Episode 85: The Best Workouts for Entrepreneurs

I love entrepreneurs. Fitness led me to entrepreneurship. Now it's time to help other entrepreneurs find fitness. Why do business owners *really* need fitness? Sure, like the rest of us, they might need to lose a few pounds. And everyone knows that exercise relieves stress and improves focus. But entrepreneurship requires more than resilience and focus: it requires a fit BRAIN. One of my companies is IgniteGym. Our mission is to build cognitive fitness. These are the 10 elements of cognitive fitness: Memory Attention Motor Control Sensory Processing and Perception Organization, Planning and Logic Language Social, Emotional functioning Computation, calculation Motivation Creativity, imagination ALL of these are critical for entrepreneurs. And they're all enhanced by exercise. In fact, I'd argue they're the REAL purpose of exercise for business owners. But what KIND of exercise? In this episode, I discuss each of the 10 cognitive domains, and how to build them with different types of exercise. I share my personal regimen, and how I get business owners at the TwoBrain Workshop to build workouts into their day. Know a business owner? Share this episode with them. The first step is BDNF: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. This is what John Ratey called "Miracle-Gro for the brain" in his book, "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain". What triggers BDNF? Aerobic exercise. In this episode, I talk about the necessity of developing BRAINpower for business owners. Then I tell you specifically WHAT to do; how I would build a perfect brain-training week for a business owner; and what I do every week to make me more effective at growing my businesses. If you're a gym owner, there are tips in this episode to help other entrepreneurs (and, let's face it: yourself.) If you own another business, this episode will tell you what to do; how long to do it; and where to find a coach (because you'll need one.) I refer to my podcast episodes with Ari Meisel of GetLeverage and Nelson Dellis, four-time US Memory Champion. I mention IgniteGym.com and Zecutive.com too. You'll find some sample workouts and challenges on the latter site.