Orangetheory CEO: My daily routine “biohacks” for better sleep and slower aging
Co-founder and CEO Dave Long takes Fortune through his daily routine and wellness "hacks" for better sleep and slower aging.
Transcript
00:00 balance for a CEO or an entrepreneur really doesn't it doesn't really exist
00:03 it's because you're carrying your passion your work with you no matter
00:06 where you go you can pretend that kind of bury it but it's always there.
00:10 Hello I'm Dave Long the co-founder and CEO of Orange Theory Fitness I'm 45 years
00:16 old and this is my daily routine.
00:24 The typical time that I wake up in the morning is between 6 and 6 30 a.m. I'm up
00:30 fairly early definitely a coffee person so my first thing in the morning is
00:34 coffee often I'll work out fasted so besides the coffee I'll eat after
00:38 working out. My go-to breakfast most days is kind of a custom smoothie with
00:42 protein some fruit Greek yogurt right now I'm really just focused on you know
00:47 a balanced diet making sure I'm getting enough fuel for the workouts enough fuel
00:51 for the the workday and whatever I'm trying to do. I got into cold plunging
00:54 years ago you know first off for the recovery benefits and then actually as a
00:58 sleep aid it actually it sounds maybe sounds a while but the cold plunge at
01:02 night actually helps you really sleep and when I was doing at night I would do
01:05 sauna first for a session and then finish with a cold plunge but I kind of
01:09 just had an epiphany and a lot of other people were doing in the morning like
01:12 why not just start the day with literally three to four minutes why not
01:16 just start the day because I have a cold plunge in the garage so it's readily
01:19 available. I'm at the point with my daily workout routine where I really feel like
01:23 I need to work out every single day to kind of feel my best and perform on any
01:27 given day it could be an Orange Theory class on other days I'll do either an
01:30 outdoor run which is probably 30 to 60 minutes you know kind of four to eight
01:36 miles other days I'll do a one-hour jiu-jitsu session and then probably once
01:42 a week I'll do an additional strength focus workout usually about an hour but
01:46 it averages about an hour per day. The office is only about six miles from my
01:50 house so it's a pretty easy 15-minute commute I'd say anywhere between 8 a.m.
01:54 and 9 a.m. is where I'm typically arriving let's say you know six six
01:59 meetings a day there are times when I'll do some rapid-fire and some skip bubble
02:02 meetings that are 15 or 20 minutes where I may hit 10 or 12 meetings in a day. I
02:06 think it's rare that I'm in a meeting that I shouldn't be in spend a lot of
02:10 time really curating that so even though there's a lot it's I think you know it's
02:14 it's doing it through prioritization all very necessary. A typical like office day
02:19 I'm usually winding down between 530 and 6 it's super important for me to you
02:24 know to get home for dinner. Recently the thing it was Hamdi from
02:28 Shabani was talking about that work-life balance for a CEO or an entrepreneur
02:32 really doesn't it doesn't really exist it's because you're carrying your
02:36 passion your work with you no matter where you go you can pretend that kind
02:39 of bury it but it's always there and it's a really important part of you know
02:42 that type of person's life so really I've been thinking about it more of what
02:45 he said is really it's more about harmony like how do you find harmony and
02:48 the fact that you have something that's a very dominant part of your life and
02:51 it's gonna be there but finding the kind of the find the balance and knowing that
02:55 it's there and not always spending so much energy trying to kind of push it
02:59 down and really focus on being more present whatever you're doing so if
03:02 you're at work being all the way there and if you're not just working towards
03:06 being present whether it's for your kids whether it's for whatever else you're
03:09 doing that you're focused in the moment. Working to kind of unplug from from the
03:13 workday almost every night a family dinner or some sort of kids activity
03:18 before that and then kind of a wind down we do a walk with the family almost
03:24 every night a lot of times I'll actually do a ruck where I'll wear a weighted
03:28 backpack as part of that walk and often the kids are on scooters or bikes as
03:31 part of it many nights I'll do sauna 20-25 minutes and then one more cold
03:36 plunge before bed. Sleep's one of the most important things you could possibly
03:39 do for literally for everything and so 10 o'clock is my goal it's probably I
03:43 probably average about 1030 my goal is absolutely eight hours I average right
03:48 now probably seven hours in ten minutes that's how close I try to sleep.
03:53 (upbeat music)