7
Rating ?
Qualities ?
Applicable
Comprehensive
Well Structured
Buy book or audiobook
The Corporate Athlete
How to Achieve Maximal Performance in Business and Life
Jack L. Groppel and Bob Andelman • Wiley © 1999 • 293 pages
Leadership / Lessons from Sports
Workplace Skills / Become More Productive
Take-Aways
• A “corporate athlete” strives for health and fitness in order to perform better in business, just as a sports
star trains to stay healthy for competition.
• Follow the “Corporate Athlete Principles” to focus, stay fit and balance your life.
• Do daily “interval training” – letting your heart rate increase, letting it recover and repeating the process
– to bolster your body’s response to stress.
• Schedule frequent mental health and movement breaks throughout the day.
• To train for upcoming stress, eat well, exercise, rest, and be “present and mindful.”
• Eat small, frequent meals or snacks to stay alert. Having a light lunch and a healthy late-afternoon snack
will help you avoid errors.
• Plan your meals around the low-fat Mediterranean Diet, which is based on fruit, vegetables and whole
grains.
• Carbohydrates make you calm, and proteins sharpen your focus.
• Stay hydrated; drink eight glasses of water daily. Soft drinks don’t count.
• You need 21 days to break a bad habit and 90 days to form a new healthful habit.
1 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST
Recommendation
When sports medicine expert Jack L. Groppel heard former Wimbledon tennis champion Stan Smith
explain how his sports training prepared him for the business world, Groppel realized he could use his
coaching skills to help individuals perform better in their careers and their lives. Groppels advice will alter
how you look at habits and your work. Groppel, writing with business author Bob Andelman, teaches you
how to maintain your energy level, how to handle and recover from stress, and how to value each day. He
also provides worksheets you can use if you decide to follow his 21-day change and improvement program.
getAbstract recommends Groppel’s knowledge to anyone seeking peak performance at work and at home.
Summary
Swifter, Higher, Stronger
A “corporate athlete” strives for health and fitness in order to perform better in business, just as a sports star
trains to stay healthy for competition. To be a corporate athlete, heed 12 principles:
Principle 1: “TRAIN”
To improve your business performance, train. Training will help you bring your best to every task, handle
pressure, perform under challenging conditions, stick to a schedule, set sensible goals, and excel in business
and in your personal life. The acronym TRAIN stands for:
•
•
•
•
•
“Test yourself” – Use what you learn to grow.
“Recover” – Take time out to strengthen your mind, body and spirit.
“Affirm” – Recommit to your goals.
“Intensify” – Put more effort into your work, but take frequent breaks.
“Nourish” – Take care of your physical and emotional needs.
Principle 2: “Take Ownership and Responsibility for Who You Are”
Tennis great Chris Evert was the world champion until Martina Navratilova appeared. Evert took ownership
of regaining her status, improved her physical skills and sparked a historic sports rivalry. Instead of doing
tasks that divert you from your personal goals, focus on those that enhance who you are “physically,
emotionally, mentally and spiritually.” Take responsibility for yourself by balancing performance and
recovery. For example, when Bob Glowaki earned a promotion to vice president of Merrill Lynch, he had
to relocate to Chicago. His family couldn’t move until his daughter finished her last year of high school.
To cope with being stressed and alone, Bob ran each evening and improved his diet – steps his wife had
already taken at home. Reunited, he and his wife now work out together and share healthful meals. You’ll
accomplish much more when you prioritize your health and happiness. Don’t wait for a “significant
emotional event” to force you to alter your life; take positive responsibility now.
www.getabstract.com
2 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST
Principle 3: “Stress and Recovery”
Exercise physiology expert Pat Etcheberry loves pranks. Once he told a group of athletes he was training that
wild animals lurked in the woods near their jogging trail. When he rattled a nearby branch, they panicked
and rushed away. When he tried that trick on FBI agents, they “stood their ground” and “crouched for
action” due to their law enforcement training. Focus your workouts on training to cope with stress. To excel
beyond your innate abilities, use the “performance triad”: Health and happiness form the base, and the two
sides are “performance” and “productivity.”
“Exercise is like a 401k pension plan: The more you put in now, the more you’ll have
later.”
Much of your impact on others derives from how you move, stand, inhale, exhale and communicate
nonverbally. Observe your different emotional states when you smile or frown, even for a half a minute; that
is what you project to others. To offer steady calmness, you must find the right balance between stress and
recovery for your metabolism. Recovery, in this sense, does not necessarily mean relaxation. Easier tasks can
provide a break. Don’t skip taking the down time you need for recovery in order to make it to some “finish
line”; that line does not exist.
