Neo Steinhoff

Mirum Mane · the protocol

The Mirum Mane
Protocol

An ongoing, ruthlessly hand-crafted system to maximise one life — body first, then mind, craft, spirit, and the social and emotional. Built from the best of modern performance science and the hardest people alive, tuned to a single body, and measured without mercy. Not optimisation. Maximisation. And never finished.

6′2″
Height
78 kg
Bodyweight · ~10% BF
50
VO₂max — and climbing
05:00
Wake — fixed, daily

The seven pillars

Ordered on purpose. The body is primary — it is the instrument every other pillar runs on.

Bodythe instrument — trained, fuelled, recovered, and measured before all else
Mindattention trained daily; the Great Work never closes
Craftbusiness and mastery — the work the rest of the life funds
Spiritthe faith kept — the Attunement, the Ledger, the Forfeit
Sociala fire among the living; relationships kept, not neglected
Emotionalregulated, named, and worked — never numbed
Presencethe body and face carried to their best — looks as discipline made visible

The Day

The protocol is a day, repeated — and a day ruled rather than received.

  1. 05:00

    Wake, fixed

    Same time, seven days. Sunlight or 10,000-lux lamp in the eyes within minutes, 500ml water + electrolytes, no phone for the first hour.

  2. 05:15

    The Attunement

    20–30 min meditation, breathwork, cold exposure, and the day's single intention. Make before you take — the first act belongs to the Work.

  3. 05:45

    Train — block one

    Strength (hypertrophy + heavy compounds) on lifting days; long Zone 2 on endurance days. The hardest thing while the will is freshest.

  4. 07:30

    Light, cold & mobility

    Outdoor sunlight, a cold finish, 10–15 min mobility. The circadian clock set by hand.

  5. 08:00

    Meal 1 — break the fast

    ~60–70g protein, whole-food, slow carbs. First of the day's ~3,000 kcal / 300g protein.

  6. 09:00

    Deep work — block one

    The highest-leverage business block: building, shipping, the Great Work. Phone in another room.

  7. 12:30

    Meal 2 + walk

    Protein-led lunch, then a 20–30 min Zone-2 walk in daylight and a 10-min midday meditation.

  8. 14:00

    Deep work — block two

    Second focused block; comms and meetings batched to the edges, never the middle.

  9. 17:00

    Train — block two

    Conditioning, VO₂max intervals, or the reverse-order Ironman base, per the day's plan.

  10. 18:30

    Sauna / contrast

    Heat (and contrast cold) on most days — cardiovascular and recovery dividend, and it earns the evening calm.

  11. 19:00

    Meal 3 — last, early

    Final meal ~3h before sleep. Remaining protein, carbs timed to training, vegetables, omega-3.

  12. 20:30

    Wind-down + the Ledger

    Reading, journaling, gratitude, and the daily examen — arts pursued, vows kept, forfeits owed. Screens off, lights warm and low.

  13. 21:30

    Sleep

    Dark, cold (~18°C), quiet, 8–9h. The single highest-return block of the entire protocol.

Foundation

Sleep

the lever everything else is built on

  • 8–9h, fixed
    Same wake and sleep time, seven days. Consistency beats duration and buys both; the schedule is protected before anything else on the calendar.
  • The room
    Blackout dark, ~18°C, silent. No screens 60 min before, no food 3h before, morning light within minutes of waking to anchor the rhythm.
  • Measured nightly
    Sleep stages, HRV, resting heart rate, and respiratory rate tracked; intensity the next day is gated by what the night gave back.
The instrument · strength

Training

more than most prescribe — by design

  • Strength
    5× weekly, hypertrophy-led with heavy compound work and progressive overload. Held benchmark: a 125kg bench; next targets logged and chased.
  • Push / pull / legs
    Rotating split, 10–20 hard sets per muscle per week, 1–3 reps in reserve, every working set logged for progression.
  • Tendons & mobility
    Daily 10–15 min — joints, hips, and tendons kept ahead of the load so nothing breaks under the volume.
  • Deload
    Planned every 4–6 weeks. You grow in the recovery, not the set; intensity follows sleep and HRV, never ego.
The instrument · engine

