
The Morning Habits That Sharpen Focus and Mental Endurance Throughout the Day

Founder, DrJockers.com
- Discover how grounding, hydration, light exposure, and breathwork improve oxygen delivery, mitochondrial function, and mental clarity.
- Learn why morning routines that support vagal tone, nitric oxide, and blood flow set the brain up for sustained focus and energy.
- Uncover how strategic movement, sauna, cold exposure, and circadian cues enhance brain resilience, mood, and performance throughout the day.
Full Transcript
Why Morning Routine Matters 0:00
Hey, in today's video, I'm talking about my morning routine for optimal energy and brain function. If you're like me, you want to perform at a really high level throughout the day. You want to be the best mother or father. You want to be the best employee or business owner. You want to be the best student or whatever it is that you're trying to do. And a good morning routine sets you up for success. If you don't have a regular routine in the morning, hopefully I can inspire you to start that because it really makes a difference.
And it it pushes the needle when it comes to results in your life and so for me, I wake up at 6 a.m. and it all starts with a good evening routine. And so if you haven't seen my video or my podcast on my nighttime, my evening routine, that's really where it starts. It's hard to have a good morning routine if you don't have a good evening routine and you're not sleeping well and detoxifying your brain. So for me, I wake up at 6 a.m. and usually I feel really good right now. It may be tough to get out of bed at first, but I just remind myself, hey, my life has purpose.
It's time to get up and get moving. And if I've had a good evening routine the night before, it's a little bit easier to get moving and get going. And so first thing I do in the morning, I, you know, I sleep, I get up, I go and I get a little bit of coconut oil. I put it in my mouth and I start oil pulling. What that does is it starts to pick up bacteria and bacterial toxins in my mouth,
Wake-Up, Oil Pulling, and Grounding 1:30
and I'm swishing it around for roughly about ten minutes. During that period of time, I might set up some supplements that I'm going to take, and then I go out and I go outside. I ground my feet, my bare feet on grass, dirt, sand, you know, whatever it is that I'm around now, typically at home, it's grass on my front lawn and I make sure that I'm really grounded, okay? And that grounding means that there's these negative ions and this natural, healthy electromagnetic frequency, this Schumann's, frequency that comes from the Earth, 7.83Hz.
That's very healing for the body. It's something that all of our ancestors were exposed to. They were exposed to the natural electromagnetic rhythms of the earth. And so you want to get in touch with that early in the day that helps calm your body, helps set your vagal tone, and helps to, in a sense, almost like showering your electromagnetic frequency kind set you up for great brain function, great energy. So I'll walk around on my front lawn and while I'm oil pulling and, you know, eventually after about ten minutes, I spit it out.
During that time I'm praying as well. Right? So I'm praying. I'm worshiping while I am oil pulling. So, you know, you got to do a lot of these things you can do together. Right? And that's what really helps save you time as you get going with your day. So that's kind of the first thing that I do. Then I come in, I make sure I'm hydrating. Well, I try to drink 16 to 24oz of water right after I'm done oil pulling. So I just start drinking good amount of water. And in that water I don't have anything extra, anything special.
I'm just really doing that to focus on good hydration. Then I'll make some warm herbal tea and I also take some supplements. Some of the supplements I take, I take, peptides, BPC 157 as well as Tb4, frag and something called our Wolverine Complex. This is something I actually take at night and in the morning when I wake up for optimal healing and tissue regeneration. So it's, it's these are peptides that are pretty well renowned for anti-aging. Good research on that. They are definitely more pricey supplement.
But I found that I feel like I recover better from exercise, that I have better overall energy and and performance. When I'm using these. I also use some bioactive carbons. We what we have one called BCR ATP. And I also really like to use neuro effect from Paleo Valley, which has some medicinal mushrooms, as well as it has, you know, things like coffee, fruit extract and chaga.
Hydration, Supplements, and Herbal Tea 4:00
Chaga as in their lion's mane. All different types of mushrooms and adaptogens that help support optimal energy and brain function. So I'll take some of those supplements. I'll drink some warm herbal tea. That warm herbal tea is great for vagal tone, and the reason why I want good vagal tone in the morning is I want to be calm, relaxed, but also I want to make sure that I'm stimulating peristalsis. I'm starting to move things through my bowels. I want to make sure I have 1 or 2 really good bowel movements for me, usually two within the first 16 to 90 minutes of waking up.
That helps me clear out from the day before, get all the different endotoxins out of my system, which helps me have better energy and better mental clarity. Obviously less inflammation in my body when I do that. So I want to make sure I'm moving my bowels well. So the hydration as well as the warm herbal tea really help with that process. Now, after I do the hydration right, I drink the water, I drink my, I take my supplements, I turn on worship music on my phone. So I get my phone, I turn on worship music and I start reading my Bible.
