweight training, natural foods and the mind, to help his clients systematically reach their goals and achieve an optimal state of well-being. As one of the first 25 instructors to be certified in the Wim Hof Method in the US, he trained his mind and body by meditating in sub-zero waters, doing barefoot hikes over ice covered terrain and climbing the 5,500 foot frozen Mount ?nie?ka wearing only swimming trunks. So I was searching for people to talk to regarding cold water immersion and came across Farid, and in my opinion, he has reached a totally different level of fitness, we’re talking top 1% of 1% of 1%. He does one-armed pull-ups, high-level gymnastics, exercises like unassisted handstand push-ups, and I’m thinking, wow, this guy is impressive, so I’m excited to have this conversation with Farid and pick his brain about cold water immersion, health and performance. So with that said, thanks so much for joining Farid.

Farid Hashemi: Hey, thanks so much for having me, man, I appreciate it. Very cool program you have going on out here.

Marc Perry: Thanks man, I appreciate it. So first off, how did you get into making fitness your career and training others to improve their health and well-being?

Farid Hashemi: To be honest, that was just a choice that was a combination of a couple of things. I was in the financial industry at first, working at JP Morgan Chase, and I wasn’t very happy. It was taking me away from basketball in particular, I was just kind of defeated and beat after work, that nine to five grind with not much end in sight. And anyways, so I was looking for a way out, and everyone that had known me from just working out at the gym, I was like a 24/7 kind of person, 365 at the gym, doing the things that we were talking about earlier that led to some of my dysfunction earlier on, gave me a great strength and great discipline. Let’s say lots of the good character traits from working out consistently, but also led to some negative things at the same time, but long story short, I was just really strong. I was really into it, and so a lot of people were like, “Hey, you should be a personal trainer.” And so I always thought, there’s no money in that, it’s too much of a grind, I don’t wanna be doing that, I just wanna go and collect my paycheck, so to speak, but being miserable enough in that collecting a paycheck job, I eventually started doing that, I just started to gain my certification. I worked, then I got a job at Equinox, and that was the pinnacle of training back in the day for me.

That was… I was intimidated even being there, and the education there was really high, some of the people that were there were really great trainers, especially at that time, they had phenomenal education, there was animal flow… There was all this kind of shit that my base level of training was… I couldn’t wait to expand. And anyway, so from there, I started working for myself after a little bit of time, ’cause it never works out for me in corporate America or just in a standard kind of setting. I can’t follow the bureaucracy and the rules in the same way. I’m about effectiveness, whatever the method is of effectiveness, it doesn’t matter what words I use, if I curse, if I dress this way or that way. I prefer to just keep it myself, keep a very honest, direct environment, have a good connection and get right to the root of what we’re trying to get to. If you can hear the words that I’m speaking, you can understand what I’m saying, then we’ll go somewhere far. If you’re about the image and you’re about going through some dance, some drama in life, I’m probably not the person for you.

I just don’t cater myself to that way, I don’t play the game like that. So that gets me a lot of good results man, I don’t fit every one for sure, but I’m kind of now known over the years as that hidden dojo in the hills where if you wanna get your body fixed, if you have an issue that you can’t solve or you wanna go to the “next level” you can come check me out over here at e-Motion Training. But one of the things is that I was gonna go into physical therapy school also, so I went all the way through, got my prereqs done…

Marc Perry: Wow.

Farid Hashemi: Got straight A’s for the first time in my life. Yeah, after a seven or eight year break from college, so I graduated in 2007, and like I say in business marketing, it wasn’t my field obviously, and so seven or eight years later after the Equinox gig, I was like, “Alright. Well, this doesn’t work out for me anywhere, so I need to just sort this out on myself, I’m gonna go to school and I’m gonna correct my life,” so to speak. Take the high road so I can get that diploma, and then people will come and pay me, they feel okay, they’re gonna… I’m just not gonna have to work for my money, I’m not gonna have to “hustle”. I never believed in hustling, never liked it. And then, so to speak. So basically, I did it really well, and this is where the Wim Hof Method comes in. So as I did my applications for school, like I said, I got straight A’s for the first time, at Moorpark College. It was very good, did really well on my… Whatever the GRE or something.

Did as good as I could have done, right? And every school rejected me, every school rejected me, without even giving me a look, even though they said… And it was all because my prerequisite GPA when I was at CSUN was low. So long story short, they didn’t buy or look at my new stuff, even though they told me they would. They denied me, and I got pissed. And one of these… I was working at a small gym called Fit Well at the time, and one of these nights, hanging out with my boy, we would watch documentaries on the baddest warriors in the world, or Planet Earth. Some of the cool documentaries are out there, but in particular, we were… At that time, we were into watching about Navy Seals, Spetsnaz, whatever. All these warriors that had this training regimen to go through, like French Foreign Legionnaires, these guys, to see what the body goes through, what it can tolerate, how they’re training people to be resilient. It’s just to see, what’s up. Very intriguing, very cool stuff. And then one day, my boy shows me the Wim Hof Method documentary that was on Vice, it had like 10,000 views at the time, there was like no views on it. So we watched this shit and you see this fucking old man over here, this crazy old man take… Interview a skinny interviewee from Vice and some girl interviewee, and he takes them on this entire journey that I went through.

