Laird Hamilton Shared the Morning Routine That Kickstarts His Workouts at 57
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Big wave surfer and fitness entrepreneur Laird Hamilton still trains to extremes, as evidenced by a recent Instagram video in which he can be seen swimming lengths of a pool while carrying a dumbbell. As the founder of Extreme Performance Training (XPT), an underwater resistance training fitness concept, Hamilton is all about going to those uncomfortable, physically demanding places. In fact, he likes to get uncomfortable as soon as he wakes up.
In an interview with Men's Health, Hamilton explains how giving his body a shock first thing in the morning, in the form of extreme heat or extreme cold, can "boost" his system, and "rev him up" for his workout that day.
"It’s like a warm-up," he says. "If you feel a little achy in the morning, and you're a little bit busted up, you go take yourself a real hot shower. You know you’ll come out of there [feeling great]. We even sauna early. I'll go out in the morning in the dark and sauna to start the day, a really hot one. I’ll do something really hot, or you could also just jump in an ice tub and get the opposite of that. Either one of those kind of extreme thermal exposures is gonna boost the system. It's gonna rev you up. I would take a cold shower, but the problem is most people’s showers don’t get cold enough. But the heat gives you a good kick."
But he doesn't just do it for the physical benefits: Hamilton believes there is very much a mental advantage to challenging the body in this way.
"It's hard. And something about the difficulty has a psychological effect on you," he says. "There’s a thing about discomfort. Maybe if we lived in a different universe, maybe discomfort wouldn't be so beneficial. But the universe that we live in at this point, we benefit from discomfort. If you want your rose bush to bloom, you prune it. There's just no way around it."
Read the full interview for more on how embracing discomfort and training in extreme conditions has been key to Hamilton's success as an athlete.
You Might Also Like
