The First Week Home: How to Come Back Without Wrecking Yourself
Chris asked me about training on holiday. The more useful question is what happens when you get back.
The holiday isn't the problem. Two weeks off does very little to you. The problem is the Monday after, and the enthusiasm that walks through the door with a tan and something to prove.
I see it every August. Someone's been away, eaten well, drunk more than usual, feels soft and slightly guilty, and arrives determined to erase the fortnight in sixty minutes. They load the bar to where it was. They go hard. They feel fine. Then Tuesday happens, and Wednesday's worse. They can't sit down properly until Friday, miss the rest of the week, and turn a two-week break into a four-week one.
This is because your strength barely moves in two weeks. Your engine dips a little. The thing that drops fastest is tissue tolerance — the readiness of your tendons and connective tissue to absorb a volume of work they'd got used to. Muscle can produce the force on day one. The structures around it let you know afterwards, not during. The feedback is delayed, so your body gives you no warning at the time.
Your first week back should look something like this:
Session one: 70 per cent of your normal weights, lower the intensity and volume. Leave early and feel like you've undercooked it. That feeling is the plan working.
Session two, two or three days later: normal weights, full volume but still be aware of the intensity.
Session three: normal. By the end of the week you're back and nothing hurts.
Three sessions in your first week home. Not five. No maximum lifts, no testing, no PBs. And don't skip the warm-up because you're keen — that's the session you need it most.
One more thing: try and get to bed at your normal time on the first night home, even on holiday hours. Sleep is what lets you tolerate load. Coming back on five hours' sleep with two weeks of tissue detraining is how people get hurt.
Don't wreck yourself. Do the week that gets you to September still training — and September is when the routine either takes hold for the autumn or it doesn't.
Come back deliberately. Start back smooth and build momentum.
If the thought of walking into a gym makes you wince, this is exactly who we built the place for. Book a free, no-obligation 15-minute chat with Jeremy or Beth at crossfitchiltern.com — no hard sell, and most of us hadn't trained in years when we started. We'll build a plan around your life, not a generic template.
