Check it oot.
Issue five.
Every summer, people tell me they're taking a few weeks off training with the seriousness of someone admitting an affair. “I'll try to do something while I'm away.”
You absolutely can. You can also lie by a pool, eat the good bread and forget what day it is. I promise I won't send the squat police.
A break is not a collapse. It's a break.
Audio Issue
The audio version's back, me reading the issue out loud. Great for the commute, the dishes, or anyone who'd rather listen than read.
The Question
One of my clients asked me this just before she headed off on holiday for six weeks.
“If I take six weeks off, am I basically back to square one?”
Six weeks is a proper break, so I understood the concern. I get some version of this every summer, and thankfully the answer is nowhere near as dramatic as the question.
Cardio is usually the first thing you'll notice. After a couple of weeks off, the stairs might start feeling weirdly personal. Your breathing is up, your legs are having a moan and your brain immediately decides you've lost everything.
You haven't. Strength is less dramatic. It can dip, but it generally hangs around much longer than cardio. A few weeks away doesn't wipe out months or years of work. Think rusty, not ruined.
Your first session back might leave you feeling a bit wabbit, and that's allowed. Use a little less weight, slow everything down and give your body a chance to remember what it's doing. Whatever has faded will very often return faster than it took to build the first time. Your body remembers far more than your anxious brain gives it credit for.
Here's the other part trainers don't always say out loud. Sometimes we need a break from you too. I love my clients, but I also live every training cycle with them. I think about their knees, their sleep, their protein and whether “I can't do another rep” actually means “I don't want to do another rep”. Every now and then I test the theory and they somehow find five more. Cheaters, the lot of them.
A few weeks apart means I come back with more energy too. It also means that, for a short while, nobody asks me “how many more?”
Lovely.
Go on holiday. Your body will remember.
01
The barbell doesn't care
Something brilliant is happening in my sessions lately, and I absolutely love it. More of my female clients are asking to bench press, learn pull-ups and find out how much they can lift.
For years, the weights floor has been treated as though it belongs to men. It doesn't. The barbell has never cared who picked it up.
One of my newest clients started training with me twice a week at the end of April. Twenty-one sessions later, she completed her first three lightly assisted pull-ups.
By the third rep, she looked caught somewhere between trepidation and disbelief, as though she still wasn't entirely convinced her body could do what it was already doing.
Moments like that are one of the reasons I love this job. There's something very special about watching a client realise they can do something they genuinely thought they couldn't. It changes the way they see the rest of their training too.
Getting stronger is personal. If you can lift more than you could last month, that's progress. It doesn't become less impressive because the person beside you can lift more.
If you want to lift heavy, go for it. Start with less, build it up and take your time. Strong is sexy, and I mean that quite literally. A woman offering to carry my bag would be considerably sexier than a man assuming he needs to carry hers.
I'm only half joking.
I've written a whole article about the other half. Why more women are falling in love with lifting weights, why nobody becomes bulky by accident and how getting strong can change the way you see your body.
Read Women lifting weights. Fall in love with feeling strong. →
02
Coach's Pick: Julien at Under Pressure Massage
Julien's had his hands on me every week for ten years, ninety minutes at a time. Tati knows about it.
I've been seeing him since I landed in Barcelona, and at this point he probably knows my body as well as I do. He's introduced me to parts of my body I genuinely didn't know existed, usually by putting his elbow directly into them.
A weekly massage is an indulgence. I know it isn't realistic for everybody, and I'm not pretending it needs to be. For me, it's ninety minutes that helps my body feel looked after and gives my head a proper break.
Once I'm on that table, I couldn't care less what I look like. Hair everywhere, drooling through the face hole, testicles hanging wherever gravity has left them, safely under the towel. For those ninety minutes, I don't think about a single person other than myself. It might be the most selfish part of my week, and I love it.
Some of it can be properly uncomfortable, but I love that side of it too because I know it's for the greater good. I want Julien to get in there and do whatever needs to be done. The only thing I regret is when the ninety minutes are over.
Do I know for certain that massage is why I've stayed largely free of major injuries? No. Bodies aren't that simple. I do know that ten years of consistently looking after mine has served me very well.
Recovery has become very shiny. Compression boots, massage guns, ice baths cold enough to reset your personality. Meanwhile, massage is still there doing exactly what it has always done.
Sometimes the answer isn't the latest gadget. Sometimes it's Julien's elbow.
If you're ever in Barcelona and fancy discovering muscles you didn't know you had, Julien is at Under Pressure Massage. He's brilliant. Just don't steal my slot.
Chau for now.
Martin · Barcelona