Right now, Thierry Henry is away from home, working as an analyst for FOX at this summer’s World Cup. But despite his work commitments, the legendary goalscorer won’t be letting any of his fitness goals slip.
When Men’s Health chatted to Henry, he was waiting for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to finish his breakfast so the pair could go and train together. He used the brief gap in his schedule to discuss why athletes need pain – and reveal the workout Micah Richards still hasn’t recovered from.
Men's Health: While you’re away from home at the World Cup how easy is it to stay fit in hotel gyms?
Thierry Henry: Very easy. First and foremost, you don't need a hotel gym. You can always do a session in your room, but it's better to go to the hotel gym, right? It's a mindset. If you want to work out, it doesn't matter what comes your way – if you're tired, jet-lagged or whatever. That's why I say it's easy. You can always say to yourself, ‘I'm jet-lagged’, ‘I just arrived’, ‘I didn't sleep’, ‘I didn't eat’, or you can do it.
MH: Did you workout this morning? What do your workouts typically consist of?
TH: I was actually waiting for Zlatan Ibrahimovic because he eats before he works out, and I don't. He wanted to work out with me, so we're going to do it together, but I like to rotate and work on every part of my body – HIIT sessions, cardio, CrossFit or sometimes I will walk and run on incline. It depends on my mood and what part of my body I need to work on. I don't have a specific thing that I do.
MH: Do you have a fallback option, so if you can't do anything, you'll do push-ups in your room or something like that?
TH: My fallback thing is active abs, or I will have an isometric session. That would be for when I’m feeling kind of lazy, and I don't want to jump everywhere. By the way, it's not easy, because it’s holding a pose for more than a minute, without any recovery, for an hour. But that's my go-to, because I don't have to move so much.
MH: Do you often work out with people, like working out with Zlatan today?
TH: Zlatan is a beast. I'm sure you've seen him, he's a beast – power, sheer power, I don't think we're going to work together, but we wanted to go to the gym together. I work out a lot with [my wife] Andrea [Rajačić]. She does everything that I do, but usually when people come and work out with me, they don't come back. You need to pass that mark of pain, once you pass it, you're in. She doesn't have superpowers, but she just passed the pain mark, and then after it becomes a habit. Repetition creates habits. Your body can take whatever you give it. If you give your body laziness, you will love laziness. Whatever you give to your body, it will absorb it and do it.
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MH: If I worked out with you, what would be that first session to push me into that zone?
TH: Well, first and foremost, if you come and work out with me, I'll take the hardest session ever to see where you're at, but I have to give you pain first. It's you versus you at the end of the day. I always say, you're not competing with me, you're not competing with the workout, just try to do the best you can. Let's say you do 50 seconds work and 10 seconds recovery, you can do in 2 push-ups in those 50 seconds or you can do 20. It depends on where you want to push your mind and how far you want to go. Only you know if you could push or not. If you're lying, you're lying to yourself, not to me. It won’t change my life.
MH: I feel like I’ve seen you working out with Micah and putting him through that kind of session. Has that happened?
TH: Micah came twice and it took him at least two years to come back. He came the other day, and it was a strong ab session for 50 minutes – 50 seconds work and 10 seconds recovery for 50 minutes. I'm still waiting for him to come back.
MH: 50 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 50 minutes sounds intense.
TH: Well, it depends if your comfort zone is hell, and it depends where are you [at]. But if you saw me, when I started doing that, you would have laughed: I was shaking, I couldn't do it. Once you pass the pain barrier, it becomes a habit. Is it easy? No, it is not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy.
MH: Is this a carry-on from your career? Did you reach the levels that you reached by being able to endure that level of pain?
TH: I always say that when you're an athlete, you have to love pain. It's in the manual – at one point, page two, we have to talk about pain, and that's how it is. Whether you pass over it, or you cope with it, or you don't feel it anymore, but the pain barrier should not be something that's going to stop you. That's how I grew up. I'm not an athlete anymore, it's just a way of living. If I don't work out, I'm not well, I need it, it's not so much about performance, it's just I need to do it. It's not about looking good. It's about feeling good and the feeling that you have when you're done.
Thierry Henry’s Abs Workout
The Arsenal legends abs session won’t be over quickly, but thankfully the results will last.
Take an isometric hold, such as a plank, and for the next 50 minutes, cycle between 50 seconds on and 10 seconds off. That's it.
On Henry's intense core routine MH Fitness Director Andrew Tracey says:
'Fifty seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest for a full 50 minutes is no joke. For building strength endurance and mental toughness, performing one movement, repeatedly, over this timeframe will do the trick. However the law of diminishing returns applies, and picking the wrong movement could turn this into exercise in junk volume and sloppy reps. Henry's recommendation of an isometric hold, such as a plank, checks out though – just keep the intensity high and squeeze throughout the entirety of each 50-second window'.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
Daniel is Men’s Health UK’s Features Editor. He’s a writer and editor with a decade’s worth of experience covering health, fitness, tech and sports. In his time at Men’s Health, he’s written about everything from Black men's mental health to The Rock's cheat days and has logged training time with NFL footballers, Olympic gymnasts and the British Army. In his spare time he enjoys fitness of all kinds, from deadlifts to long runs, and is always on the lookout for his next challenge.