And so usually I'll read my Bible for 10 or 15 minutes. And during that period of time, I just try to think about what I read. And sometimes I have a devotional as well that I'll read along with whatever I'm reading in my Bible. And so that's just personal devotion. Time to get my heart right, my mind right, my spirit right for the day. And then I go and I do red light therapy. And so I have a red light therapy box, infrared red light therapy. So it's got red and infrared. And I have one that's shining on my front side, one, one that's shining on my back.
And so I'm doing red light. And I do that for roughly 10 to 12 minutes. During that period of time I've got worship music on and I do breath holds. And so with the breath holds, I usually do it every three minutes. So I have like two minutes of recovery in between. But I try to hold my breath for 45 to 60s. And so I'll take a couple deep breaths before I do it, and then I'll hold and I'll hold for, like I said, 45 to 60s. And why am I doing those breath holds? The reason why is I want my body to be better at extracting oxygen from the red blood cells and getting it into the cells of the body.
And so going through periods of temporary hypoxia, low oxygen states actually primes my tissues in my body to be better
Bible Reading and Red Light Therapy 6:30
at pulling in and pulling out oxygen from the red blood cells. And it gets it's I get better oxygen delivery to the cells and better oxygen utilization in the cells. It's one of the best natural energy tips that you can do. Now it is uncomfortable. If you've ever tried holding your breath. It's not necessarily fun and it's uncomfortable, but it actually stimulates better energy, better oxygenation, better fat burning throughout the day. So it's a really good strategy. So I couple that with my red and infrared.
While I'm worshiping during that period of time as well. And so again I do it every three minutes. So if I'm doing ten minutes a red light, usually I'll do a minute or two and then I'll do a breath hold, and then I'll wait two more minutes. Right. And then do another breath hold. And then I wait another two more minutes and then do another breath hold. So I try to get three sets of 45 to 60. Second breath holds. Now, if you can't hold your breath for 45 seconds, start with 20s. Start with 30s. Start building it up.
What happens is you get better at it. It's like a muscle that you train. You get better as you consistently do this. So for me, if I'm not doing this routine on a regular basis, 45 seconds can be really hard. If I'm doing this on a regular basis, 45 seconds is not as hard. Seconds will be harder. And so usually the first round I do 45 seconds to kind of warm my body up. And then the last two I go for 55 to 60s breath hold. Right. And that's really helpful again for helping with deep tissue oxygenation in my body.
So I do that, in my, my herbal tea. A lot of times I'll squeeze some fresh lemon because I want to get vitamin C and bio flavonoids in my body as well, which help with deep tissue oxygenation. I want my capillaries, which are kind of the blood vessels that are going deep into tissues. I want them to be as permeable as possible to get more oxygen, more nutrients into the cells of my body, vitamin C and bio flavonoids, as well as doing things like breath holds, for example, to support overall nitrogen, nitric oxide levels create more capillary permeability to get more oxygen and more nutrients deep into the cells of the body.
So that's what I'm doing there. So after I'm finished with my red light as well as and red light has amazing benefits, red light and infrared, I'm stimulating nitric oxide levels when I'm doing that as well for for better oxygenation in my body. But I'm also stimulating mitochondrial melatonin production. And melatonin in the mitochondria is really key for protecting your mitochondrial health. And that photo bio modulation getting the red and infrared stimulates mitochondrial energy production, so it helps protect the mitochondria and stimulates mitochondrial energy production.
So red and infrared phenomenal therapies to use about ten minutes a day on as much of your body as possible. So of course, when I'm doing that, I'm completely naked. And so I'm getting in as much of my body as possible.
Work Block, Walk, and Sauna Routine 9:30
I have full body panels trying to get as much of my much of the cells on the exterior surface of my body exposed to that red and infrared as I possibly can for that 10 to 12 minute period of time. You really don't need much more than that. You know you can do ten minutes twice a day. That's probably optimal. For me, just with with my overall routine, I'm usually doing 10 to 12 minutes once a day. Okay. Then from there, I come up, I make another round of herbal tea, and that's when I actually start working.
So usually by now at 7 a.m. and I like to make sure that I clear out my emails. I knocked 1 or 2 things off of my to do list for the day, and that just helps give me momentum. And usually I'm doing that and it takes maybe 45 minutes or so. By 745, I like to go out and I do a quick run around my neighborhood, either a walk or a run for 10 or 15 minutes. Also, my my infrared sauna is in the same room as my red and infrared light. So when I'm finished with that, I turn on my infrared sauna and let it heat up.
And so then I go out again. I take a walk, or I run to get some outside time and get some movement in 745 to 8. And then at 8:00, I like to get in my infrared sauna, and I'll get in my infrared sauna for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on what else I need to do that morning. And during that part of time I'm reading. So I like to read while I'm in my infrared sauna. Try to get a good sweat, then I jump in a cold shower right after that. So I start my shower cold. I jump in for the first two minutes. It's cold while it's warming up, then it warms up.
