My Body Is a ... Profit Center

Lee Labrada's corpus really is his temple.

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Fit

Not long after CEO Lee Labrada filed a life-insurance application a few years back, he got a call from someone at the insurance company who had a few questions. "You're five feet six?" asked the voice on the phone. "Yep," said Labrada. "You weigh 190 pounds?" "I do," Labrada affirmed. As Labrada recalls, that's when the insurance agent's tone changed -- conveying, clearly, that the CEO looked like a pretty unacceptable risk. Which is when Labrada had the delicious opportunity to point out what his own company's customers already knew: that he's a former pro bodybuilder -- a past winner of the Mr. Universe title -- and that his body weight is composed of less than 10% fat. He got the policy.

Labrada's company is Houston-based Labrada Nutrition (#432), a seller of sports-nutrition supplements that last year hit $18 million in sales. He knows full well the competing priorities inflicted by a fast-growing company, and he firmly believes that CEOs need to put keeping in shape at the top of the list. He explains how and why to senior editor Mike Hofman.

You believe that CEOs should focus on their physical fitness for business reasons, not just in the interest of health?

The most important thing for busy CEOs to remember is that they have to take care of themselves before they take care of anybody else. If you eat well and exercise, you can maximize your energy levels so that you get more work done in less time and maintain a better disposition.

But how can a CEO find time to exercise?

It's not easy even for me. I went from making a living from my body -- where my job was to train it -- to working 60-hour weeks at a desk and building a company. And I'm a focused, hard-driving person, so it was hard for me, when I first started out, to drop my work for an hour so that I could go work out. But I came to the conclusion that it was of the utmost importance.

How much do you work out now, compared with the time you put in before you had your company?

I used to train anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours per day, but now I train almost every day for at least 30 minutes -- each body part for 10 minutes. Back, biceps, and abs one day; chest, shoulders, and triceps another day; legs on a third day. I do six to eight sets per body part at high intensity with as much weight as I can handle, for 8 to 10 repetitions per set.

When do you work out?

I work out anytime I can fit it into my schedule. I have an advantage in that I have a gym here in the office and a gym at home, both with a full range of equipment. I find that my most productive workouts are at 3 in the afternoon -- the afternoon lull. If I go to the gym then, I come back to my desk with a lot of intensity.

What's your home gym like?

It's not huge, but it's ample and compact. It's the size of a four-car garage. I have several tons of free weights, a leg-press machine, chin-up bars, a leg-extension machine -- I poured $15,000 worth of equipment into it.

60 ^% of the Inc 500 CEOs surveyed said that they did not expect to still be the CEO of their company in five years.

What would you tell a CEO who, unlike you, isn't physically fit?

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