Pro skateboarder and reality TV star Rob Dyrdek made a name for himself performing insane stunts. Now he's planning to live to 114 with a morning routine that includes spending time in a $14,500 meditation pod.
- Former pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek said he's gotten serious about optimizing his health.
- He's built a precise routine for optimal wellness with nutrition, exercise, and stress management.
Former pro skateboarder and reality TV star Rob Dyrdek has spent decades building his brand on adrenaline, from competing at the X Games to pulling off wild stunts on MTV.
But now, as an entrepreneur fascinated by the wellness world, he's more focused on keeping his health on point than setting death-defying records like launching a car backward off a ramp.
Dyrdek said he hopes to experience 1 million hours of life — which means living just beyond his 114th birthday — and has spent the last decade fine-tuning his lifestyle for long-term health.
Daily habits like meditation, functional exercise, and careful nutrition have made Dyrdek healthier, more energized, and happier in his day-to-day life, he told Insider — so much so that he's not even tempted to cheat on his adopted lifestyle by skipping a workout or indulging in a few drinks. And he means never.
"I've gotten so much healthier over the past ten years that there is zero doubt in my mind that I will just be healthier and happier until the day I die," Dyrdek said.
He wakes up between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. every morning
Dyrdek doesn't sleep in. His usual routine starts between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. every day, sometimes earlier (he mentioned during the interview he had woken up at 3:38 a.m. that morning, and decided to get a head start on his routine) .
Despite the early wake-up, Dyrdek said he typically gets out of bed with plenty of energy, looking forward to what the day will bring.
"No matter what time I wake up, I'm going," he said. "I was really excited about the stuff I was working on this morning."
He consistently tracks daily metrics from his body weight to his mood
After getting out of bed, Dyrdek said he steps on a scale that tracks his weight, along with his body composition (ratio of muscle mass to body fat).
He then pours a cup of coffee (which he pre-set to brew the night before, so it's ready when he wakes up), and takes stock of the previous day's accomplishments, ranking how he feels about his life, work, and health on a scale of one to 10.
He also takes into account how well he slept using an Oura ring, a wearable device that measures sleep quality and heart rate.
"That's what I consider my core data set that I look at each morning and I review that," Dyrdek said.
Then he reviews his upcoming schedule for the day, and emails a summary of it to his wife of seven years (along with a love note) to keep her in the loop.
Starting the day with so much information is crucial to making informed decisions about how to improve his health, focus, and energy, according to Dyrdek.
"It's the knowledge and understanding that's the greatest gift over the past decade because I get that forever. I keep learning more and more about what it means to be healthy," he said.
He focuses on "deep work" until about 6 a.m.
After reviewing his data, Dyrdek sets aside about an hour to 90 minutes each morning for what he calls "deep work," which involves thinking through tasks that require more intensive creativity or ideation. That might mean writing a particularly complex piece of content, or doing a deep dive on one of his portfolio companies.
"I find that time in the morning, when the kids aren't awake and nobody's emailing me, is a prime time for me to really go layers deeper," he said.
Dyrdek said he'll also sometimes set aside two weeks at a time to spend all day on deep work, rescheduling all but the most essential meetings and tasks so he can focus on making big breakthroughs on important projects.
Then comes 30 minutes in a high-tech meditation pod
Next, Dyrdek said he climbs into a futuristic-like device called a SomaDome, designed to create a private chamber.
The SomaDome is essentially an encapsulated chair that surrounds the user with a pod-like structure, inside which they experience lights, colors and sounds to facilitate guided meditation sessions. It retails for about $14,500, according to the company website.
For Dyrdek, it's a chance to unplug and set his focus for the day, he said.
"For me, that's really setting life intention," Dyrdek said. "I meditate on what I want the future to become every single day."
He spends an hour working out with a trainer
As a former pro athlete, Dyrdek said he spent years pushing his body, which resulted in a lot of unhealthy movement patterns or "compensations" that were less than ideal.
His current exercise routine focuses on functional strength building, helping the whole body maintain healthy, pain-free movement.
"I'm only about the neuromuscular and skeletal structure working flawlessly together," Dyrdek said.
Three times a week, the workout is followed by spending time in an infrared sauna, he added.
He eats two meals a day around 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Dyrdek's eating habits involve a combination of intermittent fasting with a recent interest in monitoring his blood sugar levels, which he said helps prevent dips and spikes in energy through the day.
Twice a day, at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., he eats a pre-made meal (delivered fresh daily to his house) of some combination of salad, veggies, and protein such as steak or chicken.
His first meal of the day is accompanied by an array of supplements from Momentous (which he co-founded) including a multivitamin, magnesium threonate and omega-3 fatty acids for brain health, and collagen for joint health.
While he'll sometimes eat other types of food, especially at lunch meetings or dinner dates, Dyrdek said he tries to keep meals around the same time each day.
"I can really feel the difference in depth of clarity and the idea that you never get cloudy throughout the day is something that I didn't necessarily believe was possible until I began to do it," he said.
He said he rarely snacks between meals, never drinks alcohol, and isn't tempted to indulge in junk food like doughnuts.
"You evolve to a place where there just is no desire to even put anything in your body that is not part of compounding toward a higher level of health," he said.
One area for improvement, Dyrdek said, is that recent health metrics have suggested he could benefit from eating a wider variety of foods — something he's working on.
Routine is crucial for prioritizing healthy habits, Dyrdek said
Then he starts the day, taking the kids to school and getting into his regular workday of juggling television, podcasts, and a hefty portfolio of business projects.
The day's work wraps up around 6 p.m., so Dyrdek can spend time with his wife and two children, and get to bed around 9 p.m.
It's about the equivalent of a 9-to-5, 40 hours a week, so he can dedicate the rest of his time to health and family.
"It's crazy to me, I never thought I would get to this level. But you grow into this level over time," Dyrdek said. "It's the beauty of growing and evolving into a better version of yourself over a long period of time, having this long-term, forever commitment to health."