“Two steps forward, one step backward” roughly summarises my attitude towards taking time off from training.
By that I mean, I’m quite happy to let my progress stall or even regress a little bit because I know it’ll allow me to achieve even greater things in the long run.
The catch is, results are slower to emerge and, even when they do, they’re mostly less dramatic than what you’ll get with more HaRdCoRe methods.
Not that it matters, because results earned slowly are FAR easier to sustain, meaning they incrementally compound over many months and years versus those gained quickly via some combination of a pants-on-head stupid diet and bone crushing training regime that are readily lost leading to much needless wheel spinning, frustration, and, usually, injury.
Talking about this reminds me of a guy I used to train with from time to time.
He was a top bloke, but couldn’t delay gratification if his life depended on it. Hence, he’d train and diet like a monster in the twelve or so weeks leading up to his annual trip to a greige resort in Shagaluf or wherever it is the Carrot Top Crew go to escape their hellish new build estates.
To his credit, my occasional training partner would wind up looking pretty good prior to jetting off.
Not so much by the time he got back, though.
And a few more weeks was all it took for him to revert to his flabby and flaccid baseline.
If only he had read the January 2025 issue of The Phil Tyreman Letter (not that he could have done, as I had not written it yet).
Chances are he’d have a much more sustainable attitude towards training.
At the very least, he would have known how to prepare to take a fortnight or thereabouts off of training, rest well, and get back into it effectively so he could take his next two steps forward.
As it happens, I am selling the January 2025 issue as a “one off” because I want to pare down the small mountain of cardboard boxes that are precariously stacked in the corner of my bedroom.
You can purchase a copy for £50.
Behold a summary of what you will learn inside:
* The faulty pattern of thinking that I believe is the reason that almost all New Year’s Resolutioners quit within a few weeks to a month at most.
* How to use fortnight-long breaks from hard training to accelerate your progress and, most importantly, set you up to still be training ten, twenty, or even thirty or more years from now.
* Roughly how long you can take off from the gym before you start to notice you’re getting out of shape, according to one of the few modern bodybuilders who I think is worth listening to (and why I DON’T do as he did, even though it apparently worked very well for him).
* When to take a deload week and how to do it The Phil Tyreman Way to spur new gains in size, strength and/or leanness.
* A nifty way to slice your workout duration (potentially by as much as half) without compromising its effectiveness. (Certainly not something that is viable for long term use, but ideal when you are up against it and need to “punch the clock”).
* How to get the most out of your rest weeks (believe it or not, taking them the wrong way can make you more likely to injure yourself on your return).
* Approximately how often you should take a full week away from the gym and hard cardio for best results in the long term.
There’s plenty more inside, but that gives you a flavour of January’s issue.
To get it, go here:
https://cmtyreman.thrivecart.com/the-phil-tyreman-letter-january-2025
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman