MY GOAL
"[Exercise]keeps my head clear and my body much healthier - I haven't been sick in quite a while. It allows me to maintain pretty long working hours and to have a lot of stamina."
MY WORKOUT
Plays hockey once a week year-round and, depending on the season, plays basketball or baseball at least once a week.
Runs seven to 10 kilometres a couple of times a week when the weather is nice.
Goes to the gym three times a week for 30 minutes of cardio on the StairMaster or elliptical machine and 60 minutes of strength training using free weights. "I run on a three-day cycle with weights, so one day is going to be triceps and chest, the second day is biceps and back, and the third day is legs."
Completes the 100s workout once every other month. "You basically do 100 of every exercise, which requires really low weights. You look strange, but you do 100 and it hurts and your body gets shocked."
Runs every other day when travelling. "It's difficult to access any kind of gym when I'm [away] which is great because running is my favourite way to be in any new city I haven't been to."
MY LIFESTYLE
"I probably average 12 to 13 hours a day working. I don't take a lot of full days off, even on weekends. I'm not a super-early morning riser, so I generally work from 8:30 or 9 in the morning until about 6:30 or so, head home, have dinner with my wife for an hour and then generally work late until 12 or 1 in the morning.
"I always eat breakfast - I don't do well without breakfast. Lunches are sporadic, unfortunately. But I usually have a sizable dinner. Red meat isn't in my diet at all - it's mainly chicken and fish, and not a massive amount of either of those. ... I probably have less consistent meals when I'm away."
MY MOTIVATION
"When I skip a workout because I get busy, I actually really feel it in the rest of my working life. It reduces my effectiveness. In my mind, the physical health leads to mental health and leads to an ability to do my work better."MY WORKOUT ANTHEM
"I used to be a very avid skier. When I was really pounding down big mogul runs, I'd have the ear buds in and have it cranked up to Guns N' Roses - Paradise City. That's probably still the anthem of strength if I really want to crank through something.
"I'll bring my iPod to the gym, but I usually have a magazine, either The Economist or Maclean's, and [read]it between sets."
MY CHALLENGES
"I don't track anything really, and I'm pretty sure it'd be valuable for me to. ...
"But the hardest part for me is being consistent. ... I've come to realize that scheduling those workouts and having them as hard-and-fast as any other meeting is really important. Otherwise they just don't happen."
THE CRITIQUE
BE FLEXIBLE
"If he's going to be winding his body up doing all this endurance training, he's going to get tight," says Blair Larsen, director of personal training at the Adelaide Club in Toronto. "And eventually ... he's going to get injured." Yoga classes, or at least frequent massages, can help avoid injury. While travelling, a towel can be used to do simple stretches in a hotel room.
WORK THE CORE
Mr. Roter's three-day weights cycle is missing one key element: core work. Mr. Larsen recommends he add abdominal exercises to round out his strength training.
SWITCH IT UP
Mr. Larsen advises Mr. Roter to incorporate smaller, incremental changes on a daily basis in addition to the occasional 100s workout. By choosing different weights, repetitions or rest periods, "it's going to be a whole different stress on his system and cause his body to have to adapt," he says.
TRACK PROGRESS
Keeping a log of what he does at the gym will give Mr. Roter a better sense of where his workout is at, and where it should be going. "He doesn't seem to need help with motivation," Mr. Larsen says. "But he needs some guidance from time to time. A professional can come in and say, 'This is what you're going to be doing for the next three months.' "