The Perfect Morning Routine For More Energy And Focus

Having a morning routine in place can be the difference between you feeling energized and focused, ready to crush the day, or tired fighting brain fog, wishing there were more than 24 hours to work with…

Whether it’s for your career, business or other obligations that day, everyone always wants to perform at their best.

In this article, we’ll be covering:

• Why you should have a morning routine
• The 3 must-have’s in your routine
• What my personal morning typically looks like

You’ll walk out of this article with some new tips and tricks to win each and every one of your mornings…

Enjoy!

OUR MORNING ROUTINE GOAL

Just as we need to know what you want to achieve with your fitness goals, having a particular outcome with the morning routine allows us to pick and choose what we add-in, to then work backward and create the desired result…

9 times out of 10, it’s always going to be along the lines of mental clarity, focus, recovering from that extra wine you had, motivation, gratitude, etc.

In short, I like to describe this as priming yourself to be in a growth mindset. In this state, the stress of the day rolls off your shoulder, and for the sake of Train. Eat. Live. you can adhere to your training and eating much more consistently.

Remember, this isn’t about following some plan then going back to your old habits – it’s about a sustainable lifestyle shift.

THE 3 MUST-HAVE’S IN YOUR MORNING ROUTINE

If you’re already thinking, “gosh Trent I really hope you don’t expect me to add in a ton of different tasks on top of what I already have…”

Think of it this way, just as I revamp my client’s workout programming to get better results in LESS time, I’m all about using different practices that payback double or even triple the amount of time invested.

A great example of this is power napping. I’m a huge fan. Most people reach for more coffee during the afternoon crash and create a big battle with themselves to continue working…

Whereas I know that if I block out just 20 minutes for a quick nap, it feels like I’m entering a second day, energized and ready to stay productive during those final afternoon hours.

Don’t have time for a quick nap? No problem, you can still make an effort to do some box breathing or a quick meditation and a quick walk.

Water, Light, & Movement

Even if you only have 10-15 minutes in the morning, you can still utilize the 3 most important things to include in your morning routine.

The Elixir of Life

If I had to point the finger at the biggest cause of brain fog, fatigue, grogginess, etc. I’d say it would be from dehydration.

Think about it, you may not have kept up with your water the day before, but more importantly, you just went all night without drinking anything.

Most make the mistake of going straight into the coffee. It’s best to replenish your body with minerals and electrolytes before starting your day.

I have all of my clients start drinking the elixir of life when we start working together:

• 12oz of filtered or spring water
• 1/2 squeezed lemon
• A few pinches of pink Himalayan sea salt
• (more additions in the bonus section below)

This simple mix (best warm or at room temperature) will rehydrate your body, kick brain fog, and prime yourself for your day.

Light

Nothing, I repeat nothing, will get you ready to go more than light exposure first thing in the morning.

Direct sunlight exposure is the best. It will also help keep your circadian rhythm on track and signal to your body that it is day and time to rock ‘n’ roll. Which also plays into why having a routine sleep and wake time is ideal.

As you wake your body will begin to raise cortisol levels (in a good way) which will suppress melatonin production. You can think of light exposure as the cheat code to speeding this process up and making it more efficient.

And besides, you should be getting more sunlight exposure (at least 20 minutes a day) if you want a fast, robust metabolism.

Movement

Right up there with light, movement is going to help energize & prime your body.

It’s also great for aligning your circadian rhythm with your sleep and wake routine.

No need to take this to extremes either. This can be a quick walk, stretching/mobility, yoga, Zen Swing, some jumping jacks or air squats.

My personal favorites are either a walk, yoga, or Zen Swing.

Putting Water, Light, & Movement Together

You’ll soon see a few additions to the morning routine in my personal example in a moment…

If you could only do the bare minimum? Make sure you always include water, light, and movement into your mornings in some way, shape, or form.

Usually, this will involve you waking up, fixing your elixir, and stepping outside in the sun for a quick walk or some form of movement.

Anyone can make this fit very easily into their schedule by making sure everything is prepped/laid out the night before.

What if you’re up before the sun or the weather is bad? More on this in the bonus additions section below.

Remember, we aren’t doing these things to check them off a list or fill time per se. We are doing these things to prime ourselves to get more done throughout the day.

MY PERSONAL MORNING ROUTINE

At this point, I’ve tried many many things to see what’s going to get me the most energized to crush the day.

Are we going to have on and off days? You bet! Yet again, if my schedule changes, I’m not in my normal routine, or if I’m really thrown off, water, light, and movement are always included nowadays.

I say this again because you most certainly do not have to follow my routine exactly. although, I do encourage you to try different things you may enjoy keeping.

My Perfect Morning

First 30 Minutes

• Take Seed Probiotic
• Oil Pull (which can be done with other things)
• Water, Light, Yoga
• Dry Brush
• Cold + Hot Shower

Second 30 Minutes

• Reading
• Gratitude Journal
• Vision Board/Goals Review

Again, some days aren’t perfect like this. But the closer I am to the routine, my days are better. Period.