Conditioning & VO₂max

VO₂max 50 today → 60+; the aerobic base for everything

  • Zone 2
    4–6h weekly of easy aerobic work — the base that raises mitochondrial density and lowers resting heart rate.
  • VO₂max intervals
    1–2× weekly of 4×4 or 30/15 intervals near max — the single strongest predictor of long-term health, pushed hard.
  • The reverse Ironman
    Year-build toward a reverse-order ultra: the marathon first, then the bike, then the swim. The Misogi the engine is for.
  • Daily floor
    10,000+ steps, mostly outdoors and in daylight — movement is the cheapest, most-skipped longevity input.
Fuel

Nutrition

~3,000 kcal · 300g protein · 4L water — whole-food, time-bound

  • Macros
    ~3,000 kcal tuned to training, ~300g protein (lean-mass priority), carbs cycled around sessions, fats from whole sources. Plants and fibre forward.
  • Hydration
    4 litres of water daily plus electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium) — the easiest performance and cognition lever, and the most neglected.
  • Timing
    8–10h eating window, last meal ~3h before sleep, protein spread across 3–4 feeds for maximal protein synthesis.
  • Cut hard
    No alcohol, near-zero added sugar and ultra-processed food, no caffeine after ~13:00. Quality is non-negotiable before quantity.
Adaptation

Recovery

the adaptation happens here — engineer it

  • Sauna
    Heat exposure most days — cardiovascular conditioning and a reliable down-regulator into the evening.
  • Cold
    Cold exposure for resilience and dopamine — used for the mind as much as the body (see Hardening).
  • Active recovery
    Walks, mobility, breathwork, and at least one fully easy day each week. Stress is only useful if it is recovered from.
Made visible

Presence & Aesthetics

looks are discipline made visible — maximise the controllables

  • Body composition
    Lean, muscular, ~10% BF held year-round — the single biggest driver of how the body reads. Earned in the gym and the kitchen.
  • Skin
    Daily SPF, a simple evidence-based routine (cleanse, retinoid, moisturiser), sleep, hydration, and low sugar. A dermatologist for anything real.
  • Grooming & posture
    Sharp grooming, dialled wardrobe, trained posture, and the breathing/jaw mechanics that come free with conditioning and discipline.
  • The basics win
    No gimmicks. Sleep, training, body fat, sun protection, and grooming out-perform every shortcut — and carry zero risk.
Sharpening

Mind & Meditation

attention is the muscle under every other lift

  • Meditation ×2
    A long morning sit and a short midday reset, daily. The trained ability to hold attention is the highest-leverage skill there is.
  • Breathwork
    Down-regulation before sleep, up-regulation before training — the nervous system steered on purpose.
  • Learning
    30–60 min deliberate reading and study daily; the rule of the Great Work — no year closes without a new art made your own.
  • Digital discipline
    No phone the first or last hour, notifications off, the feed never sets the agenda. Attention defended like capital.
The mind, callused

Mental Hardening

borrowed from the hardest — Goggins and the rest

  • Do the hard thing daily
    One deliberately uncomfortable thing every day — the cold, the last rep, the call you're avoiding. The mind is callused by use.
  • The 40% rule
    When you think you're done, you're at ~40%. Train the governor, not just the muscle — finish what others abandon at the threshold.
  • Accountability
    An honest daily reckoning — the mirror, the Ledger — facing what was dodged rather than narrating a flattering story.
  • Voluntary suffering
    Scheduled hard efforts (the Misogi, the fast finish, the long cold) so resilience is built before it's needed, not improvised.
The work that funds the life

