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Timothy Lupinacci, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, Birmingham, Alabama.

Lupinacci currently serves as the firm's chairman and chief executive officer. His practice is focused on representing financial institutions in complex issues involving restructuring. Lupinacci serves on the firm's diversity committee and previously served as co-chair of the firm's Women's Initiative Pathways to Leadership committee.

How often during the week do you work out? Routinely I work out four or five times a week. However, over the last 90 days, I have run at least one mile each day. At the start of the summer, I challenged everyone in our firm to shake the "summer doldrums" by focusing on discipline and execution in all areas of their lives, and I jump-started it with a 90-day CEO Challenge to run or walk at least one mile every day. We set up an online community for people to enter their progress and share pictures and stories. We had more than 240 people join the challenge, logging over 8,000 miles. All participants who logged more than 80 days straight were awarded a special "BakerNext" CEO Challenge finisher runner's shirt, and the four offices with the most participation earned a free lunch and a showing of a running documentary about a man known as the Raven, who has run eight miles a day on South Beach every day since the 1970s.

Tim Lupinacci

At what time during the day or evening do you work out? I am an early morning person, so my routine is to run or go to exercise class (or both during the 90-day challenge) at 5:30 a.m. or so. During the 90-day challenge, on some busy days I had to do a couple runs at 4 a.m. and a couple at 10 p.m.

What's your go-to routine? Routinely a three- to five-mile run, with a longer run on Saturdays. Three days a week I do a Birmingham YMCA CrossFit class.

How long does it take? The runs are usually 30-60 minutes depending on the distance. The exercise classes are 45 minutes, but during the 90-day challenge, I added a 15-minute run following the class.

Why do you like this routine? I have the type of personality that thrives on routine and discipline, so consistency in approach helps. I like the solitary nature of running, which gives me time to appreciate the beauty of the new day and surroundings and to have prayer and thinking time. I also like the pace of the 45-minute workout, with the one-minute burst of intense activity followed by 20-second recovery.

What does regular exercise do for you? It refreshes me and gets me focused and energized for the day. The discipline in the first hours of my day sets the pace for a disciplined focus on my highest and most vital priorities of the day ahead. It also is my best creative thinking time for strategy, vision and execution. During the 90-day challenge, when I traveled to our other offices, it also gave me the opportunity to share the experience with my colleagues who were participating in the challenge.

How long have you been exercising regularly? Since I made a "midyear resolution" July 1, 1998. I have been pretty consistent ever since.

In what ways have you changed your routine over the months or years? Early on, I was more inclined to do my workout on an elliptical machine. However, occasionally they would all be in use so I moved to the treadmill. I fell in love with running, and that has been my go-to routine for two decades with various "boot-camp" type of exercise classes built in every so often.

How do you convince yourself to work out when you don't want to? Generally, the assurance of the jumpstart that I get from the three- or four-mile run is enough to get me going even when I don't want to. Over the 90-day challenge, the commitment to my colleagues certainly got me going every day, even when my muscles were "screaming" for a rest day.