“Foods are like drugs.”
Under stress, your body releases cortisol and a burst of catecholamines – “fight” hormones – into your
system. “Interval training” – increasing your heart rate, letting it recover and continuing to repeat the set
– encourages a quicker, larger “spike” of catacholamines with a more rapid recovery. It lowers the output
of cortisol, releases calming endorphins and aids mental recovery. To reduce stress, work out in the late
afternoon. This launches endorphins and will help you enjoy your evening. If you can’t squeeze in a late
afternoon workout, exercise whenever you can.
“It’s not stress that’s detrimental to health, but rather the inability to control stress.”
No matter how unexpected a negative development is, you can tap into physical methods for coping with
its stress. For example, if you receive an upsetting phone call just as you’re about to pitch a big project, take
a moment to breathe. Climb two or three flights of stairs to improve “heart rate and chemistry” so you can
handle the situation better.
Principle 4: Consistent Energy
Maintaining your peak performance level demands high energy. Stress dilutes energy, but taking a small
time-out from stress can preserve your focus and zest. When stress builds, take a moment to regroup. For
example, Jeff Sklar, a vice president at a Manhattan private bank, frequently takes clients out to dinner and
to sports events. To bring his highest energy level to each outing, Sklar exercises, eats right and practices
consistent mental disciplines that help him recover from stress. He says that he thinks “like a sprinter, not
like a marathoner.”
www.getabstract.com
3 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST
Principle 5: Prioritize Nutrition
For maximum nutrition, follow the heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet, which calls for eating complex
carbohydrates from fruit, vegetables and grain as half your daily intake. Add protein from fish and grain as
15%-25% of your diet. Keep your fat intake below 20%-30%, using only fat derived from plants or fish. Have
fruit or fruit juice at the end of lunch and limit your sugar intake. How you eat affects how you feel. To feel
more energized, stop eating three meals a day. Have an early breakfast so your brain gets glucose, its main
source of energy; then enjoy small snacks during the day. Snacks keep your blood sugar level up so you can
think clearly all the time. The corporate athlete follows “seven nutritional secrets”:
1 . “Weight doesn’t matter” – Lower your fat intake, heed your body fat content and increase your
muscle mass.
2 . “Don’t punish yourself” – Enjoy desserts and snacks, but primariy stick to “smart, light, low-fat and
nutritious” foods most of the time.
3 . “Eat right and avoid hunger pangs” – Eat healthier, smaller portions more often.
4 . “Exercise more to prevent muscle loss” – To become leaner, expend more energy.
5 . “Train yourself to change” – Re-educate your food preferences. Nix the saturated fat habit. As you
upgrade your diet, remember “it takes 21 days to break habits” and 90 days to “change behaviors” and
create new patterns.
6 . “Eat to recover” – Balance your nutrition to help you relax and sleep better.
7 . “Allow for backsliding” – If you stray, return to healthy habits quickly.
Principle 6: Drink Well
Drink eight glasses of water – not soft drinks – daily. Cut down on tea and coffee, which are diuretics and
cause your body to shed water. If you are ill, drink healthy fluids to recover. Chill your water, add a slice of
citrus fruit for flavor and drink bottled water if you prefer it. Always carry a reuseable water bottle, even into
meetings. Limit alcohol to one drink a day and your caffeine to two cups a day. Skipping caffeine altogether
is best.
Principle 7: Weight Doesn’t Matter
Your body’s fat content matters – not your weight. Muscle outweighs fat, so a scale cannot really measure
your progress. To see how you are doing now, measure your body mass index (BMI), which equals your
weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. A normal BMI is between 24 and 27 for
a man and between 23 and 26 for a woman. To estimate your “body fat pattern,” figure out your hip-to-waist
ratio. Measure your waist at its smallest part and divide that number by the distance around your hips. A
woman’s goal is to have a ratio of less than 0.86, and a man’s goal is a ratio of less than 0.95. Losing weight
takes time, so be patient. Eat several small meals and take in the same amount of calories each day.
www.getabstract.com
4 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST
Principle 8: “Figure Out a Menu for Your Life”
Plan tomorrow’s meals today. Adhere to the 80/20 rule: Eat well 80% of the time and “stray a little” 20% of
the time. In restaurants, request healthy foods, even if they aren’t on the menu. To be at the top of your game
coming up to a big meeting or event, create a 10-step eating plan:
1 . Eat your “pre-event meal” before you feel really hungry.
