Exercise Scientist Critiques The VIRAL Morning Routine (Ashton Hall)

He started his day at like 3:52 a. m. It is now 5:49 a.

m. and he's still in his morning routine. Hey folks, Dr Mike here with RP Strength and today we are going to talk about the comic books or something like that.

Carter Hall is the actual given name of Hawkman from the DC Comics. And it turns out that he has a little bit of an aranged brother whose name is Ashton Hall. He is a former pro alete and is known for dunking his face into ice water and something to do with cucumbers.

As usual, I'm an estranged, balding, Jewish 40-year-old man, and I have no idea what Tik Tok is up to. I'm sure shit about to find out. And if you don't know, you're also about to find out.

3 2 1 Cool fitness trends. All right, let's see what we have here. Scott Ashton Hall is jacked.

He is. And he has that African-American bubble muscle look. He really does, man.

It's great. Good for him, you know. Yeah, man.

Always bet on black. Wesley Snipes Passenger 57. If you've never seen Passenger 57, you got to get on it.

It's an amazing amazing movie. All right, so I guess he has a nasal strip on. I guess he's got tape over his mouth and a nasal strip on because he's trying to promote nasal breathing and not mouth breathing because mouth breathing apparently makes you a degenerate and rots all your teeth out and nasal breathing makes you an angel and perfect.

It's nice that they're telling us he brushes his teeth. You know, Scott, they also missed a lot of stuff like he doesn't baby powder his balls, but I'm sure he does that. Left that out.

Take a big shit right away. Yeah, he's got to be pooping. They don't list that.

It's just funny to me that they they put his toothbrush stuff in here because it's like maybe they just want to let you know like, hey you guys, just in case he didn't he doesn't skip brushing his teeth. Don't worry, he really did. Okay, so problem.

He only took 1 minute or less to brush his teeth. 3:54 a. m.

to start, 3:54 a. m. to finish.

Scott, do you take a minute to brush your teeth? No, it's longer, right? Yeah, mine's 2 cuz I electric toothbrush.

Well, you got to be thorough. Dental hygiene, sir. Okay, he's opening up a bottle of water.

Great. I'll do this, too. in the United States outside of for several years the city of Flint, Michigan.

In the past several years, for a generation, it has been a statistical reality that the water that you get out of your faucet for your health, longevity, everything is functionally undifferiable from the water that you buy at the store from the fanciest water bottle company imaginable. So, if you can drink water out of the faucet, I assume he lives in the greater Los Angeles area. The LA water is great coming right out of the tap.

Thinking that you need to buy spring water in a bottle is one of the greatest cons of all time of all time. If you live in Colombia or in India where the water supply is well just not sufficiently filtered for bacteria, you have to drink bottled water otherwise you could die. But in the United States and in almost all of Western Europe and pretty much all of Free Asia, you can be drinking water out of the tap and it's going to have basically the same effect on you and and so on and so forth.

So there was even a study back in the day where they compared and taste tested New York City water compared to bottled water and basically nobody could figure out which one was which. Scott, how embarrassing is that? You bitch ass been paying $4 a bottle for water and then you can't tell it apart from the shit that comes out for free.

So, just know that there are some parts of this video that are going to be like spot-on and some parts where it's just like just rich guy swag shit, you know? All right, 4:00 a. m.

bottom end partial push-ups. Cool. Um, I don't know exactly how many push-ups he did.

The one of the things I have like, okay, for vibes, this video is a 10 out of 10 for for functionally recommending anything cuz a lot of people try to learn from this. There's just not a lot to learn cuz like, does he do this every day? How many push-ups did he do?

How close to failure? How many sets? What how does the push-up program in his morning routine integrate with the rest of his weight training?

Because in my opinion, you know, random push-ups are something you do like in high school when you like first learn about lifting and you kind of never after that. Maybe in the military when they punish you, they tell you to do push-ups, but um you know, once you grow up, you typically just save your chest and tricep and shoulder training for chest and tricep and shoulder training at the gym. So, I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of push-ups is, but not trying to dog them.

Just kind of curious. Got have to have your blue bottle of water everywhere with you at all times. Got to drink that.

