Chris Gayomali rebuilt his health after a scare

After a blood test in 2018 showed his biomarkers were “out of whack,” Chris Gayomali spent days worrying he was dying—only to learn the doctor believed it was a mistake. At 41, the editor of SSENSE says he has kept his health routine simple most days, built ar

Chris Gayomali has always been a fashion guy. But the version of him that shows up now—41, smiling, in head-to-toe camo—looks like someone who let a single terrifying moment change the rules.

In 2018, a blood test flagged his biomarkers as “out of whack.” He spent days worrying he was dying. Then the doctor called back to say they’d made a mistake. Gayomali says the panic didn’t vanish when the call ended. “I was thinking about all my choices and my mortality and I was like. ‘Oh. I got to take my health a little bit more seriously. ’” he recalls on a video call from New York City.

It’s a story that now lives inside his routine—one that’s become part discipline, part curiosity, and part a father’s attempt to stay strong.

When Gayomali talks about his current approach, he doesn’t frame it as a dramatic reinvention. He’s busy. He’s got a family. And his sleep, at least, is still a fight: his 4-year-old’s unruly sleep schedule makes it near impossible for him to get eight hours of shuteye.

So he keeps the basics “simple,” he says: eating right 80% of the time, trying to get enough sleep, and hitting the gym and working out when he can.

But his day also includes the more experimental side of the health world—recovery technologies and wellness trends that many people only try once or never touch at all. Gayomali says much of that interest comes from a very specific goal: getting really good at Muay Thai. He trains five times a week. calling it “the only physical thing I’ve ever felt addicted to in a healthy way.”.

The shopping platform SSENSE editor—who has also been a journalist exploring what “the body and the weird things it can do”—is part of a broader health-optimization culture that. Business Insider health reporter Kim Schewitz wrote in The Maxxing Diaries series. is expected to be worth $1.87 trillion by 2034. according to Global Insight Services. Gayomali isn’t the caricature some wellness circles make of themselves. He has a 9-to-5 life. and he says he spends 12 hours a week on exercise and recovery and $350 a month on gym memberships.

Still, the routine he’s built is unmistakably his.

At 6:30 a.m. he wakes between 6:30 and 7 a.m. helps his kid get ready for school. and then takes his supplement stack. It includes a multivitamin. fish oil. zinc. vitamin D. creatine. and tongkat ali—a shrub linked to testosterone production. though he notes more research is needed. He says he likes the energy and mood benefits.

During his 35-minute commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan, he takes “a meandering route” to get “a little bit loose” and get his blood flowing.

By noon, Muay Thai has taken over his lunch break. Gayomali slips out of his office in SoHo and heads to his Muay Thai gym around the corner. where he stretches. fights. and strength trains for about 90 minutes. Since he joined in 2019, he says the gym has become more than a place to exercise. He describes the gym’s lending library—books on nutrition. stretching. and kettlebells—as a major source of his health information.

He adds that he’s “pretty skeptical” of a lot of what people see online. The only health influencer he trusts, he says, is Rhonda Patrick, a biomedical scientist with a preventive approach to disease.

After training, he usually grabs a slop bowl from Sweetgreen—often steak or lamb. He also gets pho. which he calls “the ultimate superfood” because it’s “basically just collagen. protein. and vegetables.” Gayomali says he has an idea of the macros and calories he wants his meals to contain. but he doesn’t stress about the numbers.

His schedule leaves room for recovery at 5 p.m. If his afternoon is fairly meeting-free, he slips into a massage in Chinatown. He has tried a Japanese massage technique called Seitai bodywork, which he describes as involving gentle, rhythmic movements. He also likes cupping, foot reflexology, acupressure, and deep tissue massage.

When he wants to decide whether something is worth trying, he says he looks up studies on PubMed and first-person accounts online before he goes for it.

Once a month, he goes a step further. He visits MOCEAN, a physical therapy and longevity clinic in Midtown, where he receives pulsed electromagnetic field therapy. Gayomali says the therapy is FDA-approved for treating broken bones. but he also notes that the evidence that it boosts recovery in healthy people is mixed.

He describes the experience: as a client lies on a metal plate, low-frequency electromagnetic pulses target chosen body parts. He says it feels like “just the deepest possible massage. ” goes “well below the surface. ” and feels “amazing.” He’s drawn to it because. in his view. if he can prime his body to perform better and return to the gym the next day. that aligns with what he wants.

After that, he enters a hyperbaric oxygen chamber where the oxygen levels in the air near 100%. He says research suggests the therapy helps tissues heal and withstand infections, but the evidence that it could speed up post-workout recovery for healthy younger people is limited.

Gayomali ties his personal motivation to a fighter: he says it’s the way he understands it because a fighter named Illia Topuria swears by it for recovery. He also describes how it works for him—lying in a tube and breathing while the experience simulates high-altitude oxygen training and. in his words. “speeds up healing. ” while he dozes off.

Even dinner is mapped to keep him moving. After coming home from work around 5:30 p.m., he cooks. “We usually just do rice, and a simple protein, like chicken, steak, or beef,” he says.

By around 8 p.m., he focuses on his son. “Trying to get him to sleep is so hard,” he says. Often he sits in the room until his son falls asleep and then dozes off himself. He aspires to a bedtime routine, but he says it isn’t feasible right now and that his sleep hygiene is not good.

Gayomali says this is the first time he has been in “great shape.” Seeing his abs is “pretty cool.” But being strong isn’t for vanity. He describes how strength helps with the physical demands of raising a child—especially when his son gets tired and wants to be carried.

His hope is simple: “I hope to keep it up for the rest of my life.”

When he’s been sleeping particularly badly, he injects an NAD+ supplement. He says it helps with the “perpetual brain fog” he feels these days, even as he acknowledges that despite the lack of clinical trials, it’s popular in the longevity-verse as an energy booster.

On the day he speaks. Gayomali is also awaiting the arrival of a peptide called sermorelin from a website that claims it aids deep sleep. recovery from workouts. and building muscle. He notes that research to back its use in healthy adults is lacking. He ordered it partly to research a story he’s working on and partly because he wanted to try it.

For all the supplements, chambers, and gadgets, his stance on the bigger promises is cautious. He says he’s excited by the peptide craze, but he isn’t holding his breath for the fountain of youth to be discovered in a lab.

“I try not to stress too much about the stuff that I can’t control,” he says.

That line lands differently when you remember how he used to spend days worrying he was dying after a blood test—until a phone call reversed the nightmare. At 41, he still lives with the consequences of that moment. But now. instead of fear driving him. it’s the need to show up—strong enough to train. strong enough to recover. and strong enough to carry his kid when life gets heavy.

Chris Gayomali SSENSE health optimization Muay Thai supplements NAD+ tongkat ali hyperbaric oxygen therapy electromagnetic field therapy sermorelin longevity