Executive Exercise Blueprint
Wade Foster MSc
Transforming Executives Into Executive Athletes through Sleep, Stress, Nutrition & Fitness Optimization
As a busy executive, you know that staying fit and healthy is crucial to performing at your best.
However, with the overwhelming amount of information available on social media and the internet, it can be hard to know where to start or whom to trust.
that's why I want to give you this simple yet highly effective training plan that will help you become a well-rounded executive athlete.
My main goal is to make you more resilient and well-rounded. To achieve this, you need to develop every athletic quality to some degree.
Here’s a simple system to help you become a well-rounded executive athlete.
This is based on the assumption that you can train five or six days a week. Don’t have the bandwidth? Condense these principles into the three-day plan I’ll provide later on.
Long-Duration Endurance: Once or Twice a Week
There are umpteen ways to think about endurance training, and lots of arguments on social media and forums about the best methods. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to consider long-duration endurance work to be a session that challenges your cardiovascular system with 30 minutes or more of low to mid-level exertion performed without a break.?
Your heart rate shouldn’t go up or down too much in these sessions, which I recommend doing once or twice a week. If you’re tracking your HR, it should stay within 60 to 80 percent of your max, which may well be around 120-150bpm. If you’re going for longer, it could be lower.?
Activities such as hiking, biking, running, SUP and surfing fit the bill here. You should finish these sessions without feeling exhausted.
High Heart Rate Training: Once or Twice a Week
These are typically high-intensity sessions where you take your heart rate way up, then let it come back down before going again. Examples include interval training on a bike or rowing machine. I suggest doing such a workout once or twice a week as you go back to basics.
There’s significant evidence to suggest that this type of session?is the most efficient type of exercise for overall health.
Strength: Two - Four Times a Week
Muscle mass and strength are two of the highest predictive factors of all-cause mortality. It’s not about looking a certain way, but rather keeping yourself at a high level of function for the rest of your life. Strength training is invaluable to stave off sarcopenia—the age-related loss of fast twitch muscle that compromises vitality.?
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I recommend doing a total-body or Upper-Lower strength sessions two to four times per week. Focus mostly on compound exercises (multi-joint movements involving several body parts) like squats, deadlifts, lunges, kettlebell swings, overhead presses, pull-ups, and so on. Each session should be around 30 to 60 minutes long—enough to provide adequate stimuli without too much volume.
The key is not going to failure, contrary to what you might read in bro-science articles. You also should avoid extreme fatigue—that’s for your interval days. When focusing on strength, perform three to eight reps, with two or three sets of one to three exercises. As with your speed days, you should come away feeling that you could have done more volume.?
There is no scientific relationship between how sore you are and your gains. All excess soreness will do is prevent you from training consistently, which will be detrimental. Quality is paramount! If you feel yourself slowing down or starting to compromise your technique then stop. It’s a case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” You’ll pay for that last crappy rep or two later. Be patient and progress more slowly than you think you should be. Practice quality in every rep.
Speed: At Least Once a Week
Training for muscle speed and power allows your fast-twitch muscle fibers active and able enables you to age well, whereas those whose?fast-twitch fibers decline become frail, less mobile and more prone to debilitating falls.
The best way to head this off at the pass is to complement your strength sessions by training speed and power. At a minimum, I recommend doing five to 10 minutes of this type of work at least once a week. Warm up thoroughly and do your speed/power work first. Choose two to four exercises such as medicine ball slams or throws, box jumps, clapping pushups, or short sprints. If you’re in the pool, you could cover 15 to 25 meters as fast as you can.
Perform two to four sets of three to five reps, with plenty of rest in between so you feel ready to go as quickly as possible in the next work period. Keep perfect technique as best as you can, and move as fast and powerfully as you can while maintaining control.
You should finish the session feeling like you haven’t done enough. You can always do a bit more next time—but you can’t go back an un-pull that hamstring. If you’re combining speed work with intervals, strength, or endurance work, be sure to go fast first. Doing it in this order reduces the chance of injury and improves long-term adaptation for both kinds of training.
Covering All The Bases in a Three-Day Plan
If you only have time to train three days a week, here’s a simplified version of the plan to follow. It should give you everything you need to play your sport and live well:
Remember, although the executive athlete basics concepts we’ve covered in this post are few, the methods are many. I’ve tried to simplify the principles. It’s up to you to go and experiment with them.
Use lots of variety, try out different exercises, use various tools and see what works best for you.
Wade Foster