Lawrence Price is as inspiring as they come. He’s been a fitness coach for 16 years, training everyone from Hollywood stars to VIP CEOs and record-breaking adventurers – all with the aim of getting his clients in the best mental and physical shape of their lives. His philosophy is top down: focussing on the mind and the body as not mutually exclusive, but two separate entities that both need work and focus. We caught up with Lawrence to chat about his morning routine, how he prioritises his mental health and, of course, his go-to skincare routine.
“I have three types of morning routine. Four days a week when I’m coaching in London, I get up at 5am and I make a beeline downstairs for the coffee machine and while it’s brewing, I jump in the shower. That’s when I use all my BAZ & CO products, I’ve been using them for months and they’re a firm part of my routine. At the end of my shower, I’ll turn it right down to cold to really help invigorate and light up my senses so that I feel switched on and have mental clarity. The first thing I do after a shower is moisturise. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember because I love the feeling after the shower when you feel fresh and invigorated and the physical sensation tips into psychological alertness and mental clarity, which I love. I’ve streamlined various different areas of my life to enhance my psychological, emotional and physical awareness. I've been looking for products that reflect that – which is one of the reasons that I love BAZ & CO, which I use every single day. I love that it’s closer to nature and uses fewer ingredients, and I love the fact that it ethics behind the company are in line with mine and I love the fact that it’s British, locally sourced and ultimately it helps me to establish the right state of mind at the start of the day, knowing that I’m doing the best thing for skin health – especially as I get older. I use the shower gel and the moisturiser everyday and I use the exfoliator a few times a week.
After skincare, I’ll head downstairs, sip my morning coffee and I usually have 10-20 minutes to drink my coffee without my phone, TV, or any type of media. I make sure that I’m positioned in a way that I can look out of the window and into nature and observe my thoughts without any judgement. I wake up with quite a busy mind and I don’t want to continue my day in that reactionary state, so I try to downregulate my nervous system in the mornings. Once I’ve had my breakfast, which is usually protein of some kind, I’ll get in the car and drive to London. I’ll continue the mindfulness in the car, on the go. I have two playlists that I listen to – they are based on binaural beats or savasana yoga. They are very calming and I see them as a parasympathetic trigger that helps me to stay focussed and clear minded, especially on the morning commute. I drive towards the morning sun and this, combined with triangle breathwork, means that when I arrive in London I feel calm, full of clarity and ready to take on the day. That’s when I arrive at my first VIP client and in turn, I endeavour to get them off to the best possible start to their day. I’m always super aware that my VIP clients have huge responsibilities and run lots of different global companies and it is a privilege that I can help them start their day the right way – so I need to make sure that the best possible version of me shows up for them.
A few times a week when I’m working from home, I’ll wake up later at about 6.30am. I’ll be with the kids and my wife as they get ready for school (my wife is a teacher). I’ll have my morning coffee and enjoy some time with the family but then I’ll put on my Vivobarefoot shoes and just start walking through the fields, through the woods, and will have 20-30 minutes without any technology just walking through nature, taking it all in. I get the physiological benefits of getting ahead of it, in terms of the energy balance to keep me lean and then secondly, psychologically, it gives me a big boost because I feel empowered that I’m creating action early in the day. Doing this really sparks my mental clarity for the day ahead. When I then come home and have my breakfast, which again will be high protein, I can sit at my desk and log in with my online clients, I feel like I’m buzzing. I feel so high on energy, so grateful to be alive, so grateful for my online coaching business and I just go for it then for a few hours and stay really productive.
And then the third type of morning I do once or twice a week, which is super important is I’ll down tools and wake up with the kids and it’s all about them. If they want to play on the floor with their toys I’ll get down with them; if they want to watch cartoons we’ll just laze around in our pyjamas, usually on a Sunday morning, and I’ll just enjoy that time with them. I think it’s really important that we give ourselves the structures and routines to be our best selves in life but I also think that structure should give us freedom and give us time for a little play and curiosity.
I actually have a converted old whisky cask from America in the garden which is now an ice bath. It’s got a seat in it and a step up and in winter months it actually freezes over. I tend to get into it later in the day once I come back from my in-person clients and I’m working with my online clients around 3 or 4pm, when the sun starts setting, that’s when I’ll get in the ice. I’ll be in there for four minutes, focussing on downregulating my nervous system with triangle breathing. And that really energises my afternoon! A lot of people tend to have a slump energy-wise at this time but it reinvigorates me and means that I have a super productive afternoon, whether that’s with online clients or just spending quality time with my family.
Pretty much everything that I do is for the mind. Anything that we can do to improve our mental clarity, to raise our vibration, to build a sense of psychological pride and belief in ourselves is going to enhance our experience, which is one of the big reasons why fitness factors so heavily in my life. On the other side of every single workout, there are psychological, physiological and emotional benefits. Once you start moving your body you start focussing on the present moment, you avoid that mental time travel of moving forward and back – in a similar way to meditation. Alongside fitness, breathwork is a key tool that I use to help my mind. Sometimes, our thoughts can stimulate our nervous system to upregulate into a sympathetic state which is that fight or flight state and once you have that physical upregulation, it’s very hard to get out of it. Breathwork actively helps you to downregulate into a parasympathetic state and I’ve never experienced anything quite as powerful as breathwork to downregulate the nervous system and get us into the parasympathetic state to get us feeling calm, relaxed and help us to gain mental clarity.
After work, I make a beeline for my children and I totally immerse myself in their non-logical, abstract play! I try to leave the adult part of me behind. I get down on the floor with them, play with their toys, go for a walk, kick the ball in the garden and to me it’s not just about the importance of connecting as father and daughter and son, it’s also about enhancing each other's desire to explore with curiosity and that's something we often forget as adults. We get wrapped up in the physical, logical world and I think kids show us so much and when we step out of our adult world it’s so good for our mental wellness, their mental wellness, and without a doubt, maintaining that sense of childish play as an adult is a really important thing.”
https://www.lawrenceprice.co.uk/fitness.html
