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The Difference Between Entrepreneurs & Bodybuilders:

You are an entrepreneur, not a bodybuilder. So why are you eating and training like one? A bodybuilder’s entire day is scheduled around eating enough food, training as hard as possible and then recovering. You being an entrepreneur, your main priority is making money from your business. To do that, you need mental clarity, creativity and the ability to focus for long periods of time throughout the whole entire day.

Lifting as heavy as possible in the morning before you have even began working on your business is a surefire way to fry your central nervous system (CNS). While lifting heavy and pushing to absolute failure will speed up the rate in which you build muscle, it will also place a significant demand on the brain and nerves (the CNS) which is the same system your body relies on to make decisions, stay focused and maintain energy throughout the day.

So below are a number of tips to help you build muscle without frying your ability to focus or be productive.

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How to workout and still maintain your energy and focus:

As previously mentioned, training each exercise to failure or within 1 rep of failure can be incredibly taxing on the CNS and lead to fatigue, low energy and low focus. For entrepreneurs who need sustained cognitive performance throughout the day, repeatedly training to failure is an unnecessary stressor and can accelerate CNS and peripheral fatigue, lengthen recovery and leave you feeling mentally depleted.

Here are 3 ways in which you can help reduce the fatigue:

• Instead of training to failure each set you can instead train until you have 2-3 reps in reserve.

  • To figure out how many reps you should be doing, you can do an all out set to complete failure. Let’s say for example you go all out and bench press 60kgs for 15 reps. The next workout you should be aiming for 12 reps of 60kgs for 3-4 sets.

• Instead of constantly progressively overloading the weight you lift or the reps you do each workout there are other ways in which you can progressively overload without physical draining your CNS

  • Improve technique, range of motion, pause at the bottom of rep, decrease rest time or control the eccentric movement better.
  • As a general rule you should increase the weight once you can do 4 sets of an exercise with 12 reps. For example in bench press once you can do 12,12,12,12 of 60kgs then it is time to increase the weight to 65kgs and start the whole process again.

• Changing your training time. Training early on the morning without being properly fuelled can cause huge energy and focus crashes later in the day

  • Training after lunch and before dinner is usually the most optimal time to train. You have gotten a lot of work done in the morning, you have fuelled your body throughout the day and this allows you time to wind down after the workout, eat a meal high in protein and get ready for bed.

Below is a guide on pre, intra and post workout nutrition.

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Nutrition and its effects on training:

Pre-workout: 60-90 minutes before training

• Consume a meal or snack with moderate protein (20-30g)
• High carbohydrate intake (40-60g)
• And low fat intake (5-15g)
  • Some examples include smoothie with protein poweder, milk and fruit/honey
  • Banana on toast with cinnamon and peanut butter
  • Protein shake and some fruit, honey or rice crackers.

Intra-workout: during the workout

• Drink lots of water during your workout and if you see yourself excessively sweating consider supplementing with electrolytes.
• Consume 20-40g of fast absorbing carbohydrates during workout, this can include
  • Lollies (such as like snakes, sour worms etc)
  • Gatorade/Powerade or another type of carbohydrate drink.

Post-workout: 30-60 minutes after training

• Consume a meal high in protein (30-50g) chicken, steak or other animal meats
• High in carbohydrates (60-120g) rice, potatoes or pasta are great options
• Moderate in fats (20-40g), olive oil, butter, avocado or animal fats.
  • After working out your body is looking to use the food you’ve just eaten to fix your muscles, replenish glycogen stores and restore any low micronutrients.

Supplements:

• Take 100-200mg of caffeine 20-30 minutes before your workout (this is optional)
• Taurine 1-2g during your workout to stabilise CNS function and improves endurance (can often be found in caffeine pre-workouts)
• 5g creatine monohydrate (would highly recommend taking)
• Protein powder 30g before or after a workout
• 400mg magnesium glycinate to calms the nervous system and help with overall energy production. </aside>

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Bonus Exercises:

Just like someone’s diet, a workout plan is hyper specialised to them, their body and their goals. Below are some general recommendations to improve your workouts, however for specific advice personalised to you and your goals you should consider getting a coach, whether that be through the next percent or elsewhere that decision is up to you.

Exercises:

• 12-20 chest exercises per week: bench press, incline dumbbell press, machine press, cable flies, peck deck etc.
• 12-20 back exercises per week: pull ups, pull downs with different grip variations, bent over rows, t-bar rows, chest supported rows etc.
• 12-20 leg exercises per week: squats, leg press, leg extension, RDLs, Bulgarian split squats, hack squat etc.
• 6-9 shoulder exercises per week: shoulder press, military press, rows, lateral raises, reverse peck deck, reverse deltoid cable flies etc.
• 6-9 tricep exercises per week: dips, skull crushers, narrow bench press, tricep pushdowns etc.
• 6-9 bicep exercises per week: bicep focused pull downs, preacher curl machines, hammer curls, bicep curls etc.
• 6-9 calf exercises per week: standing calf raises machine, seated calf raises etc.
• 6-9 ab exercises per week: leg raises, weighted crunches, weighted sit-ups, ab machine etc.
  • if one area is lacking or you want to put extra emphasis on a certain muscle then train it like a major muscle group (go from 6-9 sets/week to 12-20 sets/week)

Sauna:

• Going in the sauna for a combined total of 60 minutes per week has been shown to have enormous health benefits. It can reduce the risk of mortality, dilate blood vessels for increased recovery speed, and helps sweat out excess EDCs.
• 3x20 minute sessions or 4x15 minute sessions per week are the best way to reach this hour long goal.
  • Just make sure to drink plenty of water and electrolytes after your sauna session to replenish what is lost </aside>