Danny Paez, Inverse Let it goДЇour hours before the sidewalk ice bath, I walked into a dimly lit CrossFit gym along with 30 other participants and checked into the Wim Hof workshop. Participants fight to control their breathing in the ice bath at the Wim Hof Method workshop.

I set out to explore whether the practice - which asks participants to throw out conventions of comfort and face their fears - is overhyped or restorative. Many Hof enthusiasts practice the method with religious devotion.Д«ut the science supporting the miraculous claims is scant, and the method doesn't come without risks. The Wim Hof Method aims to relieve peopleвЂ™s 21st-century woes, treat their trauma, and help combat disease. 'It takes away the shit within and leaves who you are and what you are within your control.'Д®veryone is able to plunge into the cold, Hof says - men, women, children. вЂњThe cold sounds very severe and very merciless, but it is very righteous as well,' Hof tells me. Its creator is a Dutch 60-year-old extreme athlete known as the 'Iceman.' His method is a combination of breathing, meditation, and cold exposure, and it will make you 'happy, strong, and healthy.' Or at least, that's the promise. This is the world of Wim Hof, a trendy movement that prompts people around the world to take an ice bath or cold plunge in the dead of winter. It's the last place I thought IвЂ™d be on Super Bowl Sunday.

The air's a brisk 36 degrees, and there's a light drizzle, yet weвЂ™re stripped down to swimsuits, chatting nervously. The sidewalk is filled with ski bros, firefighters, Goop enthusiasts, and people who told me they were there to relieve their chronic pain.

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