And long… You’ve seen the thing, I’m sure, anyone who hasn’t seen it, go check it out. It’s pretty inspiring and pretty mind-blowing to see it, especially at that time before you knew about it, that this dude just took any random person out there and trained them to be resilient with the cold, trained them to use their body, their mind, trained them to heal, and these people were like… I’m reading their body language, and they’re not bullshitting about their experience, so wow, it was fucking cool. This dude’s like the real life super hero Wolverine. So my friend that night, after he watched this, signed up for this thing, he signed up for the expedition. That was in 2015, before there was a Wim Hof Method certification. Then I kinda… Like I said, I had gotten denied, or at the time I was waiting for my denial I should say, I was waiting for my denial.

So I had done all my stuff and I had some free time on my hands, so I was like, “Yo, I’m gonna hop in this.” So I bought my ticket. And in December 2015, I went out to Poland, and that’s when we did the Wim Hof Method, regular kinda winter expedition. And at that time, it was really cool because it was only 25, 26 of us living at Wim’s big bear or winter house in Poland, yeah. In like around Mount ?nie?ka, so there was a Mount Olympus that… Where now a lot of people were gonna stay at, and then there was the house. We were all living with Dude and with Anam, and it was a really cool experience just being with the family, and for me being in that tribe community and stuff like that, it was very dope. And I was for sure one of the worst people, if not, I would say top 5 to 10 worst people with the cold, especially initially, I was probably like top 5 worse with the cold. First day, we went into that same waterfall, it’s in the Vice documentary, it’s behind his house. So that first day, we went out to take a dip and just check it out, just to feel it, and to relax, just to let it feel us. And… UPS shock.

Marc Perry: It’s okay. It’s all good.

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, so people were going in, going over these rocks, you see it’s like a rocky little waterfall, and then they’re going and chilling there. Some people were doing okay, they were able to chill, whatever, and they come out. Man, I’m telling you, when I traverse those rocks, I was already freezing, and then I put my feet and my legs, my shins touched the water and they went into the water, and it was like the most excruciating, fucking, debilitating, shocking, electrifying pain, I’d ever felt. I didn’t even think there was pain like that possible man, to be real, it was straight to my bones, straight to my shins, it was almost like I felt all the damage of all the years of trauma to my lower leg in an instant.

And so it was like, “Oh shit, I’m either gonna be a bitch and not make it through this thing, or I’m gonna perhaps be risking my life here, this is a real deal thing. I was like… It was humbling. I was judging this interviewee and the girl for, “Oh, if they can do it, I can do it,” type of shit, ’cause I’m a trainer, whatever, whatever, whatever, I’m resilient, I’ve been doing this stuff. But that’s not the way it works really. As a matter of fact, you learn that when you do cold therapy, that a lot of times the guys, and I do say guys, that have the most to prove or that are most in their head, are the ones that have the most difficulty with that cold water.

Marc Perry: Interesting, man. And so, no, I really appreciate the overview. And by the way, I didn’t mention, I did the Wim Hof in 2016, his workshop.

Farid Hashemi: Oh, cool.

Marc Perry: But I haven’t done the cold plunges right your lane, I wanna talk about that, but I did it in 2016 with my brother, I actually brought my brother over who’s much more resilient with the cold now. It’s definitely a mindset shift, so it was really cool. I met Wim Hof and it was kind of right before he blew up. And became super famous.

Farid Hashemi: Right, right.

Marc Perry: So that’s cool, man. And so for people listening, they’re like, this whole cold therapy might be like, “What is he talking about?” Number one, what is it, and how does it relate to your fitness journey and you becoming… Dude, some of the stuff you’re doing is super human. Seriously. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, so since you touched on… I should say this, so if we’re talking about Wim Hof Method, I should mention the most important part I would say is the breathing and the mindset. That’s… I know that everyone likes, and I hope I’m not hijacking your podcast or derailing by doing this, but I wanted you to know the truth, okay? Everyone likes the flash of the cold immersion, or the cold exposure, okay. That’s the hard shit, that’s the hard shit, is the cold training. But listen, that’s for Instagram and stuff, this stuff is definitely powerful, but breathing and mindset is the unique part of the Wim Hof Method, it’s those three pillars, breathing, mindset, cold exposure that makes this a powerful thing that kind of makes me what I am, or that helps me become what I am, right? It’s not just doing the cold. I would say it’s a big part of it, too. Don’t get me wrong, that can by itself do a lot for you too. But anyone that’s done the method the right way knows that this is multiplied by doing the technique the right way. And very deep into it.

Marc Perry: So, can you start with, I guess, the breathing. What does that look like and how do you implement that? And by the way, just as… If I understand correctly, you do breathing before the cold therapy, right?

