On Daily Routines, we profile successful leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, executives and athletes to explore the routines, schedules, habits and typical day in their life.
American actor, comedian, bodybuilder, and former professional football player Terry Crews spoke to Vanity Fair in 2018 about his daily routine and a typical day in his life.
Interview highlights:
- Sleep routine: he usually wakes up at 4.45am and sleeps at 9.30pm.
- Diet: He does 16/8 intermittent fasting (16 hours of fasting with an 8-hour eating window), and doesn’t eat until 2pm.
- Training routine: He trains at the gym 5 days a week, hitting each muscle group each day, with some ab work, running and plyometric exercises thrown in.
- He used to have an assistant helping him but not anymore.
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Terry Crews, and this is everything I do in a day. I wake up in the morning at 4:45 AM. I have a vibrating alarm that vibrates my pillow. There will be no snoozing in Terry Crews’ house.
Right after I get up, I go downstairs to my kitchen and I have a very, very complex vitamin routine. I also set out all my other vitamins for the rest of the day. I have vitamins three times a day. In fact, I’m holding one of the little vitamin baggies right now.
Since I don’t eat until 2pm, I have a shaker cup with amino acids and water. This gets filled probably four to five times a day. It’s pretty much a gallon by the time you’re done. Now, I purposefully do not check my emails or phone until I have finished my workout. I don’t do any grooming before I go to the gym. You’re going there to get funky anyway. I don’t want to talk to anybody, so if the breath is bad, that’s the way it goes.
I do a five-minute warm up. Then I put on an audiobook that I’m going to listen to the whole time while I’m working out. It can be about fitness, it can be about health, it can be about acting, it can be about whatever.
Then I go to my first exercise and that depends on what day it is:
- Monday is legs
- Tuesday is chest and arms
- Wednesday is stretch, abs and run
- Thursday it’s my back
- Friday is usually about shoulders and plyometric exercises.
I usually do four sets with 10 descending repetitions. So, it will go 10, eight, six, four. And I usually try to go as heavy as I can, but every workout, every day ends with a four-mile run.
If I’m going to Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I get in the car sweaty. My kids have complained. They’re like “you are funky” and I know it. I get in the car, I go to Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I shower there.
After the shower, I make sure the head is all steamy and the room is all steamy and then I do my shaving because this is the deal: I am not really bald, but I shave it every day. I have the exact pattern down exactly how I do it.
Then I put Old Spice aftershave on the top of my head, then I use Neutrogena oil all over my body, because I don’t want stretch marks. I’ve always seen where big lifting guys get stretch marks, but I get oiled all the way up. I look like a nice slick machine. It’s kind of wild. I can do my whole grooming process probably in 30 minutes.
I do not have an assistant right now. I’ve had assistance in the past, but now I’ve learned to use a lot of apps. There’s this cool app called Lug. If I have to move something from one place to the next, you can push this app and all of a sudden, two movers show up with a truck and can move things from one place to another, even in your own house. It’s the easiest best thing ever. And I’m one of those guys that has decided that my life is going to be app oriented.
I do not eat my first meal until 2pm, so it’s an eight-hour window with a 16 hour fast. I usually have a go-to lunch, which is an omelet with bacon and a salad. And I always have that in my fridge. And then I wash it down with a protein shake.
So, by that time I’ve had my second vitamins and I’m ready to continue the second half of my day. I have different things that I want to focus on. So, I’ll get on the computer. I’ll check out tutorials. I’ll do some drawing, some painting, some studying.
I’ll study my lines because the kids come home probably about 3:45pm, sometimes we play games, sometimes we just hang out. Sometimes we decide, are we going to go watch a movie or what dinner is going to be?
We make that decision usually by six o’clock, but there’s always a sweet somewhere. Like I usually have a pie or a cake or something sweet, some pudding, maybe a little Pink Berry on the side. You know what I mean?
We usually wind down after dinner. We’ll watch something usually that’s on the DVR. My wife always gets on me about this, but I like to watch anything I’m in. It’s really, really narcissistic. Yes, it is. I watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I watch it several times. We watch old Everybody Hates Chris episodes all the time and everybody’s like, dude, are you watching yourself? I’m like, yes, yes because this is a dream. I’m living a dream and I’m going to watch the dream.
I am usually getting ready for bed by 9pm, along with the kids, and I’m in bed by 9:30pm. I do not wear pajamas to bed. I like getting dressed up, but at night time I get dressed down, but I also prepare my clothes for the next day. Because I drink so much water during the day, I will get up at least twice during the night. I’m getting old! I definitely get in between seven and eight hours every night.
I love going to bed early, that’s the thing. If I’m up at like midnight, I’m miserable. It’s funny, the people in Brooklyn Nine-Nine will tell you, if we ever have to shoot late, I’m not a happy camper. I’m not at all.
All right and I’m Terry Crews and that is everything I do in a day.
Before you go…
Check out more daily routines from Barack Obama, Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos, Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet and plenty others.
