To successfully run four restaurants and still work by the stove most nights, Chris Coombs needs to stay hyper-focused. For the 35-year-old Boston chef-restaurateur, that means staying disciplined about diet and exercise.
At 8 years old, Mr. Coombs was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. He treated it by taking one Adderall a day between ages 10 and 28. As he pursued his culinary career, he began to notice that certain foods, particularly refined sugar, affected his concentration despite the medication. “It was like someone is flipping through channels with a remote control in my brain,” he says. “I see a lot but I don’t retain anything.”
In 2012, two years after he opened his first restaurant, French-inspired Deuxave in Boston, he was able to stop taking medication and manage his ADHD in other ways. He started to eat small meals throughout the day rather than one post-shift meal. After years of surviving on five hours of sleep, he started turning in at 11 p.m. rather than 3 a.m.
And Mr. Coombs, already a bit of a gym rat, adopted a strength routine that he constantly fine-tunes. “Obviously the physical benefits are great, but the mental benefits make me a better boss,” says Mr. Coombs, who manages 247 employees. “The gym is my outlet for relieving stress.”
To stay motivated, he regularly sets goals and signs up for athletic events. He’s training for his first amateur Strongman competition on March 21. The format is unusual: Contestants learn the night before which five events they will have to compete in. Potential events include tire flips and the Atlas stone, which requires contestants to move five spherical stones ranging from 220 to 350 pounds atop high platforms.
Mr. Coombs says the training has helped him stay nimble in the kitchen. “All day I’m bending down to pull things out of the oven and butchering and moving slabs of meat,” he says. “If I’m not fit, my knees and back feel it. I view myself as an athlete and want to have longevity in this game.”
The Workout
Mr. Coombs estimates that he walks around 8 miles a day at work, so he focuses on strength rather than cardio at the gym. “If I add cardio, I get too skinny,” he says. He typically goes to the gym for two hours at midday, four to five days a week. He organizes sessions around muscle groups and performs eight to 10 exercises.
Mr. Coombs focuses on exercises that work the muscles as they lengthen, rather than contract, against resistance, also known as eccentric training. When he performs the lowering part of a move, like when he drops into a squat or lowers a dumbbell after a biceps curl, he uses a very slow, controlled motion. Around every three months, or when he feels his workouts are getting stale, he hires a trainer to create a new program for him.
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On a back and biceps day he might perform four sets of 12 reps of pull-ups and four sets of barbell dead lifts, increasing the weight from 225 pounds to 465 pounds. A leg day could include four sets of pistol squats, essentially a one-legged squat, and he pushes a weighted sled across the turf zone of the gym between sets.
He tries to foam roll 30 minutes a week and gets a massage once every two weeks. He regularly sees a chiropractor to keep his back healthy.
The Diet
Mr. Coombs has one cup of coffee, eggs over easy and toast for his first breakfast, around 7:30 a.m. Four hours later he eats a second breakfast, which might be an open-faced turkey melt on whole grain bread. After the gym he has a sugar-free protein shake. Around 3 p.m. he eats grilled chicken with rice and broccoli or kale. He eats dinner, usually cod, pork chops or grilled chicken, around 10 p.m. He eats red meat once a week. His favorite indulgence is pizza.
“I probably have it 10 times throughout the whole year, but that makes it taste even better,” he says. He avoids refined sugars and limits himself to two to three alcoholic drinks a week. “I love great wine, but after two or three drinks I feel slow the next day,” he says. “My staff know to bring me a Pellegrino instead of a vodka soda when I sit down with clients at the restaurant.”
The Gear and Cost
Mr. Coombs pays $99 a month for his membership at his gym in Middleton, Mass. He is partial to Under Armour workout apparel and trains in UA Project Rock 2 shoes ($140). He keeps things low-tech and tracks his workouts in a spreadsheet rather than using apps.
The Playlist
“When I work out aggressively, I like to listen to old-school rap,” Mr. Coombs says.
How Exercise Can Help Those With ADHD
Attention improves during physical exercise for people with ADHD, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Traditionally, medication has been the most common and effective way to treat symptoms of ADHD, says Yuri Rassovsky, a professor in the department of psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and co-author of the study. “Many ADHD medications work by increasing dopamine and stimulating focus,” he says. Taking these types of stimulants could have negative long-term effects on blood pressure and heart function. Physical activity also stimulates the release of dopamine, he says.
A quantitative review published this month in the Journal of Psychiatric Research examined the effectiveness of ADHD treatments including neurofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive training and physical exercise. Physical exercise, particularly aerobic exercise that targets executive function, such as ball sports and martial arts, appeared to be the most effective.
“The duration and amount of mild to moderate activity needed isn’t clear,” Dr. Rassovsky says. “Like most medications, that is something that will most likely be personalized for the individual.” He stresses that exercise isn’t an overnight replacement for medication. “Talk to your doctor and come up with a plan that can be monitored safely,” he says.
What’s your workout? Tell us at workout@wsj.com
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