Farid Hashemi: Right. That’s the ideal time I do it, yeah.

Marc Perry: Right. So anyways, can you just talk a little bit more about what does the breathing look like and how to do it?

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, so to be honest, I’m not sure if I can show you the breathing. I think they prefer to have that directed to them. I’m gonna stand and do a short quick round, just ’cause I think it’s not a big deal, alright? So we’re gonna do one full round, okay, which has three parts. The first part is the breathing part, the actual act of breathing. So that’s what I call balloon breathing, where you’re really expanding and breathing in 100%. And then you’re just gonna let it collapse. So your lungs and your body’s elastic, so once you blow it up it wants to come back. So you’re not gonna force it out by forcing, and now you’re just gonna let it naturally come back. And right before it comes back to that halfway point, the comfortable place that me and you are sitting at, you take another breath again to fully in. So it just keeps repeating like this, it never comes down to that relaxed state that we’re in right now. That’s the first part of it, balloon breathing. Second part, I’m going to exhale to that neutral point that we were discussing. Now with the neutral amount of air in my body, I’m going to hold my breath, this is called exhale retention. So I just hold my breath, long as possible in a comfortable, safe environment.

All that stuff, I actually have to specify these things, but let’s make sure that we’re being smart about it. So this is kind of shit you can do that, especially being new to it, you can pass out for a little bit of time. And you wanna make sure that you don’t have something to bounce your head off of or anything else, you’re not gonna drown in a pool, etcetera, etcetera. So going back to the technique now, second stage is exhale retention. I breathe out to normal, I’m gonna hold as long as possible, flat line. This is like internal interoception, empty mind, empty body, just the meditative part. When I feel the urge for another breath, part three: Deep inhale, fully inhale and hold for about 10 seconds. So it looks like this, this is one round, that would suffice to be one round. It all looks like this, I’m gonna do… The number of balloon breaths or the time of balloon breaths can range, okay? We’re gonna just do a short five, so that you can understand what it works like. Okay. Alright? So here we go.

Marc Perry: By the way, is it through your… It’s through your mouth, right?

Farid Hashemi: You can go through your nose too. But going through your nose is restrictive for most people, especially for myself, so you’re gonna have this more restrictive, slower and more effortful kind of breath.

Marc Perry: Right, right, right.

Farid Hashemi: I don’t want it to deter. Everything else we do is through the nose, everything else. Everything else, exercise, everything else we counteract it. Here, that’s not the goal here. Here the goal is to get to this place as easy and as quick as possible, so breathe through your butthole, breathe through your ear hole, breathe through your nose hole, breathe through whatever hole is most open, all holes at the same time. That’s what Wim says, seriously, it doesn’t matter. Just make it easy. I find it that for most people, that part being a restriction takes you away from it. Also, if you can’t sit up straight and it’s difficult for you, that also takes away from it, it’s better to lie down if you don’t have good mobility. So people are gonna try to sit in meditative posture, but if it’s so difficult that it takes away from your full breathing or your experience, then you fuck it up, it’s too hard.

Marc Perry: By the way, I’ve done the… So Wim Hof has a free 10-minute breath work on YouTube, and it’s a similar… It’s basically this, is what you’re talking about, right? So I’m thinking maybe we can just… I can just include it on the article and then people can just do it and see what it’s like.

Farid Hashemi: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

Marc Perry: Is that cool?

Farid Hashemi: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Marc Perry: Cool. I’ve done it, I’ve done it a bunch, I’ve done it a decent amount. And it’s just 10 minutes, it’s kind of like a light version of some of the deeper stuff he does.

Farid Hashemi: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Marc Perry: So what is the deal with the breathing? Why would you wanna do this?

Farid Hashemi: Alright, so there’s a few things, right? So number one is, the most important thing is mental clarity, focus. And this is just a mind shift, that’s just the best part. Alright, I put it like this, okay? We know the power of our subconscious, and if you don’t you should know about that. We know that our monkey brain, our conscious mind gets in the way of our potential, our limit all the time. From different levels, some people are way limitless, some people are more limited, there’s a range, right? But for… To some degree, meditation and all this shit that we do, is to chill the monkey mind, chill your unhealthy thoughts. Unproductive thoughts. And be more present. So the most important thing is, it’s the best, easiest, fastest, most powerful way to get into that state. For anyone. I was gonna make it simple, but to say like, “Yo, you struggle with meditation? You struggle with clearing your mind? You struggle with your emotion? You struggle with a bunch of mental shit? Okay, you don’t have a clear in mind? You don’t have space? You don’t have X, Y and Z? You need some time to just fucking let go? You wanna get into Savasana, you wanna chill the fuck out? You wanna tap in, you wanna understand? You want your brain to go away and your body and your subconscious to come out and be like, “Oh, this is what we need right here. We need X, Y, and Z.”

