Lifestyle

Barry’s Bootcamp London co-founder Sandy Macaskill on his no-fuss wellness routine



For four years Sandy Macaskill covered elite sport for The Daily Telegraph and The New York Times, before partnering with his brother James to bring the high intensity workout brand Barry’s Bootcamp to London in 2013.

Since then, Macaskill has made his mark on the fitness industry training supermodels, A-list celebrities and Special Forces soldiers alongside fitness first-timers.

In addition to Barry’s, he’s an Elite trainer for Nike, a certified tennis coach, sub-aqua instructor and football coach and a contributor to a number of fitness and lifestyle publications.

But other than pounding the treads and embracing those Double Floor sessions, how does Macaskill take care of himself? We caught up with the fitness entrepreneur to find out a little more about his daily routine.

The first thing that usually happens to me in the morning is my 16-month old baby boy Leo clambering onto my head. I think my wife Erika enjoys using him as my alarm clock.

Once I’m up, I’ll drink a pint of water and make a coffee to have in the car on my way in to teach my 09:30 class at Barry’s. It’s mainly just because I like the routine of making a French press.

I love to work out, but the whole solitary gym thing… I found it so hard to stay motivated. My brother James and I brought Barry’s to the UK in 2013 because there literally wasn’t any other way to train like it in London. Barry’s gives me what I need: strength training and cardio on treadmills. I love sprinting, so I find it easy to do five classes a week.

My morning skincare routine takes five seconds. Water splashed on my face. No, actually, I sometimes nick some of my wife’s moisturiser, Kiehls I think, but I have no idea which one exactly.

I don’t really have a major morning routine but generally I get up and check my diary to see what I have going on that day. I make a point of not checking the night before. The irony of running a business is that the more we’ve grown as a company the less my time is my own. Meetings get created and I have to be there. So I see what the day has in store and then get my head around whatever I’m going to be up to while I have a shower. 

Lunch very much depends on where I am and what’s around me. I tried the whole prepping thing a while back, but eating cold food out of a plastic box made me stop enjoying eating. So now as much as I can I try and take time out to sit down and have a moment to savour food. That said, if it’s a day of meetings as often as not I have to grab something quick.

I’m not much of a snacker, though I love trail mix. 

Work wellness to me is more a constant lifestyle thing than specific techniques to stay calm. I just try to see the best in things, not take anything too seriously – easier said than done! I love my job, what I get to do every day, and my brother and I make sure we’re surrounded by people who share the same values. 

The evening meal is one of my favourite times of day. Firstly, we pretty much always eat as a family. We have a crazy house – my 17-year old stepson Guille, my other brother Rob, my wife’s cousin from Colombia who’s staying with us and helping with Leo, but we all sit down together to eat supper. We take it in turns to cook. It’s my time to zen out, especially on my fire pit in the garden. It’s never too rainy or cold to be out there.

I do drink alcohol. I fluctuate between a G&T phase and a whisky phase, depending on my mood, but red wine is a pretty standard accompaniment to my supper. 

My night time skincare routine is pretty radical. I splash water on my face. Bit like the morning really.

In case it wasn’t already obvious I’m not much of a routine guy, so my bedtime changes every day. There’s no specific thing I do. Running a business means occasionally having to make tough decisions and that stuff weighs on us. Sleep is usually the first thing that suffers. Audiobooks have come in handy because listening to something takes my mind off my own thoughts.

I’m a shower person. I bought some shower oil in Marrakesh recently and one bottle is for morning and one is evening. So to get the most out of them I’m having two showers a day. It’s a nice way to disconnect from work, coming home and showering then changing into something that’s not sportswear. I do love the occasional bath though. I had a hand-made hammered nickel one imported from Morocco and it’s like a piece of art. It’s huge too, you can almost swim in it, so when I do take a bath it’s in style!

The only supplement I take is protein powder. My brother and I have our own company, Hermosa, which is run by my wife and is designed specifically to be super clean and incredibly tasty. It has been our closest guarded secret at Barry’s in London since 2014. 

My biggest self-care extravagance is probably spray tans, though I don’t do enough. Who doesn’t love a good tan, but a) I live in London, b) I don’t really have time to sit about in the sun for long enough when it is sunny and c) let’s face it, it’s not great for your skin. Spray tan is the solution if it’s done well, and James Harknett at the W is the best in London.

Beyond a spray tan, my beauty routine if you can call it that is a haircut. My client, Cassandra who works out of Atherton Cox on New Cavendish Street, has been cutting my hair for around seven years. Another client of mine, Neda, runs Salon House near Holborn and everyone goes there for manis and pedis – though no one gets to touch my feet!

The most extreme thing I’ve ever done in the name of wellness is quitting my job, selling my car and spending all my money (okay, let’s be honest – my brother’s money) to set up Barry’s London in 2013.

I play a lot of sport, so injuries are a fact of life – especially when you play 5-a-side football every week. I get acupuncture pretty regularly. Dr Sol Abraham on Wimpole Street was recommended to me by David Beckham and is, as you’d expect, the man you want to see if you pick up a knock.

My approach to wellness hasn’t really changed over the years from the physical standpoint. I still do the same style workouts because I enjoy it and get results. But I definitely put greater store in the mental benefits than I ever used to. Being aware of that, and of how important a Barry’s class is to my overall wellbeing, has been a big change in approach.



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