I Stopped Playing Guitar For 2 Weeks. Here's What It Taught Me About Fitness

I started playing guitar over 20 years ago.

You would think that after two decades I'd be pretty amazing at it.

I'm not.

I'm still pretty average.

But there was one period where I made a huge improvement in my playing.

In 2020, when COVID changed pretty much everything, I decided I was going to play guitar

every single day.

And I actually did it.

Not for a week.

Not for a month.

For four years straight.

I played every day.

Sometimes it was 20 minutes.

Sometimes it was an hour.

And sometimes it was simply finding whatever time I could squeeze into an otherwise busy day.

When I was working as a medic in the oil fields, I even brought my guitar with me to the job

site. I'd sit in the MTC portion of the truck I was working in during the afternoon and play for

an hour or so.

It became a habit.

It wasn't something I had to think about.

I just did it.

Then the Jasper wildfire happened.

Everything changed very quickly.

I wasn't even sure where we would be sleeping after our shifts. We might be in a hotel. We

might be sleeping in the fire truck.

So when I headed out, I made the decision to leave my guitar at home.

I'll just play when I get back, I thought.

Two weeks later, I came home.

And I was convinced I was going to be terrible.

Four years of playing every single day, followed by two weeks of doing absolutely nothing?

Surely I'd have forgotten everything.

My fingers would be rusty.

My timing would be off.

I'd have to relearn songs I'd spent years practicing.

But something strange happened.

I remembered.

Pretty much everything.

Sure, I was a little rusty.

I missed a note here and there.

The first few sessions weren't perfect.

But it didn't take long before I felt like I was right back where I had been.

And that's when I started thinking about how much this applies to exercise.

Building Fitness Is Different From Maintaining Fitness

One of the biggest misconceptions I see in fitness is that once you reach your goal, you

have to continue doing exactly the same amount of work forever to keep it.

That's not necessarily true.

Building something and maintaining something are two different processes.

Think about it.

If you've never lifted weights before and you want to become significantly stronger, you're going to need to train consistently.

You need enough stimulus to force your body to adapt.

You progressively increase the challenge.

You build muscle.

You improve your technique.

You improve your work capacity.

You become stronger.

But eventually, you reach a point where you're happy with your strength.

Now your goal changes.

You're no longer trying to build as much as possible.

You're trying to keep what you've earned.

And that can require less training.

This Is Where Life Gets Involved

Let's say you've spent the last year training four days a week.

You're stronger.

You feel better.

You've built muscle.

You've improved your cardiovascular fitness.

You've developed a routine.

Then summer arrives.

You take a vacation.

The kids have activities.

Work gets crazy.

Maybe you have to travel.

Suddenly, four workouts a week aren't realistic.

So what happens?

A lot of people think:

"Well, I can't do four workouts, so I might as well do nothing."

That's the mistake.

Going from four workouts to one workout isn't failure.

Going from four workouts to zero because you can't maintain the perfect schedule is where

the problem begins.

Your circumstances have changed.

So your training needs to change too.

Something Is Better Than Nothing

This is one of the most important lessons I've learned as a coach.

Your training doesn't have to look the same every week.

There will be periods where you can train four or five times.

There will be periods where three workouts is realistic.

There will be weeks where you can only squeeze in one.

And there may even be periods where your training has to take a back seat completely.

That's life.

The goal isn't to avoid those periods.

The goal is to know how to navigate them.

If you're used to doing four strength workouts every week and suddenly only have time for

one, that one workout can still be valuable.

You may not make the same progress you would with four sessions.

But you can still provide your body with a training stimulus.

And more importantly, you're maintaining the habit.

You're reminding yourself:

"I'm still someone who takes care of my body."

You Don't Start From Zero

This is the part I wish more people understood.

Taking some time away from training doesn't erase everything you've accomplished.

If you've spent years building strength, endurance, coordination, and movement skills, those

don't simply disappear because you missed a couple of weeks.

You may lose some fitness.

You may feel rusty.

Your first workout back might feel harder than usual.

But you aren't starting over.

You're starting from the foundation you already built.

That's exactly what happened with my guitar playing.

Four years of daily practice created a skill.

Two weeks away didn't erase four years of learning.

I just needed a little time to get back into the rhythm.

Exercise can be very similar.

The Problem With the "All or Nothing" Mentality

This is why I don't like the idea of being "on" or "off" your fitness plan.

You're not on a diet.

You're not completing a 90-day challenge.

You're building a lifestyle.

And lifestyles have busy seasons.

Instead of asking:

"Can I follow my program perfectly?"

Ask:

"What's the most I can realistically do right now?"

Maybe it's four workouts.

Great.

Maybe it's three.

Still great.

Maybe it's one.

Do it.

Maybe you can only go for a 20-minute walk.

That's still movement.

The goal is to keep the wheels turning.

Build It First. Maintain It Later.

There's another important distinction here.

If you're currently trying to build something, don't use maintenance as an excuse to undertrain.

If you want to get stronger, build muscle, improve your cardiovascular fitness, or learn a new skill, you need enough practice and training to create adaptation.

But once you've built that foundation, you don't necessarily need to keep pushing at the same volume forever.

Your training can ebb and flow.

You can have periods of pushing your limits followed by periods of maintaining what you've built.

That's a much more realistic approach for busy parents.

What This Means For You

If you've been training consistently and life suddenly gets busy, don't panic.

Don't tell yourself:

"I've fallen off."

You haven't.

You just entered a different season.

If four workouts aren't realistic, do two.

If two aren't realistic, do one.

If you can't get to the gym, go for a walk.

If you can't do your full workout, do a shorter version.

Keep doing something.

Then, when life settles down again, you can gradually increase your training.

Just like I did with my guitar.

I didn't have to relearn 20 years of playing.

I just had to pick it back up.

Fitness Is a Long Game

This is ultimately why I don't want my clients chasing short-term transformations.

I want you to build something that you can maintain.

Because the goal isn't to be in amazing shape for 90 days.

The goal is to still be strong, mobile, capable, and healthy decades from now.

There will be good months.

There will be bad months.

There will be vacations.

There will be injuries.

There will be busy seasons.

There will be times when you can train five days a week and times when one workout is all

you can manage.

That's okay.

Don't throw away years of progress because you can't maintain your ideal schedule for a few weeks.

Adjust.

Maintain what you can.

And when life gives you more room, build again.

Because fitness isn't something you achieve once.

It's something you keep coming back to.

Just like my guitar.

And after four years of playing every single day, I learned something important:

Sometimes you don't realize how much you've built until you step away and discover it's still there.