All right. Got to stare. He actually just stared into the camera, Scott, for like a total of five minutes in meditative state.

That's good. You got to get your meditation on. Yeah.

All right. He's meditating again. Oh, time to journal.

It's interesting. Dear diary. Say what?

Dear diary. Dear diary. Today I did nothing.

Um the journaling thing is interesting because I typically have nothing to say in the morning. Nothing's happened. But um what's also interesting is the pen and paper.

Again, I'm just talking some shit for fun here. Know all love and respect, but like throw away your journal and your Excel sheets. The RP Hypertrophy app has all of your workouts displayed in one place with guided videos on exercise techniques and a program that evolves to better suit your needs the longer you use the app.

All you have to do is follow the plan right on your phone and get the gains. Click on the link in the description of this video to get started. Scott, wouldn't you want your journal to be digitized?

Like maybe AI could later learn about you from your journal. Like he has a he has a he has a booklet where he's writing with a pen. I can't even read my own writing after I write it.

Like maybe he has good handwriting or some shit. I mean, if you sat me down at the end of the day and were like, "Slowly write about your day with pen and paper. " Just like kill me.

No offense. No offense. I just like journaling is real hard.

Easier said than done. Props to him. So, we're going to be serious about the Lord's business.

Oh, he was watching a sermon on his phone and drinking his blue water again. It's nice. Get some God in your life.

That's the most wholesome thing that's happened so far. Oh, ice face stuff. I honestly have no idea what the hell this is for.

But, uh, he is now about No way. Am I understanding this correctly? Scott, he started his day at like 3:40, 3:52 a.

m. It is now 5:49 a. m.

and he's still in his morning routine. That's It's a lot. Guys, I've been fairly successful for some time.

Here's me ride my own coattails to this bullshit. Um, the best morning routine is the shortest morning routine that gets you into one of two places. Get your bitch ass to work real quick.

Get your bitch ass to training hard real quick and then work after. That's a weekday morning routine. He's on to hour or two of the shit.

And if I was a person that was inclined to use my time as productively as possible, I would consider that 1 and 1/2 hours of largely wasted time. Now again, this young young man can, you know, do whatever he wants with his time. You know, he's, I'm sure, fairly wealthy and fairly successful, but uh at the end of the day, he could be even more wealthy and successful if he wasn't doing all this performative stuff that barely does anything.

I mean, the ice water and the face stuff, I don't even know what the hell that's supposed to do. It's probably pretty good for your skin or some shit. I don't know.

But, um, it's a sure shit a lot of setup. I guess if you have like servants or whatever like he does, they can set this up for you. It's all namaste.

But um yeah, guys, this is this is not what makes you successful. Not even close. He does have huge delts, which I'll give him that.

All right, put on compression socks. Got to put on your rings. Scott, how many rings and pieces of jewelry do you put on before you go workout?

I mean, one for each finger, you know? Yes. And they're all championship rings.

Yes. Cuz like when you're walking around the real world, you got to people must understand who you are. Otherwise, they'll be confused and think you're just another regular athlete guy.

But ina in case they just just missed out the fact that you're a rich dude champion. I guess if you're still trying to convert on that on that ooh gushy, it's good to flex. I don't know.

Takes his fancy elevator. Goes to his apartment uh gym and does some treadmill running. That's nice.

Okay, so Scott, he finished his run ostensibly at like 6:50 a. m. or something like that, and then he's leaving the gym at 7:30 a.

m. That's a lot of missing time. Whatever.

On we go. Oh, time for a dip in the pool. Okay, the swim only took 10 minutes.

That makes sense. Hot tub. Towel.

Dude, he's jacked. Shower. Banana.

Scott. He's wiping his uh face with the banana peel. That's some like Swiss retreat beauty tip or something I must have missed back in the day.

Wear it up. Another ice bowl of water dunk. This is probably entirely purposeless, but no worries.

And he's in a business suit sitting down in front of a computer ready for a business meeting, I guess. So, looking at it, bro, we got to go ahead and get in at least 10,000. What number sounds like a lot?

Uh, 10,000. Ah, I love it. The idea behind business guys, let me tell you how business works.

