Whether he's hitting the tennis court or going kite-surfing, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson keeps very active throughout the day.Nur Photo/Getty Images
- Richard Branson is the 73-year-old founder of conglomerate Virgin Group.
- His daily routine is chock full of sports, from tennis to cycling to kite-surfing.
Richard Branson may be 73 years old, but his daily routine is remarkably active, for any age.
He starts and ends his day with tennis, and gets up to kite-surfing and cycling in between.
Branson is the billionaire founder of Virgin Group, a conglomerate with companies in fields spanning travel, telecommunications, entertainment, space and more. Some of its biggest businesses include airline Virgin Atlantic, wireless services provider Virgin Mobile, hospitality chain Virgin Hotels, and spaceflight firm Virgin Galactic.
Here's a closer look at Branson's daily routine.
Branson wakes up around 5 or 6 a.m.
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"Getting up and at it early gives me time to get on top of things, and chart my day effectively," he wrote in a 2014 blog post.
"The reason I like to wake up early, is so that I can work through my emails before most of the world logs on," he wrote in a 2017 blog post. "Living in the BVI [British Virgin Islands], I like to be online early, so that I am accessible and available to our offices in other timezones."
He's recently gotten in the habit of taking daily ice baths in the morning, Virgin Group told Business Insider.
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Ice baths have become popular in recent years, including among celebs and some tech execs in Silicon Valley, such as Twitter cofounder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey.
He also hits the tennis court early in the day.
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Branson goes to "play a hard game of singles tennis" around 6:15 a.m., he said in an interview with Australia's News.com.au in December.
Then he's on to his next sport if the weather permits: kite-surfing.
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Branson famously kite-surfed with a model, Denni Parkinson, naked on his back in 2009, for a photo op he later said was the idea of the photographer, who was dating Parkinson.
Branson also turned heads for kite-surfing with former president Barack Obama in 2017.
He'll stop for breakfast next, which probably includes at least one cup of tea.
Richard Branson. Reuters/Olivia Harris
"To keep me energised, I drink lots of tea. I'm talking 20 cups a day – don't tell my doctor!" he wrote in his 2017 blog post.
His go-to is decaf English breakfast and he "has been feeling great since cutting out caffeine," Virgin told BI.
He usually eats "something high in fiber, like muesli and fruit, to fuel my day's adventures," he wrote in a separate blog post.
After breakfast, he takes a walk on the 74-acre private island where he lives.
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Branson bought Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, in the late 1970s for just $180,000.
During his walk, his assistant reads his emails to him. He'll also sit down with his assistant at other times throughout the day to "reply to anything else that comes in," he wrote in his 2017 blog post.
Between emails and calls, he catches up on the news, which sometimes prompts him to write blogs about various issues.
Yet more exercise awaits as Branson hits the gym.
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He'll spend about 20 or so minutes working out.
He spends some time "socializing with our guests" before having lunch and doing some work afterwards.
Virgin Orbit
He often schedules meetings over lunch.
"I'm not a fan of formal meetings and would much prefer to lighten the mood with a shared meal, or if I'm pressed for time, a walking meeting," he wrote in his 2017 blog post.
At night, Branson might go cycling on the neighboring island before heading to the tennis court again.
A man (not Richard Branson) riding a bicycle. pixdeluxe/Getty Images
He likes to go for two "extreme" bike rides a week, he told News.com.au, and also enjoys a good game of chess from time to time.
One of his recent bike rides got a bit too extreme, as Branson posted on Instagram that he "hit a pothole and crashed hard."
Branson likes to finish the day with a group dinner.
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He views the dinners as a place "where stories are shared and ideas are born," he wrote in his 2017 blog post. Branson carries a notebook with him everywhere he goes to jot down such ideas as they occur to him.
Some of his preferred foods are — you guessed it — traditional British fare. He's a fan of egg sandwiches, stews, Shepherd's pie, and British roasts, according to a 2015 post on Virgin Group's website.
He usually turns in for the night around 11 p.m.
Sir Richard Branson stands on the wing of a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 at Heathrow Airport. Steve Parsons - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
"I need around six hours sleep do it all again – a little differently – the next day," he wrote in his 2017 blog post.