"It took him 5 hours for all that?" Ashton Hall’s NFL dream failed, but his bizarre 4am routine made him...well...an internet obsession

Football dreams don’t always pan out, and Ashton Hall knows it better than anyone. Hall, a former college running back at Alcorn State University, went viral for his intense—and frankly, strange—4am morning routine. He might have never reached the NFL, but he’s now got more than 15 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Not exactly the career he’d imagined, but a solid backup plan nonetheless.

From age five until he was 23, Ashton Hall’s only goal was playing in the NFL. When reality hit, it crushed him. In a 2022 interview with Ritz Herald, he admitted, “I was feeling quite depressed. Being in the NFL was all I could think about.” He even stopped training completely for almost two years. Things got worse when his friends mocked his weight gain. Those jokes triggered him. Hall dug out old pictures of himself in shape, and that sparked something: “Man, I’ve got to keep going.”
But this time, it wasn’t about football. It was personal.

Hall’s football career at Alcorn State wasn’t exactly memorable. Between 2014 and 2015, he played just five games as a running back. His final stats were underwhelming—six carries for eight yards in 2015. Those numbers won't get you to the NFL. Realizing football wasn't going to pay the bills, he briefly worked shifting furniture for $200 a day. But as Hall put it, “This is not NFL money, I cannot take care of my family and I can't help people I want to help.”

Hall quickly understood he needed a new path. He became obsessed with fitness, rebuilt his body, and started training others. He took a gym job as a personal training director, but everything changed when COVID-19 hit. Gyms shut down, and Hall adapted fast. He moved online, posting home workout videos using just bodyweight exercises. The response exploded. “I saw the insane growth in support and saw how many lives I was impacting,” Hall said. His gym told him to delete his social media presence—he quit that same day.
Today, Hall is one of social media’s biggest fitness influencers, with his original Instagram post about his morning routine receiving more than six million likes. Reposted by 'Tips for Men' on X, it accumulated over 554 million views in just three days.

Ashton Hall’s routine isn’t for everyone. He wakes up at 3:50am, mouth taped shut, wipes his face with a banana peel, does push-ups at 4am, and dunks his head in ice water. That’s just the warm-up.
By 6am, he’s swimming for muscle recovery and endurance. At 7am, he dedicates time to meditation and mental focus. Hall says this part is crucial, given his past struggles: “I was feeling quite depressed. Being in the NFL was all I could think about. I, however, stopped working out for maybe a year or two after that.” He doesn’t see meditation as optional—it’s central to his mental health.
At 9:30am, after nearly six hours of disciplined activity, he finishes his routine by dunking his face in ice-cold water again. Hall’s logic for his early schedule is blunt: “Sin lives late at night. If you’re dealing with a weak mind, bad decisions, or lack of productivity go to sleep early. 4:00am - 8:00am no one’s calling or distracting your productivity—they are sleep. 8:00pm - 12:00am is the opposite. Just try 30 days, send this to your partners. It’s time to do better.”
Extreme? Definitely. Effective? Millions of his followers seem to think so.

Hall’s comfort zone never lasts. After building a following in Orlando, he relocated to Los Angeles. Hall describes the move bluntly: “I reached a point in Orlando where I realized, ‘I made it!’ I was receiving plenty of compliments, you know. I was also growing comfy. But when I went to LA, I felt incredibly little, like a small fish in the Pacific. And I enjoy that sensation.”
His NFL dream is long gone, but he found something else: personal transformation, mental clarity, and fame. Love him or hate him, Hall’s early morning grind is definitely changing lives—including his own.
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