Who is Ashton Hall and Why is His Morning Routine Going Viral?

If you’re not awake at 3:56 am then you’re not working hard enough on yourself. At least, that’s what you would believe if you followed the viral online fitness coach, influencer, and self-professed motivator Ashton Hall’s (@ashtonhallofficial) morning routine, which is going viral for its extreme, by-the-minute account of how he starts his day.

The idea of a 4 am wake-up is not for everyone, but it only gets more hilarious (and intense) the more you watch his videos. We never thought we’d sit here and watch a fit, good-looking man rub a banana peel on his forehead after spending an hour in the steam room, nor did we think we’d watch a man dunk his face in an ice bath filled with Saratoga bottled water before he delivering a motivational speech to the camera, but here we are. If it’s personal motivation that you’re after, we might have just found your new favourite follow.

What is Ashton Hall’s Viral Morning Routine?

Make no mistake about it, Ashton Hall is a social media marketing genius. He’s turned his extreme daily routine into a social following of more than 10 million people, and he’s growing at one of the fastest rates of any social media content creator. He’s gained 1 billion views across his Instagram Reels in the last 30 days, including viral hits with 23.2 million, 17.8 million, 62 million, and 113 million views. Every single video he’s posted on the platform in the last week has gained upwards of 3 million views.

Now, we’re breaking down every single step of Ashton Hall’s morning routine, don’t forget the nose tape! Here’s a step-by-step guide to Ashton Hall’s morning routine:

• 3:56am: Wake up with mouth and nose tape
• 3:57am: Brush teeth
• 3:58am: Drink Saratoga bottled water
• 3:59am: Swirl Saratoga bottled water around in your mouth
• 4:00am: Add beard foam
• 4:02am: Trim beard with an electric shaver
• 4:03am: Leave the bathroom
• 4:07am: Walk to the balcony
• 4:10am: Arrive at your balcony
• 4:11am: Take your shoes off
• 4:13am: Walk outside
• 4:14am: Drink more Saratoga bottled water, meditate
• 4:20am: Do push-ups
• 4:33am: Read the bible and pray
• 4:36am: Continue reading the bible
• 4:41am: Journal
• 4:54am: Drink more water and read on your iPad
• 5:30am: Put the bible away
• 5:45am: Prepared ice bath for your face in a medium bowl
• 5:46am: Fill the bowl with water, tense your muscles for the camera
• 5:48am: Cut a lemon, squeeze it into the bowl of ice and water
• 5:49am: Dunk your head into the bowl of ice, water, and lemon juice
• 6:01am: Put some gym shorts on
• 6:02am: Finally, put a shirt on
• 6:05am: Put slides on
• 6:06am: Remove nose tape
• 6:10am: Pack your Goyard duffel bag with gym clothes
• 6:14am: Leave your apartment
• 6:15am: Scan out of your apartment
• 6:16am: Walk out of your apartment, get in the lift
• 6:17am: Walk out of the lift
• 6:20am: Arrive at the gym
• 6:22am: Put your Goyard bag down
• 6:24am: Get in the steam room
• 6:44am: Get out of the steam room
• 6:45am: Flex (in the mirror)
• 6:50am: Dry yourself
• 6:52am: Put some clothes on
• 7:00am: Leave the gym
• 7:08am: Get in your Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon
• 7:19am: Drive the G-Wagon to an empty parking lot
• 7:22am: Warm up in the empty parking lot
• 7:24am: Take your shirt off
• 7:27am: Sprint
• 7:29am: Keep sprinting
• 7:34am: Run sideways
• 7:36am: Jump in the air
• 7:40am: Land on the ground
• 7:48am: Shake a follower’s hand
• 7:50am: Take a photo with a follower
• 7:53am: Drink another bottle of water
• 8:01am: Get back in your G-Wagon
• 8:02am: Drive away
• 8:21am: Return to your apartment
• 8:23am: Have a shower
• 8:33am: Grab a banana
• 8:34am: Peel the banana
• 8:41am: Use the banana peel to wipe your forehead
• 8:51am: Dry your face
• 8:55am: Cut up cilantro, cook food
• 9:00am: Cook chicken in a pan
• 9:15am: Eat breakfast
• 9:17am: Eat breakfast while on Instagram
• 9:19am: Look at your Saratago water influence
• 9:20am: Look at your Saratago water influence
• 9:26am: Straighten your suit
• 9:29am: Dunk your head in an ice bath
• 9:36am: Record a motivational speech

That’s 68 steps for those counting along at home.

There are a few things we’d like to note about Ashton Hall’s morning routine. First, before he goes to sleep at night he adds mouth tape, which is said to help filter out dust and allergens when sleeping and help you have a better night’s sleep. However, there’s very little scientific evidence to back this up, and it can pose several risks, including impairing your breathing, which can lead to sleep disruption. As the age-old saying goes, don’t believe everything you see on the internet.

Once the mouth tape is removed, Hall brushes his teeth, drinks water, cleans his beard, trims it, does some push-ups on his balcony, reads the bible, and journals, and then prepares for the facial ice bath.

What Does the Science Say About His Morning Routine?

If you’re planning on trialling a facial plunge after watching Ashton Hall, consider the scientific evidence first because not all of the steps in his routine are beneficial.

We’ll start with the facial plunge in filtered water, ice, and lemon because heathline.com says “there’s no research to suggest if submerging your head is beneficial.” As such, you could skip the facial cold plunge because it won’t help your skin, but it might wake you up.

The buck stops for us at rubbing a banana peel on the forehead, and we might understand it if there was a health benefit. However, again, the science says there’s no benefit to rubbing a banana peel on your skin, evidenced by Taylor Bullock, MD who tells health.clevelandclinic.org: “There’s no scientific evidence to suggest that rubbing a banana peel on your face is going to help.”

That said, many of the steps in his morning routine, such as shaving, washing your face, doing push-ups, working out, and going to the sauna, are all proven to be beneficial. It seems that Hall has merely added some steps for virality, and it’s worked.

Is Ashton Hall Telling the Truth About His Morning Routine?

Okay, so we didn’t think we’d be the ones to sit here and dissect a man’s morning routine, but the more you look into Ashton Hall’s routine, the more holes you start to see in it.

There’s one glaring issue that we want to talk about, and that’s his watch. Someone in the Man of Many office pointed out that the two-tone Rolex Datejust he’s wearing in the video is consistently telling the wrong time. It’s not out by a couple of minutes either, but by hours in most cases. There’s a chance that he owns multiple watches and that the one he’s wearing in each video is an automatic that has run out of power reserve early in the morning. However, it’s a Rolex Datejust 41, and they have one of the longest power reserves in the industry at up to 70 hours.

He also seems to wear the watch upside down, and we’re not sure if this is done to intentionally confuse viewers about the time or because he simply doesn’t realise.

If you’re wondering what watch he’s wearing in the videos, it appears to be a 41mm Rolex Datejust 41 in two-tone 18K Yellow Gold with a black dial, fluted bezel, and jubilee bracelet (ref. 126333). It’s valued at around AUD$20,000. He matches that with a Van Cleef and Arpels bracelet.

Ultimately, we could sit here and analyse Hall for his strange acts, and his choice of timepiece, but that is only leaning into his whole schtick. He’s likely taking the mickey out of this entire situation because if he wasn’t so good at marketing, his extreme morning routine might be considered insane.