Really, I love following a two-part structure of priming your body (in a non-stressful way) and priming your mind.

This leaves me with a “let’s fucking go!” as opposed to an “oh fuck this day is gonna be stressful” type of mood.

I always love blocking out the first hour to complete everything before moving into my work or leaving to go somewhere.

BOUNS MORNING ROUTINE ADDITIONS

I touched on a few things that required a bit more explaining from the previous sections. Also, I wanted to add some bonus additions to supercharge your mornings.

No Sunlight? No Problem.

If you wake up before the sun or it’s a dark and gloomy day outside, I love using a device call the Human Charger.

Basically it’s LED lights that act on your body’s light receptors to imitate sunlight.

It looks like a little MP3 Player and the headphones are mini lights.

Usually, I’m up slightly before the sun so as I’m drinking my elixir and hitting some quick yoga, I’ll be plugged into the Human Charger.

Literally getting water, light, and movement all in 10-15 minutes at the start of my day.

Larid’s Superfoods

Larid’s products are top-notch (no I’m not affiliated, just love em’).

Something I’ve been obsessed with adding to my morning water is his Daily Jumpstart Mix:

• Lemon
• Ginger
• Cayenne
• Lucuma

All amazing ingredients to support hydration, digestion, and performance.

Lower Inflammation With Curcumin

I talked about brain fog, fatigue, tiredness and how rehydrating your body will help reverse those annoying feels…

Although sometimes the water isn’t enough. Especially if you had little sleep, consumed alcohol, or something else went down that caused a little extra stress on the body.

In this situation, I love to have some Curcumin handy to pop. Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric. And it’s known for its anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant.

Grounding

For bonus points, when you first get your water and step outside, if you have a backyard or an area to step onto the Earth with your bare feet and get your movement in, you’ll get the benefits of grounding/earthing.

Which has a ton of awesome benefits such as improving your circadian rhythm, lowering stress, neutralizing free radicals, and shutting down chronic inflammation in the body!

Seed Probiotic

I wanted to include one of the best pre/probiotics on the market in this article. Mainly because I take it immediately when I wake up with my water (as they recommend taking it on an empty stomach).

Gut health requires its own article, but with the improvements I’ve noticed with my digestion since taking it, I couldn’t help but include it here.

Yes, with complete transparency, I am affiliated with these guys. You can also get a nice fat discount with the coupon code: TRAINEATLIVE if you want to try it out.

> (opens in a new tab)”>Click here to learn more about Seed >>

Again, that’s the only product I am affiliated with, the others, I still fully stand behind because I actually noticed an improvement.

Oil Pulling

I oil pull with organic virgin coconut oil pretty much each morning, first thing. Yes, that DOES mean I only brush and floss my teeth in the evenings.

Oil pulling is an ancient remedy that lately has actually been showing some truth for helping to fight bad bacteria in the mouth, improve gum health, prevent cavities, gingivitis, and bad breath.

5-10 minutes of swishing does the trick!

Cold Showers

Cold thermogenesis is a new favorite secret weapon of mine for staying lean while adding muscle.

It can also help get rid of that last bit of stubborn body fat.

A few benefits on top of burning body fat from cold exposure are:

• Lowered inflammation
• Improved recovery
• Boosted immunity (stay back corona)
• And of course, iron grit/willpower, ha!

In the shower, you can do:

10 seconds hot to 20 seconds cold, repeated for a total of 5 minutes.

Or a 2 minute cold shower in the morning and once again in the evening.

Then once a week I love doing a full ice bath plunge for 3-5 minutes.

Sauna

I’m sure you’re aware of the amazing benefits of the sauna (especially infrared saunas). If not, a quick google search will catch you up to speed.

I wanted to add this here because I freaking reach God Mode when I get the chance to hit the water, light (human charger) and stretching all while getting a nice sweat in from the sauna.

Of course, getting to the gym can sometimes take up too much time for me. Another option can be to get one for your home (which I plan on doing in the future).

If you can’t hit the sauna in the morning, definitely recommend you jump on board at some point in your day anyway.

Dry Brushing

I almost forgot to write a little blurb about dry brushing.

You’re doing exactly how it sounds, you’re brushing your body with a bristle brush, dry!

The idea is that you’re brushing from bottom to top of your body towards your heart. This is great for improving circulation as well as flushing your lymphatic system. I also enjoy it as a little check-in with myself first thing in the morning like a mini-meditation.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

You now know how to win your mornings…setting you up to crush your days and get a step closer to your health and fitness goals.

We covered a lot, especially with my personal morning routine.

By no means do you have to do a complete 180 and start adding these new things in? That’s actually a perfect way to make nothing stick and keep your mornings the same as they are now.

Something you can do your next morning is simply:

Focus on getting in some form of water, light, and movement before starting your day.

Cheers!

-Trent

What did you think? Have anything to add to this morning routine? Comment below!