Then I put on the soap, shampoo, whatever I need to do, and then I turn it back cold. Right? For the last, you know, 60s or so. That cold exposure. Of course, the sauna is great for detoxification, for activating heat shock proteins, for autophagy. It helps it helps improve micro clusters of water for my body to, to pull toxins out. It helps activate more fat burning afterwards. Helps helps activate cold shock proteins. So it's it's in a sense this this change up in temperature actually there's synergistic benefits.
There's benefits in just doing sauna. There's benefits in just using a cold shower or like a cold plunge. But when you actually do them right after one, right after the next, you get even better benefits. It's even a higher level of synergy there. So I'll go ahead. I'll do the cold shower, get out, you know, do my kind of brush my teeth, you know, do all the the other morning stuff that I do. And then from there, you know, usually it's about eight 4845 and then I'm helping with my kids. And so I go ahead and I help make breakfast.
So I'll make them a protein shake or I'll make eggs, like I did this morning for them. And then one thing I also do is while I'm making my kids their breakfast, I also make a really good cup of, black coffee. I use Life Boost coffee because it's mycotoxins free. It's shade grown, so it's lower acid and it's free of molds and mycotoxins taste great. And caffeine, actually, as long as you're not doing it right away. Like, I like to wait and space it out. But caffeine is great for energy, great for overall performance, great for mental clarity, and great for fat burning as well.
So I have a really good cup of life boost. Coffee right before I get back to work at 915. I'm I'm sipping on that. I'm drinking that, throughout the morning. I also make sure I've got some electrolytes and water and electrolytes as well, that I'm hydrating with
Cold Shower, Family Time, and Coffee 13:00
as I get going with my workday and, help my wife with kind of some, some normal, chores in the morning and then usually I get back to my desk to start work. It's usually about 915, so it's about 30 minutes of just helping out with my family, making sure everybody is good to go. You know, we homeschool, so, you know, the kids eat a little bit later breakfast than most kids that are would be in elementary school. They're usually eating around 845 9:00 somewhere in that time frame. And again by 915, usually I'm done with, you know, helping support the family.
And then I go and, get back to work. And by that point, I'm locked in. I'm focused, I tell you, that combination of sauna to shower. Right? And really, the movement, I go out, I walk or I run, depending on how I feel that day. If I worked out my legs, for example, the day before, and I have a little bit of delayed onset muscle soreness, I might not run or walk or I might not run. I would walk instead. Okay? Now people always ask me, when do I actually do my strength training? I usually do that around 1:00 on most days. Right.
And so, it's usually a lunchtime, it's almost like a break from my work. That's when I do my strength training. I'm fortunate enough to have a home gym, so I'll do upper body one day, lower body the next, and it's just I switch between upper and lower body. Okay. I don't exercise intensely. Typically in the morning, although I may jog. Okay. So again depends on how I feel. I'll either jog or I'll walk, but I get outside, get movement, and then go right into the sauna 20 maybe 30 minutes and then right into a cold shower for, you know, five minutes.
And so super quick cold shower. But I get enough to really shock my body. That activates. Cold shock proteins activate endorphins, which give me incredible energy and mental clarity and, really make me feel alive and well. And then right from there, I'm going out, helping my family out and then getting right to work roughly around 915. Now, I've already worked for 45 minutes, you know, earlier in the morning, got some stuff out of the way.
Wrapping Up the Full Morning Routine 15:00
But, you know, I take that break, do the biohacking help my family, and then, boom, right back to work. That's one of the great benefits not having to commute, right? I'm able to work from home and, and maximize all those benefits. So people are always asking me about my morning routine. Now you guys know it. This is the morning routine that sets me up for success. I'm typically doing this at least 3 or 4 times a week. My goal is always four times a week for sauna. I try to get 100 minutes of sauna in in a week so that would be like 25 minutes, four days a week, right?
So it depends if I have to shave from shaving, which I shave usually every other day or every third day, I have less time in the sauna. Right. And so because I need more time for shaving, if I'm not shaving, I can spend a little more time in the sauna. So that's pretty much the flax, the little bit of flax that goes with it. But again, this morning, routine does not happen if I don't have a good evening routine. Because if I'm exhausted, if I'm not getting enough sleep and enough brain detoxification, I'm probably going to lay in bed and I'm not going to get up quite, quite as early.
I might hit the snooze button, which is a terrible idea. You should never hit the snooze button. It actually sets you up for worse energy throughout the day. But I'm guilty, just like you probably are, of doing that from time to time as well. And so anyways, that's the morning routine. Okay? My goal is typically doing this three four times a week for really optimal energy, optimal brain function. You know, and sometimes I'm able to do it five times a week. It just depends on traveling. It depends on what other stuff I've got going on, that, that week and that day.
And, but if I can do this, this is, this is really the plan. So hopefully you guys are starting your morning routine and really taking it seriously and having it as something that you're doing on a regular basis to set you up for great energy and great brain function on a regular day to day basis.
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