When Josh York was younger, he always knew he was different. He stuck to his early morning routine, and loved biking and working out so much that he would beg the football coach to open the gym for him when school was on break so he could spend extra time there.
York, a personal trainer and the founder and CEO of Gymguyz, an in-home personal training company, has been waking up at 3:29 a.m. every morning for decades.
“You have to do things you don’t like to do, because the greatest things happen to you,” York tells Fortune; he lives by the saying, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.”
When York wakes up, he tries not to check his phone for the first 25 to 30 minutes. He then jumps in the shower first thing and takes a cold rinse before heading to his workout for an hour to an hour and a half around 4 a.m. Another nonnegotiable? Every morning around 6 a.m., York takes a 27-degree ice bath for three minutes.
“I swear by it,” he says, even though he admits it’s been tough to maintain because of the discomfort. Still, he loves the benefits of the cold plunge—like increased mental focus and alertness.
After taking a shower and having a protein shake, he gets ready and heads into the Long Island, N.Y., headquarters between seven and 7:15 a.m. He usually gets bombarded with emails beginning at 7:30, so having extra time in the morning to work without distractions, focus on his own health and wellness, and take time for himself has kept him relishing his early morning routine.
York admits his morning regimen is hard-line and impractical for the masses, and calls himself “nuts” for never wanting to have a standard routine.
“If you’re normal, you’re never going to succeed,” he says. “It’s what makes me not normal, it’s what makes me superhuman and gives me the edge on everybody else.”
Still, York admits he has not perfected his sleep routine. He usually gets between five and six hours of sleep a night when the recommended minimum is seven hours. And sleep is integral to maintaining optimal health and reaping the benefits of your workouts.
But every so often, York allows himself to sleep in just a tad, because every 10 to 12 weeks he takes a week off from working out.
For those looking to wake up early—maybe not at 3 a.m.—York says it’s about mental strength, and imagining the feeling once you complete your routine and how it will set you up for the rest of your day.