Yeah, you see, you understand what I’m talking about. You know that, no one gets that. No one gets that time, even if it’s in our field, even if it’s my thing, you just don’t allow yourself that time. So doing this thing gives you that space, simple. Let’s just keep it at that. You know the value of how valuable that space is, whether it gives you a 10 to 20 minute nap, ’cause you’re so fucking tired and you haven’t been able to let go, or you get a clear mind, or it gives you an idea about your work where it frees you from some shit you’re holding on to, or it helps you with an injury, or it helps you gain perspective, it helps… Yadda, yadda, yadda. Like you know the value of that alone in mental clarity, that alone, destressing, resetting, you know the value of that alone. Now, we also have what’s going on physiologically with the body as well, doing this shit, what are we doing here, man? I mean, I’m not gonna go into the details of it, but let’s just… That’s for you guys to come check me out, what’s… I’m being for real, this is the different maker of what’s gonna absorb into someone, and make them do it and learn how to do it and tweak it, versus just… The technique’s out there, man. It’s for free. Like you said, it’s out there, there’s millions of videos, but how do you make things applicable? How do you get deeper? How do… Why is it that like, I understand the body a little bit more and can get more out of it?

Marc Perry: Right.

Farid Hashemi: This insight, this kind of understanding, this kinda practice needs that.

Marc Perry: Cool.

Farid Hashemi: Or else it’s very superficial. It’s why cold therapy itself is just a superficial part, man, it’s the part that looks good. Oh, yeah, he was in the yadda, yadda. But dude, I’m telling you that breathing is the most important part, I’ll give you the most bang for your buck is the breathing. And physiologic like I said, what are we doing? We’re changing heart rate variability. We’re going a fight or flight rest and relax, fight or flight rest and relax. We’re training with low carbon dioxide in the body. We’re training… We’re getting insight into the body, we’re changing circulation, we’re improving circulation, respiration. Your chemical… Your biochemistry is changing, I mean, you have a host of physiological things, you’re increasing your anti inflammatory hormone, decreasing your inflammatory protein. I think it’s even shown to improve your immune system, white blood cells. I mean, it’s got, like I say, and that, a lot of that probably just comes from getting your mind being out of the way so more of your energy, more of your energy can be used for things that it need to be used for, repair, growth, proper thinking, yadda, yadda.

Marc Perry: Right, and how long do you do… Do you do the breathing each day for like 10-20 minute, how does it work?

Farid Hashemi: That’s what I’m saying, that’s the good part about it. This is one… This is the most powerful practice, the most powerful practice to get you into the right mind state and to heal and correct and all that stuff, I think. The most powerful if you have the prerequisites and some of the tools to do things with it, and or if you’re going to walk the path and correction, and not just do one thing. But you also gotta work the psychology, you also gotta dig deep and understand yourself, you gotta heal the body. And there’s just… It’s kinda like the tip of the iceberg. You scratch that shit and then you find out like, “Oh, fuck, there’s so much depth to this, whether it’s my own healing, my own trauma, or my own growth, or my own discovery, an understanding of who I am and what I am, my own potential.” So that’s just like the scratch of it.

But I think, once you get to a certain place, like, listen, doing it every day, is fucking phenomenal. That’s what you should be doing. Everyone should meditate every day. That’s part of the routine, but I’m just saying, I certainly don’t meditate every day, I have a busier schedule, that’s not an excuse, but let’s just say I don’t do it. I’m gonna allow for that. I have a very good system of checks and balances, though, like the ECU of the of the body is like, “Yo, you’re off today, you’re lacking energy, you need rest, you need to clear the mind, you’re angry, you’re yadda, yadda, yadda, we’re gonna do it now, alright.” Or like, there’s no denying it there. So I know when I need to use it for sure. That’s the tool that I use. Most of the time I’m at a place having practiced so much, having seen myself so much from an outside perspective that I can already swap myself out without having to sit down and meditate.

Marc Perry: Interesting.

Farid Hashemi:I’ve already got to a better place, not to say like I’m anything special, like I’m a god or some shit, but no, for real, with more and more practice, more and more stress management, more and more of this stuff, then you don’t have to fucking go and meditate every time some shit hits the fan, you have a higher recurrency.

Marc Perry: And so this is interesting. So you’ve been talking about breathing, and breathing in terms of getting at that state in terms of, shifting your mindset. But now we’ve been talking about meditation, which is the breathing and mindset, which is two of the three components of Wim Hof Method. So how does like, do you meditate after the breathing or is the breathing the meditation?

Farid Hashemi: That’s cool as fuck, that’s a great question. What’s interesting is that if you’re doing it right, you won’t even notice. You won’t even notice the transition to that. You’ll be breathing. It may be effortful at first, you don’t even know how to breathe the right way. A lot of people are focusing on breathing in their diaphragm and all this shit. They’re… It takes them out of it. That’s why I’m like fuck all that, just breathe. Yeah, we’ll work on that later. Don’t worry about that. We’ll try crack a little bit of it, give you an idea of what you wanna do, visualize it. Other than that, just try to breathe in 100%. After a little bit of doing that shit, before you know it, you’re already fucking passed out. You’re already in Savasana, man, if you can let go, if you get out of your own way, if you start doing the whole “Oh, shit, I’m going there. I’m not gonna do it.”

