Joe Marler spent 17 years training, eating and recovering like a professional rugby player. Because he was one. Since retiring, the former England and Harlequins prop has had to work out what fitness looks like when it’s no longer quite literally his job.

The answer? Still pretty serious. The bodyweight may have come down, the 7,000-calorie days may be gone, and the need to be ‘big’ is a little harder to justify. But Marler says training still gives him clarity, structure and, perhaps most importantly, a clear head.

We caught up with him to talk post-rugby training, chasing numbers in the gym, changing his relationship with food, and taking on Vodafone’s 5G Plus Serve robot.

What does a training week look like for you now, post-rugby?

It has changed dramatically since retirement.

The four-to-six month window when I first retired I went, ‘Oh my God, I’ve spent the last 17 years training rugby and weights and fitness… my body needs a rest. Let’s do that.’

And then – a lot quicker than I thought it would, actually – the melted wheelie bin presented itself in the mirror, and it was me. And I was like, ‘Oh, I need to get back in the gym, I think.’

Obviously to stay healthy, but also for my mind. I had underestimated how much I needed the gym to keep me sane.

I now do three days on, one day off. I do push/pull/legs. And then occasionally I’ll throw in some big dog walks with the wife and kids, go play football with the boys, and Padl. Play a lot of Padl.

So that’s my training week. It usually starts in the morning, up at five, get to the gym half five, by 6.45 I’ve been n there like 90 minutes, feel great for the day and then crack on.

What sort of movements are in regular rotation in that push-pull-legs split?

I’ll never not do my bench, I’ll never not do my squat and I’ll never not do my RDLs. Don’t do deadlifts, I like my RDLs.

But I’m going through a bit of a bodybuilding-type phase at the minute. It’s a lot of hypertrophy. Then I’ll probably mix it up and go back to a bit more strength-based and concentrating on that, just because I loved it so much when I was playing.

It just makes you feel strong and makes you feel good.

Do you have any benchmarks in your lifts or training that you look to, to assess, ‘Okay, I’m where I want to be’?

I’d love to get back to my playing-day strength, but I’m also realistic that I’m a bit older now.

I’d love to get back to a 200kg bench. I’d love to get back to like a 250kg squat. But I’m also realistic that, as long as I’m shifting some tin and I can feel like I’m shifting some tin, that’s my expectation now.

Realism aside, do you chase those numbers?

Yeah, I have to chase something.

I’ve been sort of institutionalised for the last 17 years to chase a goal, whether that’s weekly, monthly, six months, every year. I was always chasing a goal of sorts.

To replace that feeling, and to stay on top of that, it’s, ‘Right, by the Christmas period, I want to be benching at least 180 for three’, and then working back from there and how I program that to get to that point.

Do you relate to training differently now, post-rugby?

I think I relate to it more as ‘this is for me’ than before.

Before, it was, ‘Oh, this is my job. I need to be strong. I need to hit that number for work.’ But now it’s like, ‘No, I want to hit that number for me.’

How about nutrition? How has that changed?

It took some reshaping. I retired and I was still eating like a rugby player, even though I wasn’t playing rugby.

When you end up tipping the scales at 135 kilos, you go, ‘I think I should work on what I’m eating now,’ because I’m not training as hard as I used to be and I don’t need to be eating that.

So my relationship with food has had to change a bit.

I still try and stick with everything in moderation. I’m not a monk. I’ll still enjoy the odd glass of red wine and some chocolate and some crisps. I’ll enjoy it all, but just not as much.

I’m not hitting the 6,000, 7,000 calories a day like I had to at rugby now.

What do you miss most from your playing days, and are you doing anything to try and cultivate those aspects on the other side?

It’s the team day-to-day.

Knowing that in the middle of winter, it’s crap, rain’s out, freezing, maybe you don’t feel good. But knowing that as soon as you drive in and arrive, you’re going to have fun at some point, whether it’s training together, or just going to work with a group of friends and a team environment where you go, ‘I know I’m going to have fun today.’

That day-to-day crack.

Trying to replicate that is so hard because it’s such a unique environment.

Every month I go and meet a load of the boys and we keep in touch to sort of keep that ticking over. We go play Padl together.

But also, on jobs that I end up doing, I try my hardest to try and get to know people a little bit and make it more of a team. Not in a forced way.

The jobs that I go on now, I just try my hardest to make a team environment and have fun doing that to replicate it.

What don’t you miss? What on the other side do you realise, ‘I can live a healthier, more fulfilling life now’?

I don’t miss my ears getting stuck to my pillowcase the morning after a game from being absolutely battered.

I don’t miss it taking three or four days for me to feel normal again, only to then start bashing each other again. I don’t miss those moments.

And I think most of the other stuff I sort of do miss a little bit, or I try and replicate in other walks of life for me.

I just think how lucky I was to do it. Rather than being sad that I don’t do it anymore.

You’ve been on some mad adventures over the last few years. What’s been the highlight so far?

My highlight so far? I’d say probably being sat round a table with Stephen Fry and Cat Burns, and them both teaching me all the different lingo for the LGBTQ+ community.

All the different things. My eyes were completely open, just sitting there listening to them two go back and forth about what a butch femme is, what a femme femme is, what a dom femme is, what a pillow princess was.

I was just sitting there like, ‘Wow. This is incredible. Such an education.’

And with a knight of the realm and an incredible singer, I was like, ‘This is wild. How have I got away with this? How have I wangled this one?’

I’m just embracing everything that comes at the minute while still trying to figure out what the next 30 or 40 years looks like.

What do you think is more menacing: standing across the court from Federer, or trying to return a 130mph serve from the Vodafone 5G+ Serve Robot?

I think the 5G+ Serve is definitely more intimidating, only because I think I’d be able to trash talk Federer a little bit, or at least attempt to get in his head, even though he’s like the coolest, smoothest guy going.

Whereas the robot seems to just give me a blank stare all the time. So it’s not intimidated by a lot.

Did you try and trash talk it?

Yeah. I won’t repeat what I said.

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