It's all about confidence and setting high bars. Other people who do work, they do your business for you. So the problem with other people that are very talented and can really create value is they don't have that winner mentality.

So you put on your suit and you go, "Well, how much business do you guys want to do today? " And they're like, "Well, we were thinking 5,000 business points. " And he's like, "Nah, family.

10,000 minimum. " and they're like, "Well, gez, that's going to be tough. " And he's like, "Do it or you're fired.

" And they're like, "Okay, sir. " That's how success happens, guys. Zoom meetings that last about 5 minutes is what I consider work as well.

Oh my god. These are really good pull-ups. Is holding at the top a good idea?

It's cool for variation every now and again. Technically speaking, it wastes a little bit more energy at the top of the pull-up where you don't get as much hypertrophy as you do at the bottom stretch. So, what I would say is if you're doing pull-ups, get to the top, quickly transition to the eccentric, and maybe spend more time on the eccentric so you could do more reps with more of the eentric load.

Because if you have to question what part of the movement causes more growth, is it the isometric top hold or is it the elongated mind muscle connection eccentric? The second one's probably going to win. Both are very effective.

Both are very cool. Well, it's not like one is bad or wrong, but so this is a cool variation to try, but I'd say for most cases, for most people, just when you get to the top of the pull-up, just come right back down. But come back down instantly under control.

I tell you what, Ashton's control living RP hypertrophy out of these pull-ups. These are awesome. Full dead hang, too, my man.

While I'm doing my pull-ups, I'm not focused on the grip. I'll focus on pulling through each pinky. Guess what?

Even if you don't focus on the grip, just your regular hands, your grip is going to start to slip and then you'll have to focus on it. So, if you start out not focusing on your grip, you're going to get some really good mind muscle connection for your back. Then, inevitably, your grip is going to start to slip because you're not focusing on it.

You'll have to focus on it and you might lose some mind muscle connection for your back. Your back still works great, but kind of bandwidth wise, it's not the best thing. If you had Versa grips, however, then you would be able to push them around the bar.

Push them. You would be able to wrap them around the bar and they completely take your grip out of the equation and you can only have to focus on back. Versa grips are goated.

They are amazing. When I say goated, and I've said this before, there is a factory in the state of Maine into which a line of goats comes in on a treadmill like that. And inside the factory you hear like and then versa grips come out.

That's what I mean by goatated physically made of entire goats. And our commitment to you as the company of VersaGrips is that we always use the whole goat. How many other grip companies will partially use the animal, discarding the rest with a ridiculous polluting capitalist nonsense?

We don't do that. Whole goat only. Versa grips.

There's a link. Check it out. First movement, we're going to go pretty much like a goblet squat instead of right here.

All right. We're going to grab the dumbbells. We're going to keep them by our side so we can get full range of motion.

Come all the way down, all the way back up. I like to call this the suitcase lift. Yeah.

So, suitcase deadlift. Very good. A great lift.

Um, let's see how he does it. So, for this movement right here, we're going to go for four sets of eight. We're not going way to 12, 15.

We're going to keep the reps low cuz I want you guys moving slow. Okay. Slower means you get the same time under tension with lower reps as you would with higher reps.

That makes sense. Um, four sets of eight is interesting. That means he's progressively getting closer to failure as he's fatiguing through each set, which means the first set isn't as close to failure as the last set, which is totally fine as long as all of them are pretty close to failure.

So, let's see how that works. So, he's using the 55 lb dumbbells, I believe, maybe. Or is that the company name?

Something. Those look like something 50 to 70. Yeah, not 70.

Those are Yeah, 50ish. All right, this is going to be the fourth and final set. I'm going to do minimum six, but I'm going to go slower this time, like completely slow.

When I get to the bottom, I'm going to hold. I'm going to pause for two seconds. I want you guys to be very intentional with each movement that you're doing.

Each set, each rep, it counts. It matters. That's great advice.

I struggle to believe that a gentleman holding 50s in each hand, which is to say 100 lb of external load, is sufficiently challenged with deep squats for sets of eight, not even with short breaks, just regular. If he was doing that movement after he had gone for three or four sets of failure on leg presses and really quickly transitioned to it, I could believe it. But as a first exercise, this is a guy that I believe played like college ball or something or pro ball and um he's black and he's jacked and his legs are huge.