Sure, there’s levels, one time you go here, and you’re like, “Okay, that was far enough from me.” Tomorrow, I’m gonna go here. “Okay, I can go a little further, a little further, a little further,” until you feel comfortable enough to completely let go in your environment, and you can… Letting go, I consider that pass out part one of the best parts of it, man. And I know they don’t wanna push that, and this is like more, not really like the… I would say it’s part of the goal. I use it with my clients as a regular thing to heal them. Some people come see me and take fucking naps in here, do you believe that? They will come and pay me my good rate, my what I deserve, just to get that space of peace, tranquility, reset. And not a Savasana, like I say a proper Savasana for like 30 minutes. I try to convince one of my guys, I’m like, “Yo, please, let me work you out a little bit first, let me drain you.”

[laughter]

He’s like, “No bro. I swear, listen, you don’t understand. This thing gives you more than anything else you can do, I’m just happy to come here and get this one hour space, I don’t have this anywhere else, I don’t get this anywhere else. It still blows my mind that every time we do it, I get there, I just wanna do that.”

Marc Perry: Interesting.

Farid Hashemi: Until I’m at the place where I just feel like I wanna do that. A couple of years ago, I had another guy that came from Chicago, this young man, he wanted to help his hyperhidrosis, sweaty hands. I had that shit too. Funny thing, he didn’t know that I had it, right? But this dude hit me up, and he’s like, “Yo, I think Wim Hof Method will help me with this. So I wanna come live with you for X amount of time, and can I stay with you? And I just want… I’ll to pay you for training every day, and all I wanna do is Wim Hof Method, all I wanna do is meditate with you.” It’s like, “Damn bro, you know how much that’s gonna be? I’m gonna give you a deal obviously, but it’s not gonna be cheap man, I’m just saying.” He was like, “No, I’ve been saving up for two years, I’ve been watching you for two years, so I’m coming.” And he came over for about six months, he stayed with me and we did this… We became great friends, he’s my boy Christian Mendoza. He’s in Chicago, he went back to Chicago. Shout out to him. He was dope as fuck, really cool, disciplined, dedicated cat to help himself. There are these guys like that, and those are the motherfuckers that find me, and they’re like “Yo, even knowing the method, I haven’t been able to get very far with it, I wanna use that shit and heal myself the way you’re talking about.”

Marc Perry: Interesting, man. No, it’s really powerful. And so I’m just thinking in terms of practically, you’ll do, as someone starting out, and would you be like, hey, maybe you can do a little breath work each day or… And then eventually, obviously you’re at a different level right? You’ve been doing this for a long time. So maybe you do a little bit of breath work each day, build up on it, that leads to little meditation, which is basically just in that space, again, it’s hard to differentiate the two?

Farid Hashemi: You just go, you can see yourself. If you haven’t been there, it’s a beautiful place, man, it’s like the out-of-body experience, you can watch yourself taking a sleep, you melt to the floor, you’re in space, you’re one with God and the universe. It’s a very, very nice empty, I have always been and I will always be. It’s that stuff that teaches you everything about life, is when you’re still, not moving, you find your universe inside, there’s a lot of profound shit in it man, in that Savasana, that’s why they say it’s the hardest pose I imagine. It’s not headstand, handstand, this split, that split, lotus, that, it’s just laying on the fucking ground, dead. Why would that be one of the hardest poses? Because I imagine ’cause it’s difficult to really do it well and let go.

Marc Perry: And let go, it’s…

Farid Hashemi: Let go, exactly.

Marc Perry: Let go, let go, let go.

Farid Hashemi: Let go. Exactly. So yeah, I agree.

Marc Perry: Let go, and then there’s let go, and be able to let go.

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, totally, and that’s wherever you feel comfortable, I certainly like… And there’s stages and shit.

Marc Perry: Right, okay, and so quick question about cold showers. Do you do cold showers?

Farid Hashemi: Oh yeah, for the most part when it comes to showering though, cold showers are like… That’s like the fountain of youth. Okay, cold exposure training. That’s one thing, that’s another thing, that’s the elixir of life, let’s say, but for sure, saving your body, hair, skin, nails, improving blood circulation, improving your mindset, saving water, lowering inflammation, giving you a boost of energy, helping you sleep better. Making you move better. How many things could I fucking name off here? Saving the environment. There’s so many things I can name off with cold showers, so many things that are just the hair, skin and nails bro, I don’t need to use any lotion, I don’t need to use… My skin heals quickly, all kinds of things that before weren’t like that. For sure they’re not… They improved drastically, you just lessen your body’s demand of stuff, and you let go and let it fucking cool off, man, here’s something that most people don’t know is a real thing that I found out. There’s a thing called compartment syndrome, okay. It’s like when your fascia is super fucking tight, or when your leg, and particularly into your lower leg, the calf, the shin, that area. Alright, I kind of suffered from that to a certain degree, it’s when it is so tight in there, or there’s maybe the circulation is not as good as well, that it actually is, you can’t get movement and it feels fucking hot, man. Like it’s gonna be hot.