Business & the Great Work

maximise output, not just input

  • Deep work first
    Two protected, phone-free building blocks daily, on the highest-leverage thing — before email, before anyone else's agenda.
  • Ship cadence
    Bias to finishing and shipping; a made thing is an argument the world can't interrupt. Done beats perfect, then iterate.
  • Mastery stack
    Compounding skills across far-apart domains — the synthesis between them is where the edge is. Breadth wed to depth.
  • Review
    Weekly and quarterly reviews against written goals; the calendar audited so the hours actually match the priorities.
The rest of the human

Spirit, Social & Emotional

maximisation is not isolation

  • Spirit
    The faith kept — the Attunement at dawn, the Ledger at dusk, the Forfeit paid from ease and never flesh. Meaning, deliberately built.
  • Social
    Scheduled real contact and full presence; generosity carried outward. A fire is meant to be among the living, not kept in a locked room.
  • Emotional
    Journaling, gratitude, and naming the shadows rather than numbing them. Coaching and reflection treated as tools, not afterthoughts.
The stack

Supplements

evidence-led, blood-test-guided, generally-safe — ✎ personalise with a doctor

  • Daily base
    Creatine monohydrate 5g, omega-3 (EPA/DHA ~2–3g), vitamin D3 + K2, magnesium glycinate, and a quality multivitamin to close gaps.
  • Performance
    Whole-food protein to hit ~300g, electrolytes around training, and caffeine + L-theanine used deliberately, early, and never late.
  • The rule
    Nothing added blind. Every supplement earns its place against bloodwork and a real effect — or it gets cut. More is not better.
The feedback loop

Measurement

what is not measured is not mastered

  • Daily
    Wearable: sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, recovery, VO₂max trend, steps, and bodyweight at a fixed time.
  • Quarterly
    Full bloodwork — lipids, hormones, inflammation, metabolic and micronutrient panels — plus a DEXA scan and a measured VO₂max test.
  • The Ledger
    Lifts, times, macros, arts mastered, vows kept. The protocol is steered by numbers and a doctor, never by mood.
Performance pharmacology · the line

Peptides, hormones & advanced nootropics

The frontier — GLP-1s like retatrutide, peptides like Semax, Selank, and BPC-157, growth-hormone secretagogues and HGH, and racetam-class “advanced” nootropics — is deliberately not written here as a regimen. Most are prescription or outright experimental, several are unapproved and unregulated, and dosing them off a webpage is how people get hurt. HGH and GLP-1s in particular are not appropriate while the body is still developing.

The honest protocol here is: a real doctor, real bloodwork, and adulthood — a sports-medicine physician or endocrinologist who tests, prescribes, and monitors, not a forum and not a guess. And the part worth hearing twice: the foundation — sleep, training, food, sun, and discipline — delivers the overwhelming majority of the result with none of the risk. Earn the ceiling of the basics first; it is far higher than most people ever reach.

The Rules

  1. 01Sleep is non-negotiable; protect 8–9 hours before anything else on the calendar.
  2. 02Make before you take — the first hour belongs to the Work, not the feed.
  3. 03Train hard, recover harder — the body is the only instrument and it is never spent.
  4. 04Hit the numbers: ~3,000 kcal, ~300g protein, 4 litres of water, every day.
  5. 05Do one deliberately hard thing daily; callus the mind on purpose.
  6. 06Measure, don't guess; adjust on data and bloodwork, not on how you feel.
  7. 07Meditate twice — attention is the muscle under every other lift.
  8. 08Maximise the controllables; chase no shortcut that carries a risk the basics don't.
  9. 09Compound everything; let no year close without a new art made your own.
  10. 10Stay a fire among the living — never optimise yourself into a recluse.
  11. 11Nothing prescription or experimental without a doctor — the foundation wins 95% with none of the risk.
  12. 12Iterate forever. A finished protocol is a dead one.

This is a personal protocol, not medical advice. It is tuned to one body and steered by that body’s bloodwork and a doctor — start from your own data and a physician, not from someone else’s regimen. Nothing here is a recommendation to take any prescription drug, hormone, or experimental compound, and several named categories should never be self-administered.

Non invenitur. Fit.·25.20°N · 55.27°E