Ashton Hall’s morning routine has gone viral for all the wrong reasons

More than a billion people have watched a fitness influencer’s five-hour morning routine, with everyone from Ed Sheeran to the White House making fun of its face-dunking weirdness.

So what? Pop culture commentators have called Ashton Hall’s video a tipping point for “hustle-culture”, “grind-core”, and “alpha-male” presentations of idealised masculinity. The 85-second clip reveals

• how laughably unrealistic most influencer routines are;
• even if they are achievable, how unfulfilling and friendless a life of alarm clocks, gym workouts and self-actualisation can be; and
• how men’s wellness culture is following the same trajectory as women’s, favouring consumerism, aesthetics and faddishness over genuine health and wellbeing.

Who is Ashton Hall? After failing to make the NFL, 29-year-old Hall pivoted to personal training before seizing on the pandemic-driven boom in fitness and lifestyle content. He claims to earn seven figures selling advice designed to help his 15 million followers “re-invent their lives” just as he did.

Diary of a meme. On 20 March, an X account that mostly shares links to a luxury clothing store reposted one of Hall’s videos from early February with the caption: “The morning routine”. That post sent the video around the world, and the clip now has

• 770 million views on X;
• 107 million views on TikTok; and
• 161 million views on Instagram.

Hunter S Thompson, this ain’t. At about the hour the late gonzo journalist would supposedly be on the Chartreuse and cocaine, Hall gets his morning started.

3.52am – wake up

3.53am – remove mouth tape (an unproven trend meant to help with sleep quality)

3.55am – swill mouth after brushing teeth with $8 a bottle Saratoga water

4.01am – 15 minutes of push-ups

4.38am – read the Bible and write in journal

5.56am – dunk face in ice and (more) Saratoga bottled water

6.38am – sprint training

7.36am – swimming workout

8.23am – shower

8.43am – eat a banana, then rub skin on face (another unproven wellness trend)

9.06am – dunk face in ice (again)

9.17am – get a woman to provide a cooked breakfast before work

Even proponents of hustle culture, including YouTuber Logan Paul, have ridiculed Hall’s routine, which has been compared to Patrick Bateman’s infamous regimen in the 2000 film adaptation of American Psycho. In truth, Bateman’s morning routine now looks relatively tepid.

Psycho to prosperous. So what’s changed to make Hall’s routine a source of aspiration?

• The self-help book market exploded over the 2010s, reaching $13 billion in 2020 and creating fertile ground for influencers selling “life-transformation” guides online.
• From Tim Cook to Mark Zuckerberg, getting up at or before dawn has become the de facto morning routine for any self-respecting successful CEO (or so they say).
• Under Elon Musk, X has become a hotbed of ‘manosphere’ influencers peddling get-rich-quick schemes under the guise of self-improvement.

Smoke and mirrors. The most revealing moment in Hall’s video is when he tells someone on a call: “We gotta go ahead and get in at least 10,000.”

Whether he means followers, dollars or bottles of Saratoga water, that one line exposes the real game. Hall isn’t selling an achievable lifestyle based on hard work and self-discipline, but engaging in a performance that allows him to profit from his millions of followers.

What’s more… It’s working for him. Since Hall’s routine was shared on X, he’s gained nearly three million followers on Instagram. Sensemaker’s advice for everyone else? Have a lie in.

Photo credit: @ashtonhallofficial/Instagram