So one of the things that I noticed is that, for example, my mobility would be pretty poor with this, obviously, right? It’s tight, it’s heated, it’s constantly hot. I learned that, oh hey, if I dip myself just my legs, that same part I was telling you that I was struggling with into the ice bath, if I will sit in the ice bath, did that repeatedly, the temperature would drop after a bit of time. Not one or two times, but after doing it a few times, it would start to drop and more consistently, then I noticed that, oh actually, my little… The temperature in that compartment was actually lower. Sensationally inside my body, I’m not overheating anymore. So literally for an athlete, for someone that gets a lot of use out of their body, I’m not talking about just working out, I’m talking about like, yo, you’re running, you’re playing sports, you’re a fighter, you’re doing some things where your body gets to work, and so this is a super way to heal and to decompress and to thaw it out.

Marc Perry: And so in terms of the cold shower, you’re doing it first thing in the morning for five minutes? Are you doing it in the evening, as just… What is…

Farid Hashemi: I’m somewhat of a sustainable person, so I just… I only do things as they’re necessary man, the same thing with meditation. If I don’t need a shower I’m not showering quite honestly, so it’s… I don’t… Again, it’s great if I could do it like that, but I’m not gonna waste water just for the fuck of it. Now, for a layman’s person, for everyone else, it’s a fucking tool, man. Absolutely. For my clients, I’m like, “Yo, it helps with body fat lost. It’s your coffee in the morning. So yeah, for sure, you’re going to work in the morning, that’s the best thing, man. Go take that cold shower, then see what’s up and see how good you feel.” Most importantly, man, you’ve done this shit, you know how you feel, so like meditation and the breathing, give you the space, ice bath, cold shower. You come out like, you know what’s up. Like you’re, woo!

Marc Perry: Ready to go. No, it’s true.

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, you’re ready to go, ready to take on the world, right? You don’t come out of a warm shower like that. You’re never gonna come out of a warm shower like, “Yeah!” You’re gonna be relaxed and chill like, “I’m gonna go to sleep, I’m gonna lounge out,” stuff like this.

Marc Perry: Right. And so how… Talk to me about… So I’ve personally done cold showers for a really long time, but how does the cold plunge? I’ve done some cold plunges too, and for people listening, I mean, it’s one thing to… Let’s just say 60 degrees is cold, a lot of people would be like, “Alright dude, I’ll do that for maybe a minute and I’m bugging out, like 60 degrees,” but what Farid had done is absurdly cold, we’re talking just above freezing. So basically, you go in there and do…

Farid Hashemi: Man, to be honest. I’m sorry to interrupt, but actually below freezing ’cause when it’s running water, it won’t freeze, the waterfall won’t freeze. Unless it’s really bad.

Marc Perry: Freezing right, right, so anyways…

Farid Hashemi: Ice baths are anyway cold, cold as fuck…

Marc Perry: Yeah, I was gonna say…

Farid Hashemi: The ice bath is always at above freezing, like you said, zero point.

Marc Perry: Okay, slightly above freezing. Okay, well anyways, what I’m getting at is, it is so cold, and I think relative to the average person, so to speak, I can handle cold pretty well, but it’s like once it starts getting down, it’s like, alright, this is a different ball game. There’s one thing with cold showers, there’s another thing with dipping in freezing cold, so I guess what I wanna hear is like, how do you see that as different from cold showers, and is it something you would recommend someone who’s starting out once a week to build up that cold exposure?

Farid Hashemi: Yeah, so that’s an interesting question. I consider it like this, your cold shower is like your daily regular movement you’re doing, your regular training practice. That’s your 70, 60, 80%, 60% to 80% effort. Alright, you’re not doing a PR every day. You’re not going for your max effort every day. Alright. So sometimes… And again, I like to be very much in flow, when you understand your body and or you have a program for knowing how to train yourself, you’re gonna be like, like I said, here’s these days of building up this way, now, for example, this day I’m gonna go do my PR, or this day after my hard training day, after the end of the week… This is what I do for my clients. I have it on Sunday. This is actually open to any Wim Hof Method practitioners, not people that don’t practice, you can come for the ice bath, but not for the whole thing, you have to know the breathing. So Sundays, I’m gonna open it up again where I have people come. So Sundays is a great days, it’s the rehab and healing day.

