Chapter 2 – The Minimalist Morning Routine

Want to achieve even more, be even more productive, happy and energetic every day? There is a secret way, and successful people have been utilizing it for centuries. It's called developing a morning routine.  Morning routine motivates you to be at your very best every day. By being at your best, every experience and outcome of your life changes. Get more from your day and make every day your masterpiece. Remember how you start the day is how you end the day.

Day 1 – The “ Road Work”

Go for a 15 minutes jog around your neighborhood, allow yourself to have a 5 minutes recovery session after the workout. Road Work also known as early morning jog trains us to be disciplined no matter how huge the temptation is, for instant in this case is to sleep.

Tips to run like a pro:

Breathing Pattern

You might need to focus and practice it consciously at first. Inhale while stepping left, right. On the exhale step left, then right. And so on. After mastering this, move to a 3:3 (inhale, step left, right, left; then exhale, step right, left, right), 2:3, 3:4, or a 4:4 pattern. Find the one that suits you the most.

The “Dead Fish” Position

Run with your mouth being slightly open. This will help you release tension, reduce stress and keep your body relaxed throughout the run.

Effective Running Form

Arms

Bent your elbow at a 90-degree angle, kept them slightly pointed away from your torso with the knuckles close to your sternum and aim for a smooth back and forth arms swing.

Fists

Avoid clenching your fists. Loosen and maintain them just like holding a butterfly in each hand without crushing or letting it fly away. Clenching your fists too tight invites tension.

Shoulders

Whenever tension starts to form, release your shoulders, shake out your arms, and then drop them back to their comfy, relaxed position. Always keep your shoulders loose and at a comfortable position, not too high, not too low.

Day 2 – Hello Ice Bath

Now I am not saying that this is something easy, but trust me this could change your life forever. There are lots of benefits that you can reap from taking an ice-cold bath. In fact, an ice bath is like the free version of cryotherapy. In cryotherapy, liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -200ºF is sprayed on the skin throughout the whole body. Cryotherapy is also widely used by people such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Daniel Craig, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Tony Robbins and much more.

How to do take an ice bath:

• First, get wet with a temperature that you are comfortable with.

• Slowly increase the temperature to the point where you can no longer bear it.

• Now, turn the water temperature all the way down to the coldest setting. The colder the better. Confront it. Make sure you expose every part of your body is exposed to the cold water.

• Always begin with hot and end with cold.