But but if you saw this guy squatting a plate on a side, 135 lbs, which is more weight almost certainly than what he was holding in his hands, and he was doing deep squats for sets of eight, you would be like, "He's warming up. " And then you're like, "He's warming up for four sets straight. " A guy like this to get bigger legs, not just maintain their size or lose the size slowly, would need to be able to move away from suitcase dumbbell squats altogether and move into barbell squats or hack squats or leg presses because he needs at least 200 lb plus with a slow cadence to get anything out of the squat.

And 100 total pounds is just not going to cut it. Is it is it possible he's actually working really hard and he's just really really weak? Yes.

I don't think he's weak though. I think he's just doing exercises for vibes or maybe for the camera that I guarantee you he did not really get big doing this. I guarantee I can't guarantee that.

Highly unlikely that he got uh he got this jacked just training this easy. He could have just on sheer African-American genetic supremacy, but god damn. Then if he really tried lifting, he would be enormous.

Mike, there's another video of him with Tristan Lee and they're squatting 315 for reps of five to 10. And he did it to death. Yeah.

Okay. So, this is just like Yeah. So, he's strong.

So, we know he's strong. So, we know that the four sets of, you know, 50 lb dumbbells in each hand, sets of eight is just um guys, don't do this. This is not how you get jacked.

This is not how you get jacked. This is performative lifting. Folks, there is still more video to come, but I got to tell you about our member section.

We have extended very underrated long cuts of all of these videos that we have on our Friday show. They're there and a ton of scientific material that's so nerdy we'd lose the channel if we posted it all. Get a click going on it and let's get back to the show.

Jump squats. Typically, jump squats do their best work for you when you jump really high so that your faster twitch motor units get activated and you actually learn how to jump higher. Here, he's using them for I'm not exactly sure what because he could just be using weight.

These aren't sufficiently challenging for much of anything cuz he's barely trying on the jump. I guarantee you can jump a whole lot higher than that. Yes, that is a racial comment.

Um, so yeah, this is kind of just one of those calisthenics sort of like female workouts where they kind of just jump, you know, like the glute videos the girls buy um and do the the glute program. It's just kind of one of those except for a dude. Um yeah, I mean the super setting is cool.

It'll tire you out a little bit, but none of this is very close to failure. Again, it's just really all kind of performative. He looks athletic.

That's the thing is a lot of this stuff like he's got an absolutely gorgeous physique and excellent skin I might add. Am I in love with him? Yes.

Let's be lovers tonight. You know, like it's all cool. It looks great.

The camera work is excellent. It's got like again 97% vibes, 3% shit that really gets you jacked. That's it for the day.

freaking legs juicy. Come on, bro. False.

Could be 10 times juicier if he did one set of 20 my reps of hack squat. But what do I know? Just a guy with a regular body and zero skincare routine.

Folks, let's see. waking up at 4 in the morning, going through an insanely pointless morning routine for three hours, dunking your face into ice water is not is not going to make you anything special whatsoever. Doing exercises that are vastly underloaded, too few reps, and way far away from failure is also not going to help your cause.

being a very very diligent with your routine, eating very good nutrition, getting very good hydration, all of which he does, using very good technique on the exercises, having really good exercises in your program, and really paying attention to the mind muscle connection like Ashton does is going to get you jacked. So, this is one of these situations where a lot of the stuff he does is just like vibes, Tik Tok shit, and a lot of the stuff he does is really, really awesome. So, to take away from this video, get in the gym consistently, do lots of full range of motion, compound lifts, challenge yourself, and over time, I'm saying you'll be dunking your face into ice water like the best of them.

I've been Dr Mike, and I'm rating this workout and Instagram/ Tik Tok real living the life vibes out of 10. See you guys next time. Woo, that was fun.

Scott, can we set up an entire world of ice water for me to permanently disappear into? Awesome. I'll see you guys in the ice water world.

Here's a video you can also click on that may or may not have ice water. See you guys next time.