This is where end of the week, you’ve had your weekend, you’ve partied, you’ve done whatever, you’ve worked out, Monday’s bummer ass is coming up. So you wanna go into it feeling good and energized and ready to tackle it on best time. Boosts the energy, it makes you feel good, optimistic, look forward to the week. You’re all sparking and shit. I like Sundays personally, but yeah, I use it like that. Regular training, heavy training, extremely heavy training for the nervous system, extreme. Normal training for the nervous system, heavy training for the nervous system. That’s kind of how I would do it. And also for usage too… Like I say, what time are you working out? Do you have training sessions that it would be better for you to do it after those sessions, or are there times that are good for you, or for example, even the times when you’re very low on energy or you’re hung over, that’s a great time for it. Or you’re fucked up in the mind, you’re angry, sad. Particular things, particular things, or a… Once a week is sufficient, I wouldn’t do it too much to where the stimulus is pointless now.

Marc Perry: Interesting, okay.

Farid Hashemi: Alright, ’cause every… You can’t lift heavy weights every day bro. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve already done that, we’ve already done that. What’s the difference here? It’s the same fucking shit, man. You can do that, it wears off that way. Then the effects are not gonna be quite the same. The mental effects are not gonna be quite the same.

Marc Perry: That’s really, really powerful, man. I’m just thinking through all of this, and so to kind of tie this together with your training. So listen, you said that you, I guess, started in Equinox and you reached a different level of training. You weren’t able to do one on pulse when you went to Equinox, right? I’m assuming.

Farid Hashemi: I don’t know if I was, man. No, not so much.

Marc Perry: You said you were inter-training, I guess what I’m saying is, how has this whole Wim Hof Method, the breathing, the meditation, the cold water immersion, and you’ve listed a bunch of benefits. How has that translated into your life in terms of what you wanna achieve and the progress you’ve made?

Farid Hashemi: Number one is the mindset, the mindset… I always look at it as like, I always remind myself of that what I’ve done in Poland and what I can tolerate and what I can do. It’s a really good thing to know that, and I use it as that mindset part. So every time I’m being a little bitch, there’s something off, I’m hopping on that motherfucker, man, that’s it, it’s just the bottom line, that is a fucking checks and balances for me.

That is a reflection of where I’m at, in mind space, in space, in everything, so number one that’s for that, that’s the challenge of challenges, do that, I’m focused, I’m great, I can achieve anything, I can get back on the right path. That’s number one. Number two is like, when I’ve been severely injured, I don’t use it to suppress inflammation, like for injuries personally, I think inflammation is a good thing to help you repair, but there are some times and there are some things and there are some ways to use it, that, man, like nothing else will fucking do, man, not even cold water in the shower, nothing else will do, man, absolute stimulus is so great in making you feel healed and good, and yeah, just healed man, I mean, healed. It’s so fucking good that nothing else, nothing else, I can imagine, has that effect. I can’t imagine anything else, like literally, even the breathing feels fucking great, and I do get very good healing with it, I’ve even had it heal my joints and my body in a really deep breathing session, believe it or not, really deep, like two, three hours, and you will have tissue repair even, but fuck, that thing can be really, really dope, man, and you coming out and being like, “Wow.” Like the whole body is just buzzing, and it’s alive, where shit wasn’t moving, is moving now, there’s blood flow, “And I’m in shape.”

Marc Perry: And one more quick… One more kinda question I had is just, some people might be like, “Okay, well, it sounds pretty risky to go into a cold plunge.” Some people… I think there’re some triathletes in their like 50s, will go into the water in a swim, and they’ll just have a heart attack, so I guess, are there any risks to consider before going on this journey of cold water immersion?

Farid Hashemi: There are some risks. One of the things you gotta consider is there’s a thing called aftershock or afterdrop, afterdrop I think it is. Anyway, so it’s like this, man, you stay in too long, this is again, the ego shit, the machismo shit, obviously a lot of motherfuckers they wanna stay in over their time, especially given that they don’t have enough training. So it’s like this, let’s say I gave you a weight, you didn’t believe you can lift, alright, but I believed in you, and you lifted that weight, now, you’ve never lifted this weight before, and you just don’t work out much, you actually have never worked out before really, but you still happen to pick this weight up, you can do it. Now, you wanna do it 100 fucking times, you wanna do a deadlift that you learnt today 100 fucking times and you just learned it. You’re gonna be so fucking sore, you’re not gonna be able to move, your back, your hamstrings, everything’s gonna be so fucked up that you can’t move.

Same thing will happen there. You’ll sit in there for like… A lot of times the clients that’ll come in, I’ll limit them to like max three minutes. They say two minutes, I’ll do like three minutes, I’ll let them have some fun and shit, but they’ll sit in there and at first they’re struggling. And then you walk them through, it’s like, “Hey, get it together.” And they’ll do, and then they’re like, “Wow, what the fuck! It’s actually warm.” And then they’re just sitting in there, and that’s… By the way, very mind blowing, that’s why you wanna do the meditation, you get your mind right, you do your breathing right, then you’re gonna really trip the fuck out by how you’re sitting in freezing water and there’s a force field around you, and you have melted with the water, you’re one with it. And you’re sitting there like me and you right now, even more chill than this, you couldn’t fluster the motherfucker, I’m telling you.

