My Morning Routine

As a young man, I became very interested in participating in wrestling. I was weak and non-athletic—in sixth grade I couldn’t do a single chin-up.

My family lived only a few miles from the York Barbell Company and my dad bought me my first York barbell for my twelfth birthday. This was mid 1960s and weight training was starting to become popular.

I wanted to go out for wrestling in school and I started applying myself to those weights in the basement. I was quite the cellar dweller. In those days there were two species, garage gorillas and cellar dwellers.

The only resources we had were the muscles magazines. There were also some good books:

My favorite magazines:

Strength & Health
Muscular Development
Iron Man

My favorite books:

Anything by Bob Hoffman but especially Weight Training for Athletes

and Georges Hackenshmidt’s book, How to Live

Aside from the typical weight training advice, there was a lot of health and physical culture information in those magazines. Something that caught my attention early on was that many of these strength training greats and physical culture lions had morning routines.

A morning routine is a set of health practices, including exercises, to prepare the body for the oncoming day.

Over the years, I’ve adapted and changed my routine. I’m releasing a video of my latest routine.

One change is that I’ve incorporated some qi gong. I am convinced that these energetic exercises have a lot to offer.

But the morning routine is not simply exercise; I’ve added various other factors, like breathing, qigong, morning light, grounding, nasal rinse, tongue scraping and rubbing and tapping pressure points.

I avow that my morning routine has allowed me to age with grace. Soon to be 74, I am still getting on the mat and wrestling with these guys half my age.

Check out the video and make it your own or follow along with me.

Ready to Build Your Own Morning Practice?

Steve Maxwell’s latest morning practice is now available as the Morning Routine Bundle, including Steve Maxwell’s Morning Routine 2026 and the Short Form Morning Routine.

Learn the complete practice, then use the shorter version to follow along with Steve whenever you need it.

[GET THE MORNING ROUTINE BUNDLE]

In strength & health,
Steve Maxwell