Since listening to the Anthony Robbins ‘Get the Edge’ cd’s some 15 years ago, I have been doing a morning ritual to start my day. It all started off as a carbon copy of Robbin’s ‘Hour of power’ but over the years I’ve modified and tweaked it accordingly to suit my location and the exercise equipment to hand. So here’s a step by step/blow by blow account of how I run my morning ritual when I’m at home.
• The alert goes off on my iphone – I turn it off –jump out of bed without hesitation and smile insanely for a count of ten
• Next I do 20-30 large diaphramic breaths (ala the Wim Hof method) to oxygenate my system
• Then I lay on the floor stretch out and do 30-40 crunches, tensing briefly on the contraction • Next I’m in the bathroom where I drink down two full glasses of water
• Then it’s out onto my balcony (yes, I’m in my underwear – no matter what the weather) where I have a pair of 3kg dumbells that I pick up and do a variety of fast exercises to get the blood flowing.
• I have my training gear airing from the previous day’s session on my balcony, so I put that on and head downstairs
• I go into the kitchen and open the patio doors that lead to the garden (to get some fresh air into the house)
• Next I put on a podcast to listen to in the background whilst I ‘do my thing’
• Then I switch on the kettle the go outside on my patio where I jog on the spot to a ‘four in four out’ breathing pattern’ whilst the kettle boils. This is a modified version or breath-walking created at MIT many years ago.
• Once the kettle boils I make a black coffee with 2-3 teaspoons of instant coffee and small teaspoon of sea-salt
• I then go to my gym where I get my swiss-ball out and take it into the kitchen
• I then sit and bounce on the swiss ball for 40 reps, then take a gulp of my coffee and repeat this 5-6 times until the coffees gone. While I’m bouncing I take in big breaths to oxygenate my lungs. The bouncing on the ball helps shift the lymph fluid (your body’s sewage system) which means it can be released during the day via breathing, sweating, urination and excretion. (sounds yucky but we need to get this crap out of us!) • Once the coffee is drank I then head for my gym for part one of my work-out practice
• My workouts consist of the following: Day 1. chest and back Day 2. Kettlebell swings & deadlifts with 30 second stationary bike sprints Day 3. Shoulders and trapezius 4. Repeat day two 5. Repeat day 1 etc……
• After 20/25 minutes I break to drive my son around his paper-round. During this time I’m listening to a podcast
• 30 minutes later we’re back and I continue with the exercises.
• I will very often do bear crawls and crab crawls after my workout just to finish me off and get my heartrate high
• Job done………………..time for a shot of salt-lemon juice and water which is the ultimate recovery and hydration drink.
• Shower time!