How I Accidentally Amplified my Sex-Drive… and Why I Had to Stop

It was too much power for this mortal to handle!

I had no intention whatsoever of ever amplifying my sex-drive, so it came as quite a surprise when it happened.

Outside of a global pandemic, I go to the gym regularly, and my diet, on the whole, is quite balanced, so I like to think I’m making quite the campaign for myself in staying in the sex-drive game, when really at my age, it shouldn’t necessarily be the case.

At 29 years old and with 30 creeping around the corner, it’s usually around this time I should be beginning to dip in my ‘T-level’ production, but, as I serendipitously found out, it was the complete opposite that happened.

Here’s the cold truth of how I reversed nature’s intended plan for me.

So How Did I Do it?

Ice baths. Yup! That’s how I did it! Cold, freezing, un-remorseful ice baths.

Now, I’m no athlete, so why the hell would I deliberately put myself through the Hell of enduring ice baths in the first place?

The simplest answer: I like pushing myself.

The complex answer: I might have to break Medium in order to answer that properly.

It first started when I came across the chapter ‘Ice Age: Mastering Temperature to Manipulate Weight’ in Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Body, where NASA scientist Ray Cronise managed to lose 27lbs in 6 weeks by immersing himself in cold exposure vs. 21lbs in 12 weeks without cold exposure.

According to Ferriss, not all fat is the same, in fact, there are two types of fat: white adipose tissue (what we typically think of as fat) and brown adipose tissue, a ‘‘fat-burning-fat’’, which helps ‘‘dissipate excess calories as heat’’, with the remaining calories stored in the white adipose tissue i.e. the infamous ‘beer belly’.

In layman’s terms, being exposed to cold climates stimulates the brown-adipose tissue to burn glucose and fat to create heat, essentially turning one’s body into a furnace.

However, this wasn’t the only benefit I discovered.

The Iceman Cometh

I stumbled across Wim Hof on Youtube a few years back. Also known as The Iceman, Hof is a renowned Dutch athlete who can submerge himself in ridiculously cold climates amassing 21 Guinness World records for incredible feats such as the world’s longest ice bath (1 hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds), as well as walking through the Death Zone of Everest wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts!

What compelled me most about Wim was the science-backed evidence he had accumulated with his feats as well as claiming that his otherworldly methods could be taught, if one could merely take the domain of their minds.

Working alongside a team of scientists from Michigan’s Wayne State University, Hof wearing a specially designed suit that made people cold, was analyzed by the scientists using a PET scanner and fMRI to analyze how his body would respond.

The results were astounding.

One of the study’s authors, Otto Muzik Ph.D., was shocked to find that the area where control of sensory pain in Hof’s brain was highly activated, where ideally, given the amount of stress his body was under, it really had no right to be.

Hof, utilizing his breathing technique, The Wim Hof Method was able to bridge his mind and his body and ‘rewrite’ the script of his mind of what a stressful and overwhelming experience meant, tapping into his endocannabinoid system (the body’s version of the cannabinoids in cannabis) to create a positive and euphoric experience.

This breathing technique has also proven to:

• relieve stress
• faster recovery from physical exertion
• improve sleep quality
• improve sports performance
• enhance creativity
• improve focus and mental clarity

My Ice Bath Journey

I first tried the ice bath in 2014 and back then I could barely bring myself to sit in it, much less lie down in it!

Three years later, my curiosity got the better of me and I tried again, this time applying The Wim Hof Method.

After a few trials and tribulations, and adding a minute to my tally every time I dipped into the bath, I managed to build up my tolerance to lie down in the bath to approximately 20 minutes (a feat that I may as well have thought impossible from where I started).

Once I had become accustomed to it, I wanted to push myself further, so I set the challenge of doing ice baths every day for 30 days in the hope that it:

1. maximize and sped up my weight-loss rate.
2. push me to rewrite my own mental script of what was difficult and challenging in life, by exposing it day in and day out to an overwhelming experience (i.e. ice bath).

Yes, this was an expensive exploit (about £1 per 2kg bag), and with only a small freezer in the flat, that meant I had to use the ice straight away upon purchase.

Looking back, I’m not 100% sure at what wavelength I was operating for this to be considered sensible thinking.

But regardless, I was committed.

The first 2 days were the hardest, but I soon developed a good momentum and felt more and more powerful with each passing day.

That’s when it started…

From then on, I would wake up out of the blue at 3am awoken by my own…ahem… sexual vigor.

For the life of me, I just couldn’t go back to sleep, no matter what I did! I was woken up by my own horniness (not a line I thought I’d ever say!).

So I did the only thing I thought reasonable to do, I tiptoed out of my flat (trying not to wake up my flatmate) and went to workout at my 24hour gym (which is a neon-light graveyard at that time).

By the time day 11 came around I was on the verge of tears.

I was exhausted. This was simply too much.

I was not getting anywhere near enough sleep for the amount of demand I was putting on my body and this was not sustainable.

It was like my body had two minds. On the one hand, it desperately needed sleep, while on the other hand, it wanted its other needs fulfilled at a time when I had abstained from dating (see below).

It was all good in feeling like I had life begging on its knees and being ultra-productive, but not at the expense of being a sex-crazed zombie!

It was too much power for this mortal to handle, and I had to stop.

Ironically, it wasn’t until researching months later that I found out the full effects of cold exposure in boosting sex-drive.

That would’ve been handy!

Looking Back

Having a strong sex-drive can be a useful indicator of a person’s physical and mental functionality. A low sex-drive can happen as a consequence of diabetes, thyroid problems, cancer, and cardiac problems, although biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences can also have an effect on this as well.

I got into ice baths because of their fat-loss benefits and to sharpen my mind for what life could potentially throw at me.

What I liked about the ice-bath was that it made life easier for me. I felt that, outside of personal tragedies, life could not touch me. What a confidence booster to believe that!

I could’ve been having the worst day, but next to the ice-bath life in retrospect was easy.

Yes, I was tired from waking up early when my body desperately needed rest, but truth be told I did get a lot of things done.

I learned that my mind could go into a deep and powerful state when focused with absolute precision and that the sooner I’d ‘let’s go’ of my fear or resistance to the obstacle ahead of me the easier and more at peace I became (how’s that for a metaphor for life?).

I may not partake in ice baths anywhere near the frequency I did when I first set my 30-day challenge, but it’s good to know it’s at my disposal if I ever find Father Time catching up with me.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only. I am not a doctor and this is not meant to be taken as medical advice. The information provided in this article is based upon my experiences and research. Consult your physician to ensure that the information provided is appropriate for you before implementing the information. The author does not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities or damages, real or perceived as a consequence of using this information.

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