Popular Fitness Model and Competitor Max Wettstein Talks to Directlyfitness.com
1. How did you get started with modeling & fitness?
I’ve always been an athlete & played many sports both growing up & as an adult. Being healthy & fit was just a way of life for my entire family, mostly inspired by my father who was a former NFL football player, high school football coach & owner of several gyms. There were always vitamins on the table & nobody in the family smoked or partied or had health problems. That combined with ideal genetic potential gave me a physique that had what it took for modeling, though I didn’t realize this until I was almost age 30!
After serving as a pilot in the navy for 10 years I had the opportunity to meet with a very well connected agency based in NYC while I was transitioning into my airline pilot career with JetBlue Airways. This agency got me in the door with clients like Men’s Health & Men’s Fitness magazine on my very first day of trying out modeling under their guidance!
I booked my first Men’s Health magazine editorial shoot that same day and the rest is history!
2. What gets you motivated?
Professional, elite & Olympic athletes get me motivated: Guys & gals who are doing amazing physical feats with their bodies and truly taking care of themselves. I’m talking about legitimate ‘natural’ athletes though who compete in sports, NOT bodybuilders (who I do not view as athletes since bodybuilding is posing on stage & therefore not a sport by any standard).
I have the greatest respect for almost any athlete of any sport that has what it takes to compete at a professional or Olympic level for sure, and reading their bios & interviews serves to motivate me. Also coaching my 7 year old daughter who is already a sponsored athlete in skateboarding & surfing truly motivates & inspires me. I get so excited for her potential & get so much stoke from being her sole coach & trainer. We’ve developed a special bond beyond most typical father-daughter relationships & any time we win (or lose) it is equally a win or loss for both of us.
3. What is your training philosophy?
I’ve evolved over the past 25 years into my own holistic, full-body, functional approach, where performance trumps aesthetics. I equally emphasize strength, cardio, core & flexibility areas.
I try to make exercise fun by participating in several sports weekly to include surfing, skateboarding bowls & 2-man beach volleyball.
I do requisite weight-lifting as a practical way to maintain strength and a certain amount of muscle-mass, usually consisting of full-body barbell exercises such as cleans, squats, presses, & deadlifts. I love pull-ups & push-ups too. I use some kettlebell & some resistance-band as well. I will also sometimes do plyometrics & calesthenic exercises. For cardio, besides all the sports I play, I will go for trail runs & some hill or stair interval runs.
Typically my cardio is performed in the higher-intensity, shorter-duration realm, sometimes using HIIT format. I do basic yoga & therapeutic stretches as needed to include foam-roller & swiss-ball work, to alleviate tightness & adhesions & stay loose. Range-of-motion is EVERYTHING as an athlete. Never lose it! I’m hyper-aware of what my body is trying to tell me and actually listen to it! No unexpected pain is ignored and this another reason why I could never deal with a trainer telling me what to do.
4. If you have to pick only 3 exercises, what would they be and why?
Clean-and-Press; Pull-ups; Push-ups. These 3 hit every muscle in the body. They’re all very functional & incorporate many muscle-groups working together. They can be performed almost any where.
5. What is your philosophy on nutrition?
I NEVER count calories, but instead over many years have developed an intuitive sense on how much food I need directly proportional to how active I am on that particular day. I typically am able to indulge in a fair amount of carbohydrates because I’m so active & athletic that I ideally burn carbs efficiently for fuel and am ‘insulin-sensitive’. When I go flying on airline trips, since I’m way more sedentary than normal, I will cut way back on the carbs and eat almost no sugar on those days.
I try to eat more whole-foods & less refined but on the road I do use protein-powder and all-natural, clean, green energy & protein bars. I eat a lot of raw nuts & nut-butters. I try to consume a fair amount of alkaline foods or drinks each day. I tend to eat a moderate size breakfast, then graze throughout the day and around my sports & workouts, and then enjoy a large but healthy, clean, well-balanced dinner with my family. I have wine or a beer every night. I have coffee every morning and Green or Yerba Mate tea every afternoon.
I use caffeine strategically to enhance my workouts & focus factor, & to stave off fatigue.
I’m a huge believer in vitamins & supplements to make up for diet shortcomings & to get powerful boosts of key nutrients, such as vitamin-C, omega-3 EFAs, minerals, Green-Tea extract, and some mens’ health/prostate health/testosterone boost proprietary blends.
6. What’s your take on carbohydrates?
See above, but: KNOW that carbohydrates are the PREFERRED energy source for HIGH-INTENSITY exercise – not FAT! Active folks & especially athlete-types efficiently metabolize carbohydrates for energy & store it within the muscles & liver as glycogen with very little insulin required. This describes me!
50% of the food I eat is classified as carbohydrate, usually complex to include adequate amounts of FIBER.
7. What workout routine has worked best for you?
Having NO routine is what works best for me, because my life has no routine as an airline pilot! One of my philosophies is to be able to “workout any TIME, any WHERE, with any THING.” I’ve evolved so much & become so aware of what my body needs & when, that I could never follow any other trainer’s plan or fad workout trend. I’m always mixing it up, and being able to perform at 100% in the sports I love will always take priority.
That being said, free-weights will always be more effective than any machine for me & when in doubt I go very high-intensity, for a shorter duration to take advantage of post-workout, metabolism-boosting EPOC effect (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption from achieving lactic acid failure your and oxygen-debt.) Also any routine eventually leads to physical adaptation, loss of efficacy & plateaus, and boredom.
My body is constantly being surprised & my muscles are constantly being shocked!
8. You own physical feature you are most proud of?
My best physical features are: My long-lasting time in this physique-modeling game (11 years & still booking jobs); my track record of preventing major injuries and being able to train around minor ones; my best phsyical features are my triceps, lats & ABS.
9. What supplements do you use if any? If not, why not?
Whey protein, cycle creatine-monohydrate, vitamin-C, Omega-3 EFAs, Greens-Powder, cycle pro-hormone DHEA, Mineral blend, Green-Tea extract, men’s health/prostate health proprietary blend.
10. Any favorite Bodybuilders, models, athletes?
IFBB & NPC Pro bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids do not inspire me as I feel they’re frauds and not athletes. Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, Tony Hawk, Brett Favre inspire me.
11. Who inspires you most?
I draw inspiration from all facets of life, at random. Impossible to answer: No single human could possibly live up to this credit! Everybody will let you down eventually.
However NOTHING motivates me to do my BEST every day more than my family – they deserve nothing less than my best. I never loved anything like my 2 daughters and am going to give them every thing I have until the day I die.
12. Favorite Quotes?
“Optimum health is a method of life. Focus on fitness and your ideal physique will follow.”
“You should be able to work out any Time, any Where, with any Thing, even if only your own body weight.”
“Nobody owes you anything: raise expectations of your self & lower them of every body else.”
“Performance always trumps aesthetics.” – Max Wettstein (being original)
Facebook Page:
www.facebook.com/max.
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Photography:
Jason Ellis, Corey Sorensen, and Wettstein Media
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