What Instagram Misses About Optimal Routines

There’s an unfortunate trend growing from social media influencers who push elaborate morning routines.

Maybe you’ve seen some of the cinema yourself. The most popular may be a fitness influencer named Ashton Hall whose detailed morning routine includes a 3:50 a.m. alarm, rounds of dipping his face into a bowl of icy water, intense exercise, skin care with bananas and onions, longevity protocols, and ironically a quick nap, all before 9:00 a.m. As he dives into his work, a personal chef cooks him his breakfast and hands it to him as he sits at the computer.

The detailed, borderline cringe routine is all produced for instagram with the best camera equipment, lighting and audio as viewers follow Ashton Hall from his morning routine, to his high rise in Miami where he fields business calls and achieves massive success and notoriety.

Hall and others appear to have cracked the code to success. They rise early. Live disciplined. Leave no stone unturned to optimize performance and longevity. They perpetuate a narrative of half-truths and influence a world of scrollers and angst filled, purposeless people.

I say half truths because within the cinematic artificial production is the truth that being intentional can get results. “Locking in” can produce transformation.

But what Hall and others miss is the wisdom to know what to optimize for.

Eye Wash and Fake Hustle

Content like this is easily scrollable. But it sends a message that perpetuates a counterfeit definition of success. Through this morning routine lens, success is merely how much money you make, the deals you close, and if you’re serious about success, you should join the way of Ashton Hall and commit yourself to a range of elaborate routines to move you toward success.

But do these things actually lead to success? If you get a workout in at 6:30 a.m. are the gains double compared to a workout at 2:15 p.m?

Is waking up at 3:50 a.m. in anyway more of an indicator of success than waking up at 7:28 a.m?

Should your daily routine be dialed solely for work? What about family? Or community? Or service that goes beyond your net worth? Or dare I say some form of leisure?

Is there a correlation between face dips in ice bowls and living a purposeful and authentically successful life?

In the baseball world there’s a term thrown around for disingenuous effort. We call it “eye wash.” Not eye wash in the sense of washing your eyes in an ice bowl. Eye wash is something done for show or appearance. It’s a sense of fake hustle. The kind of fake hustle a player produces when there’s a scout in the stands. 

I can’t help but think much of the routines being perpetuated on social media are just another form of eye-wash.

Most successful people I know wake up at a reasonable hour. Get dressed and slowly shuffle to the morning coffee pot. They head to work, work hard. Engage with passion. Come home and engage with their family or interests outside of work. Relax a bit and head to bed.

I spend a great deal of time with high performing coaches and leaders, some highly successful in their sphere. I’ve yet to hear any of them describe to me a routine half as elaborate.

I can’t help but think, hustle culture is nudging the herd toward the wrong routines and wrong form of optimization. 

What Are We Optimizing For?

There’s a running camp that produces some of the best runners in the world. 

Kaptagat Training Camp in Kaptagat, Kenya. 

Members of Kaptagat have set 16 world records. 

203 road race marathon wins

4 European records

29 national records

10 Olympic and World Championship medals

13 world marathon major victories

Kaptagat is where the world’s best marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge trains. Just last week Faith Kipyegon ran the fastest mile for a woman in human history. She trains at Kaptagat as well.

Surely a training camp environment where athletes train full-time, live in the barracks and do life together would be the breeding ground for the most optimized of optimal routines. Surely the level of commitment to routine would be so extreme in the best running camp in the world that Ashton Hall’s ice bowls, bananas on face, 3:50 a.m. alarm would look like a directionless college kid?

What does it look like in Kaptagat? 

The runners rise early - but not Ashton Hall early. They sleep in to about 5:30 a.m. and get their morning run in. After runs they take naps, do chores, cook food and spend time with their families. 

Their routine is built on simplicity. 

They cook food themselves

Can’t they hire some people to cook the food? Sure - but where’s the humility in that?

When asked about the food, here’s what Eliud Kipchoge said, “We believe that being humble, knowing where we come from, is the only way we become free.”

In one image, it was Faith Kipyegon and Eliud Kipchoge’s turn to cook the food for the entire camp. Between the two of them they have 4 olympic titles and two world records. Yet here they are, taking time in their day to cook food for the entire camp. 

They do chores

Kipchoge cleans the bathrooms. He’s the Michael Jordan of distance running, yet he mops the bathrooms himself. 

“He’s still mopping the bathroom, just like everyone else … You cannot live alone in this world,” another Kaptagat runner said.

Kipchoge actively participates in household chores—cleaning, cooking, tidying—alongside every athlete at the Kaptagat camp. When it’s his turn he cleans all the shoes for the runners training in the camp. 

The members of Kaptagat take turns with menial household chores.

Couldn't they outsource this? Shouldn’t they trade these stupid chores for more recovery? Think of all the ice bowl dips they could get in if they didn’t have to mop the bathroom floors, or scrub each other's shoes. 

Maybe there is something to serving each other?

They spend time with their families

Intertwined in powerhouse training camp are kids. Kids run around and play while the world’s best runners train. Faith Kipyegon had this to say, “As a mother it's your happiness to see your child run around. It pushes me to show my daughter the way.” 

Surely it would be more optimal to get the kids out of the environment. Really allow the runners to lock in more, dedicate themselves more. Aren’t these kids getting in the way of success and all?

What Should Our Routines Look Like?

Perhaps the lifestyle and approach of the Kaptagat runners could serve as a blueprint for our own routines more than the eye wash on instagram.

On instagram we see ego and complexity. In Kaptagat we see simplicity and humility.

Our ego loves complexity. When we’re really trying to prove something to ourselves and others we need extreme routines. We need to reach for how dedicated, tough, smart, and special we are.

Mastery loves simplicity. When we’re really committed to mastery it builds the margin in life for humble service to others and a commitment to quiet work.  We just need to work on important things and be human.

We’ve got 6 months left in 2025. A great opportunity to tweak routines and optimize for what matters most. 

The pursuit of mastery and the service of others.

Much everything else is eye wash. 

(Probably shuffling to the coffee machine as you read this..)