Javier Menéndez, coach: “In-person exercise has very good things but people get distracted”

And Javier Menéndez is living a very sweet moment. Entrena Virtual, which was born in 2020 and is a space to receive nutritional help and training that you can access whenever and wherever you want, has just opened its psychology consultation, the “leg” it was missing to, now, be a complete center that ensures the health of its clients. And he has launched EVFEST with his wife Vikika Costa, an experience that covers different self-care topics. More than 60 people attended the in-person event, offered at the Thompson Hotel in Madrid, but many followed the festival online thanks to their subscription.

-When did your relationship with sports begin?

Since I was very little because my father was a professional soccer player and sport has always been present in my house. On weekends I would go play sports with him, and whenever I had the chance we would train together.

-And the gym, when did you first step into it?

I started when I was 16 or 17 years old, with the widespread intention of becoming stronger than vinegar and without paying attention to anyone, lifting a lot of weight unconsciously and poorly, like all young people. Later, thanks to the help of my father and his club, Real Madrid, I trained in the United States and took a sports adaptation course, which is what I like the most: that people do things well, that they recover muscularly, work on any type of injury…

My friend Dani Carvajal has had a major injury and I enjoy helping him reactivate all the fibers, all the muscles, all the ligaments, and that is the most important career he is going to have and he is going to achieve it.

-Judging by the class we just did, what we don’t seem to know how to do is breathe.

In Entrena Virtual I put a lot of emphasis on the importance of activating, breathing, executing movements well… because then everything else comes on its own. As for breathing, when you don’t breathe and you perform a sport or train more strength, you work without oxygen. We do not bring oxygen to the body, the body enters a moment of saving your life, of saying ‘I need oxygen’, then your body activates that yawn to bring oxygen. It’s not because you’re sleepy, but because you need more air.

– Going back to 2020, Entrena Virtual was born

Yes, it was ‘cooking’ before because Vikika and I were talking about how to help others beyond nutrition, which was something that she already had very much under control, and when we saw that they were asking us for training videos, we launched into it.

– Why online and not in person?

We wanted to bring our knowledge to a gym where everyone had access. In the end, people from around the world come to the physical gym and we had a very large number of people from all over the world, so in the pandemic, despite everything bad, that education came that has led us all to understand that in You can train at home and from anywhere in the world where we are.

– At that time, very few trained at home…

Before, there was no culture of training at home, although many people did. The guild updated quickly to be able to help all those people but I think we had a point because what we earn we reinvest in the technology we have today. During the pandemic there were many bad things but also good things. We closed two physical gyms in which we had invested a lot of money and we lost it, but in exchange came Entrena Virtual.

Why continue with online and not in-person training?

For a simple reason: to make things easier. We go like a motorcycle, we don’t have time for anything, it’s hard for us to move from place to place, it’s time you lose and for me time is life… Train Virtual respects your schedules because you can do it in your office if you want, at home, no. You have to move… I think that virtue is one of the things that would stand out the most about training virtually.

– In-person limits us…

In-person training has very good things: you see people and touch people but people get distracted. The ideal would be to combine it.

– How many hours do you train a week?

I train less than people think [risas]. I train my six hours that appear in Entrena Virtual, exactly what you see. I don’t train more because I don’t need more. And the weight I gain is what I need. I could do the class lifting 5 kilos but it is not the weight that I use so I do a workout for myself and everyone who uses the weight they need.

– You seem very animated in classes… what feedback do you receive?

I am not exaggerating if I say that I receive more than 200 messages a day, but not only because of the help that the training provides; There are those who write to me that thanks to us they are overcoming a death or a breakup, people with different cancers who watch our training… These stories are what motivate me: it motivates me to come here and see you and see that you have learned something, that I have been able to correct your postures…

– So many years of training have to be felt physically and mentally, right?

I am another person. When I don’t train, my wife says it: ‘you’re a different person.’ For example, on Sundays, when I don’t usually train, it shows… [risas].

When my parents separated, when I was a teenager, I took refuge in sports. Strength training has always helped me. It was my escape and my help totally.

– Have weight and times ever mattered to you?

They proposed the Spartan Race to us many years ago, like doing the tour through Spain, I already liked it a lot on a personal motivation level, but do you know what happens? I don’t want to compete with anyone. I don’t have the need to go somewhere to see what times I do to compete more or be better. I think I worked a lot on that with the psychologist, proposing to compete with myself.

– And Hyrox? It’s booming…

I like Hyrox a lot and years ago, when they arrived in Spain, they came for us, so that we could be ambassadors. I knew they were going to hit it but it is also true that people get motivated, they go to do it and then they get injured… Do it when your body is aware of the work that needs to be done. Hyeox is very motivating but first work on yourself and then go, ‘have a great time’ and enjoy with friends.

– How has your nutrition changed?

When I met Vikika I had a lot of stomach problems and today I have colon irritation from not having taken care of myself before, and I started receiving help from her team and they changed my life. And my diet is not strict at all, which is one of the things they taught me. People think that when you diet you just have to eat chicken breast and lettuce, but there are many more options.

– With the energy you have at 5 am, do you eat breakfast?

Every day, and I have a lot of breakfast. Many people tell me that their most important meal is dinner, but I like to have a small dinner because the body is going to rest. In general terms, I take great care of my diet but, hey, when I go to my friend Dabiz Muñoz’s house and he prepares me a paella that I put warm and nothing happens. It is important to indulge yourself because otherwise we live in a prison.

– The leg that Entrena Virtual is missing, which was psychology, already has it

Taking into account everything that a psychologist helped me in the past, I met with Vikika and the nutritionists to talk about all the eating disorders there are, and I proposed helping those people.

We do things to help people and we started with one psychologist but there are now six.

-And where are you going?

We grow with small grains, because quality is the most important thing. When you go to something massive it is very difficult, especially with nutrition and psychology. You cannot do something massive that you think is suitable for everyone in psychology and nutrition because if they sell you a brutal change in any of these branches, they are lying to you.

You are a person, you sleep in a way, you breathe in a way, you take things in a way, so when a colleague sells something like that I tell myself: you can’t put 30 euros a year into training and nutrition because you are lying in the process of dealing with each case. It is impossible to customize something for that price.