How to Take Time Off the Gym Without Losing Progress

Time away from the gym is a part of life, even for the most dedicated athletes. Whether it is a summer vacation, a family wedding, work travel, or just a change of routine, it is normal to have to step outside of the structure of your regular training. But, time away doesn’t have to mean all progress is lost.

Continuing from my last post on the HWPO Training blog - Making It Count: How to Prioritize Training When Time and Energy Are Tight and a recent podcast episode I did with HWPO Training Coach Jake Marconi, I think it is worth exploring how you can step away from your training program without falling too far off, and even find small ways to keep inching forward in your fitness journey. 

The following are three recommendations I push to anyone, regardless of ability, when it comes to navigating time away from the gym:

1. Know the context: evaluate your current training goals

Not every trip or break lands at the same point in your training journey. If you are approaching a major competition or peaking in a training cycle, you may benefit from handling time away with a little more structure or urgency. On the other hand, if you are in a more general phase of training, either between specific training goals or just in a season of aiming for general fitness without a defined target in mind, it is okay to let yourself truly step back without many bounds at all.

Asking yourself the following questions can be helpful:

• Do I have any competitions or other tests of fitness coming up that are important to me?
• Am I in a phase of my training that requires precision, or one that allows flexibility?
• Could this break be a chance to reset mentally or physically?

By understanding the season you are in, you can align your expectations and take pressure off questions like “should I train today on vacation or just relax?” 

To a question like this, there is truly no wrong answer, it all just depends on your current goals. Someone trying to maximize competition results within a month from taking a week off of their normal training schedule might need to figure out ways to preserve their fitness while out of their routine, perhaps by seeking out extra workouts or healthy nutritional options, more so than someone who is in more of a “building phase,” far away from any important personal tests of fitness. 

2. Fight for inches (even when the environment is not perfect)

My coworker and fellow HWPO Training Coach Steven Fawcett often uses the phrase “fight for inches” when it comes to making progress. That mindset can apply perfectly to time away. No gym? No problem. Limited equipment? Totally fine. Stuck in an all-inclusive resort full of buffet temptations? Still workable. 

Fighting for inches means controlling what you can. With training on vacation, this might look like getting in a 20-minute bodyweight workout, walking after meals, or jogging. 

Outside of workouts, this could mean prioritizing drinking enough water, sleeping enough, or even just making one good meal choice a day, as opposed to aiming for perfection. It is likely that even if you are in a place where you are far from the pressures of an upcoming competition, you can benefit from taking this mentality when you are on a break from the gym.

Most people do not need to maintain peak fitness on the road, but anyone can still try to maintain momentum in specific areas. This might not look like a normal week of structured training, but it might mean SHOWING UP for yourself once a day in a small, deliberate way. Over the course of your time out of the gym, this can add up to an easier transition back into your normal training approach. The idea is to “fight for inches” in a way that aligns with your current training goals, even when you know the situation you are in is not perfectly conducive to being the healthiest or fittest version of yourself possible.

3. Make a return plan: come back with intention, not Intensity

One of the biggest traps athletes fall into after time away is trying to pick up exactly where they left off, or even trying to “make up for lost time” by pushing themselves harder than they normally would to “atone” for the time away. This approach can lead to soreness that kills motivation, frustration from not matching how you performed previously, burnout, and even injury.

What is often more effective is to have a plan for what your return to training looks like once back from your time away. For many people, this can be as simple as dialing down intensity and volume by reducing total reps, skipping the max effort lifts, and cutting metcon volume down 25–40% for the first week back. As a specific example, an athlete on the normal HWPO Pro or HWPO Flagship track might benefit by returning to a week on the Time Limited or 60 track after some time off, respectively, before jumping back into their normal volume.

It is important to prioritize movement quality over intensity when coming back into the gym after a break. It can be helpful to use this time to reset positions, re-establish rhythm, and ease back into consistency. If possible, try to avoid any arbitrary “tests” to gauge how you are performing in your first days back; there is hardly ever a need to “prove” to yourself that you did not lose any fitness. Athletes will usually feel like their “old selves” after only a couple of weeks back to the grind. 

Remember: consistency almost always beats intensity over time. The goal should not be to crush your first day back, but rather to start stacking together good days as soon as you are back into your normal routine.

Final thoughts

Time away from the gym does not need to be stressful. With the right mindset and with a bit of planning, time away can actually become part of your long-term success. Training is not about always being “on,” but rather about having as many productive days as possible, with recognition that not every day will be perfect. For a lot of people, it is entirely possible that time away from training will allow for higher levels of intensity when you are in the gym, which ultimately drives progress. 

So, if you are taking a vacation or taking some time away from the gym, embrace it. 

Remember what your goals are, move when you can, and try to fight for inches when it makes sense to. 

When it is time to come back, try to come back intentionally. For ninety-nine per cent of people, training should be something that makes life better, not something that restricts it, so be sure you WORK HARD when it is time to work hard, but also that you relax when it comes time to relax, too.