2 . Chose healthy foods consistently for a few days prior to the occasion.
3 . Eat lightly before your important moment.
4 . Avoid alcohol.
5 . Avoid high-fat items.
6 . Increase your endorphins by eating a meal of half protein and half carbohydrates.
7 . If you need to wake up, consume protein.
8 . If you are anxious, eat carbohydrates and skip the protein.
9 . To help your mood, eat foods you enjoy.
10 . Respect the impact food has on your energy level and mood.
Principle 9: Life on the Run and on the Road
You can still eat well while on the go. At fast food eateries, skip the “special sauce.” A plain cheese pizza is
about 27% fat, which is not unreasonable. A healthier option is to order pizza without cheese and with extra
tomato sauce and vegetables.
“Avoiding stress reduces functional capacity, but seeking stress in the correct manner
helps you reach your highest potential.”
When you fly, the selection and timing of meals can throw you off. For international travel, set your mind
to your destination’s time zone. Eat carbs if you want to sleep on the plane; protein will keep you up. If you
land in the morning and have to rush off to a meeting, choose wake-up food, like “whole-grain cereal or a
low-fat protein breakfast.” Coffee is fine if that’s your custom, but avoid alcohol, which is dehydrating. If you
land in the morning and your meeting is in, say, four hours, choose your food based on how you slept during
the flight: If you slept poorly, have light carbs, such as fruit and bread; if you got a good night’s sleep, eat
whole-grain cereal or a low-fat protein. Rest at your hotel for an hour and take a quick walk to wake up. If
you land the day before your meeting, mesh with local time as soon as possible. Get to bed at a reasonable
hour. If you suffer jet lag, melatonin can help reset your “biological clock.” Don’t take it before your trip.
Rather, take between 1mg and 3mg half an hour before you go to sleep at your new location. Drink lots of
fluids and avoid caffeine.
Principle 10: Use “Vitamins, Supplements and Herbs” Wisely
Absorb your nutrients from food and take supplements just in case. Research hasn’t found natural or
organic supplements to be more effective than synthetic ones, but scientists say not to take too many
supplements. Extras don’t help because “once it’s full, your car can’t use more gasoline.”
www.getabstract.com
5 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST
“Once you are the best, the only way to keep improving your performance day after day
is to improve your health and your happiness.”
Free radicals – unstable molecules that develop as a reaction to “smoking...smog, radiation, ozone exposure
and even physical exercise” – attack your cells and promote “potential carcinogenic situations.” Reduce
their damaging effects by taking antioxidants such as the beta carotene in vitamins A, C and E. Some foods
are rich in antioxidants: Brazil nuts have selenium, an important antioxidant; carrots offer vitamin A;
leafy vegetables have vitamin E and citrus fruits provide vitamin C. Phytochemicals, like carotenoids and
flavonoids, are “plants’ natural protection against disease.” They can “stimulate immunity” and even inhibit
cancer growth. The best sources are fresh plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, wine, soy and flax seed.
Principle 11: Always Exercise
Participate in daily physical activity to boost your mental performance. Exercise releases positive hormones
and helps you live longer and better. It reduces your resting heart rate, helps your body better utilize oxygen,
speeds up your ability to clear waste products, reduces your blood pressure, decreases the level of harmful
fats in your bloodstream and raises your metabolism.
Principle 12: Heed Your Spiritual Fitness
It doesn’t matter what type of spirituality you prefer. What matters is that you feel internally congruent, that
your “actions agree with your words.” Rather than pray only during a crisis, try to live a life of substance
and meaning. Nourish your spirit by being aware, present and thoughtful. People who embrace spiritual
commitment handle stress more effectively and suffer less depression, so it’s a good idea to make time for
prayer.
About the Authors
Jack L. Groppel is co-founder of the Human Performance Institute and Vice President of Applied Science
and Performance Training of Wellness & Prevention Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company. Bob Andelman
is the co-author of Mind Over Business.
Did you like this summary?
Buy book or audiobook
http://getab.li/17346
This document is restricted to the personal use of Hamdi Alper Utku (info@mct.com.tr)
getAbstract maintains complete editorial responsibility for all parts of this review. All rights reserved. No part of this review may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, photocopying or otherwise – without prior written permission of getAbstract AG (Switzerland).
6 of 6
LoginContext[cu=4758941,subs=1,free=0,lo=en,co=TR] 2022-05-17 20:47:54 CEST