So they’re sitting there and they wanna push it, as soon as they push it, and I’m like, “Alright, well, let’s see what happens.” And they come out and then for the next 45 minutes, few hours of the day… Like this. Not a few hours of the day over here, ’cause we’re warming up, but you’re doing that shit in Poland and you push it too long, your blood from your extremities, that was cold, rushes back in and mixes with the warm blood of the core, and it just… You get in to the shock, and that can… It’s just uncomfortable, nothing crazy, there is that, it’s a low level… There’s obviously hypothermia if you fuck up too far, that’s… I mean, listen to your body, I don’t know how else like… Your body will literally tell you like, “Get the fuck out.” If you go to hypothermia, then you’re an idiot, you don’t deserve to do this practice right here, you need someone to watch over you, so stuff like that is possible, I guess, but for the most part, you’re practicing safely.

Nothing, man, really just… If you have fear and apprehension though, you’re really worried about it, then you already know where your nervous system is at, you already are like this. Yeah, you may cause your own heart attack, but if you literally would have stepped foot in there and just be like, “Yo, let me just feel it.” That’s it, right? If you just feel it, then this tension and shit is gonna be a little bit gone and your heart’s not fucking… Like this, you know, like…

Right. Alright, no, I think that’s a really good analogy, man, with like, you haven’t worked out before and you’re maxing out on weights, I think that’s a really good analogy. And so, let’s kind of wrap up. I know we’ve put in some time here, so is there anything else we haven’t discussed that you would like to mention?

That’s pretty thorough. I actually… One thing I wanna say is, to be real, learn the technique… This is the best technique I’ve ever learned, best technique, man, by far. I’ve learned from a lot of the best people in the world, really, as far as movement, health, longevity, all that stuff, and this is I think like, “Wow.” The most powerful, coolest thing you can learn, so I recommend anyone just learn it properly, learn it deeply, get familiar with it, give it a chance.

And yeah, reach out. There’s the instructors, man, in this community, let me tell you something, for the most part, there’s some fucking cool bad ass motherfuckers here. They’re either cool and or bad ass. I mean it, there’s a fucking navy seal. There’s all kinds of instructors to fit any walk of life. And so you may have seen a YouTube video, you may have gone to a workshop, but I know from my experience personally, and that’s what they say too. Even the inner fire in Wim Hof will tell you those large things and those large gatherings or the YouTube videos are there to familiarize yourself and to get you open to it, but then really the learning and the deep practice comes in from learning from one of us, some of the people that are good, unless you really do get it. But to deepen the practice you just, once you learn how to do it, I’ve seen it time and time and time and time again where learning the practice is different than what most people have done.

So it’s like anything else, you can either do a lunge 1,000 different fucking ways, man. 980 of them are not the same. Five of them may be good for you. Ten of them may fuck you up, you know what I mean? So what are you gonna do that’s, which one are you doing that’s helpful for you? Do you know how to organize, coordinate, and use this technique and your body for what you want? Learn how to do that, then you can fuck off on your own and you’re powerful. Seriously, you can practice on your own then. That’s all it takes. But learn how to, just like anything else. You know how it is, man. Personal training, we teach people how to move well. You said form follows function. That’s right. So good form, good technique. Drive the car, right? Okay, be a good driver of the vehicle. Know how to steer the vehicle.

Marc Perry: Nice, man. No, dude, I really appreciate this and how can people follow you or learn more about you?

Farid Hashemi: So the Instagram is e_motion_training. Then the name of my company is e-Motion Training or e-Motion. It’s energy in motion and emotion behind training, because those two things go hand-in-hand with your training. You need that to excel. That’s why the Wim Hof Method by the way, and this mindset stuff, because emotional intelligence, emotion, feeling, understanding, and actual connection to what you’re doing, AKA intention, purpose, those things are what give you results. Not just lifting the fucking dumbbell. If you’re lifting the dumbbell for the aesthetics, you got the aesthetics. That was your goal. You got it. You damn right you got it. If you’re trying to do it for performance or something else, you better change the fucking work out.

Marc Perry: Alright. No, no, I really appreciate it. So by the way, for everyone listening, we’re gonna have links on the article to your stuff as well, so you can go there. And Farid man, I appreciate this, man. It was definitely an interesting conversation.

Farid Hashemi: That was a pleasure. You’re a great interviewer… Podcast host, I don’t know what you would call it, but I understand where you come from.

Marc Perry: I appreciate that, man. And so I’m in LA, man. I might have to hit you up at some point.

Farid Hashemi: Awesome, man, you gotta come by and check this out. I gotta put you on the wall of fame. You gotta get your Polaroid up there with the thousands of others.

Marc Perry: Nice, man. Sounds like a plan. Enjoy the rest of the day, man.

Farid Hashemi: Thanks brother. I’ll talk to you later.

Marc Perry: Alright. Bye-bye.

Farid Hashemi: Bye.