As the co-founder of start-up Kuuala.com, Cory Laing, 30, helps businesses, hospitals and hotels transition to using green products. The Toronto-based sustainable-solutions company, which started in 2009 in Montreal, now brings to market personal-care and eco-cleaning products for consumers. Mr. Laing is passionate about living healthfully. If he wants to energize his exercise experience, he needs to join nature's gym.
My goal
Staying lean and eating healthy to keep energy high through the afternoon.
My workout
Recently I started back spinning after starting it in Montreal twice a week for a year and a half. It's meditative. My girlfriend loves spinning, so originally I did it to exercise with her, and I love the feeling.
I started the weight program in February. I get to the gym 5:45 a.m., four days a week. I do four to six exercises per day consisting of three sets of 12 reps.
Monday is chest, doing incline bench press, flat bench press with dumbbells, dips, fly machine, push-ups.
Tuesday I do chin-ups, rows, hyper-extension and shrugs for back.
Wednesday I do planks in three sets of one minute, followed by crunches on the ball, and then oblique crunches.
Thursday is arms and legs, including military presses, biceps curls, triceps extensions and presses.
Friday I work out with a friend at Ryerson University who created an isometric exercise routine for the small muscles through the whole body and I use bands for resistance.
Static strength might help me get more lean, tone up. I've been doing it for three weeks and so far, my gripping strength is stronger, which translates to adding a bit more weight to other exercises. My wrists were weak and now I developed them enough to do push-ups."
My lifestyle
I'm a weekday vegetarian; I eat chicken and fish on weekends. Eating this way uses less energy to produce meat and also good way to test out new meals because if you're a vegetarian you need to find new flavours through eating different foods.
Breakfast is coffee and oatmeal before the gym. Post workout is egg whites and sliced toast. Snack is an apple; lunch is a sandwich or pizza; another snack is almonds, walnuts and dried fruit; dinner is a bean salad.
I'm in transition moving between Montreal and Toronto a lot. Being an entrepreneur, I spend the day contacting new customers, working on the website, or finishing off a project that we may be a part of. During the evenings we try to get to meet-ups – social gatherings in the community but organized online through Twitter or meet-up.com around topics such as computer programming or sustainability for people who are interested in green start-up concepts.
My motivation
During my workout I come up with ideas or develop them and spinning clears my mind. That's the motivation before I workout. When it's done, it's about energy.
My anthem
Kanye West's All of the Lights.
My challenge
Getting more sleep, remembering to eat smaller meals throughout the day and cutting back on chocolate.
The critique
Eat a leaner lunch
Meg Sharp, executive director of personal training at Cambridge Group of Clubs in Toronto, says Mr. Laing's lunch may be too high in fat, carbohydrates and too low in protein.
"A spinach salad with tofu, chickpeas, avocado, and toasted almonds could replace the pizza, and he could cut the sandwich in half and supplement it with lentil soup," she says.
Take indoor cycling outdoors
Ms. Sharp, who holds a bachelor of physical education kinesiology from McGill University in Montreal, recommends Mr. Laing switch to a high-intensity full body strength-training workout on Fridays and get fresh air.
"Cory could find a hill to cycle up and perform a series of hill repeats; he should take note of the time it takes to climb the hill at a high intensity, and then take that time to descend and cycle at low intensity; repeat eight to 10 times."
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Special to The Globe and Mail