It’s 11am, the day before kids return to primary school. Derval O’Rourke is back from a summer in West Cork with her family, and straight into interviews, corporate work, and prepping for nine straight days of reporting live on the RTÉ for the World Athletics Championships.
But you wouldn’t know it to look at her — on our Zoom call, she looks refreshed, calm, and is raring to go.
That’s because, for the first time in a long time, she took the summer off to spend time with her family and enjoy a break from work.
“I think it made a difference to the kids, but I know it definitely made a difference to me. I really enjoy being with them.”
She doesn’t share a lot about her children (10-year-old Dafne and six-year-old Archie) on social media, so her followers don’t get to see all the things they do as a family.
“We had lovely days at the beach, swimming in the sea, counting jellyfish, and having adventures, simple things that I get so much enjoyment from,” she says.
O’Rourke also took a trip up to Dublin with her daughter for the Oasis gig in Croke Park, “Yeah, I was one of those people,” she laughs. And she had some famous visitors too, like Sonia O’Sullivan, who spent a few days with O’Rourke and her family in West Cork.
“One day, Sonia swam 2km around Hare Island. I’m not a confident swimmer, so I paddleboarded beside her. I didn’t want anything to happen to her on my watch.”
Just because she wasn’t working during the summer doesn’t mean O’Rourke signed off on everything. She maintained her fitness routine, adapting it to her West Cork base.
“I try to do something every day wherever I am. It could go from lifting heavy weights in the gym to walking the dog in the woods.”
She pauses and flips the camera on her dog, panned out on the floor following a morning walk.
“In general, I’ll go to the gym maybe two or three times a week, whether it’s summer or not. But the thing is, I want to go to the gym, exercise is a real lifestyle thing for me.”
Exercise for you
As you would imagine of an Olympic athlete, she has a positive relationship with exercise. “I love movement. I love walking. I’m not great at jogging, so going for a jog is not my favourite thing to do, but I still know I need to do a certain amount of it for my heart health and cardio.
“I absolutely love weightlifting. Because of my background, I’ve never looked at exercise as drudgery or punishment — I need to go to the gym, the gym for me is like self-care.”
As a well-known voice of reason when it comes to fitness, O’Rourke says she’s getting a lot of messages from women saying they need to get back to a routine now as they “let stuff go during the summer”. But it shouldn’t be about beating yourself up, she says.
“Do the exercise because it’s good for you and it makes you feel good afterwards, and not because you feel bad because you didn’t do what you wanted to during the summer.”
She takes that pragmatic attitude into her nutrition, too.
“On holidays, I want to exercise but I also want to go for lunch and have lots of bread, a big salad, and a big glass of wine,” she says, smiling.
After retiring from athletics and years of eating a certain way to ensure she was at peak performance, she did a cookery course at Dublin School of Cookery in a bid to get “a bit of joy back into food”.
“I now have a rough idea of what I need to be eating to feel well, and I also know what I need to eat to be joyful and happy. And a lot of the time that’s like a lovely bit of blue cheese and some crackers and a glass of wine, but it’s not every day. It’s all about balance.”
Even though she says she’s conscious as she gets older that she needs to maintain muscle, she prioritises enjoying her food, saying, “I’m not going to eat plain chicken fillets”. She’ll refer to her cooking training and figure out a way to elevate the flavour of that chicken fillet. “I think food is one of those ways in which we can mind ourselves.”
Perfect doesn’t exist
For busy parents, O’Rourke knows all too well the pressures of meal times.
“I have two really fussy kids,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I make these lovely dinners, but they won’t touch them, so they end up eating very plain food. And I know people beat themselves up about what their kids eat or don’t eat. They feel guilty, and they feel bad, and they think they need to be doing everything perfectly. But perfect doesn’t exist.”
Instead of focusing on one meal at a time, she suggests looking at the whole week and seeing how much variety you can get into their meals over the seven days.
“There are so many different meals getting cooked here. The kids reject them all the time, but they’re always being exposed to stuff. And some days they surprise you, and eat something you didn’t think they would.”
When trying to structure the week’s meals, she starts with the protein, then the veg, and then the carbs. “And I nearly always give them something that’s a winner ingredient, like fried potatoes. I’m not going to give them three things that they don’t really like and torture them, because what’s the point?”
She is also a big believer in batch cooking, and can often be found making a huge batch of spaghetti bolognese “as if I’m feeding 100 kids”.
“It makes me feel really good to know that in the freezer there’s X amount of a dinner I know they will eat, all portioned up and ready to go. It makes life that bit easier.”
Making life easier is a big thing for O’Rourke, both in terms of food and exercise. That’s why she was so keen to develop the upcoming four-week September Reset programme for Feelgood, starting on September 12.
“For me, it’s always about making it easy for people to do something. I know everyone’s under a little bit of pressure, going back to the madness, so this is about giving them something they can do at home for 10 minutes every day. Exercise and movement should be accessible. This four-week programme shouldn’t feel difficult to start.”
O’Rourke explains that each exercise has options to make it easier or harder, depending on the person’s level. The programme has two full-body sessions: one focusing on arms and abs, and another on legs and abs.
“The idea is that those who are following along will repeat the sessions a few times in the week. And then by the end of the four weeks, they can stack the sessions on top of each other; if they do 10 minutes on arms, then they might do 10 minutes on legs, so that they get confident from doing it.”
“I think it’s very accessible, and I hope it’s enjoyable for people to follow along with me. I hope people feel encouraged and good after it, and they feel proud of themselves for doing something. Because it’s not easy to start moving when you haven’t been moving in a while.”
- Derval O’Rourke’s 10-minute, four-week fitness programme starts on Friday, September 12
Derval’s top tips
Dress for comfort: Wear something comfortable that you already own. Don’t feel you need to buy new workout clothes. If you don’t have runners, you can even exercise in bare feet. For women, a good sports bra can make a big difference.
Remove barriers: Make it as easy as possible to get started. Don’t let a lack of gear or feeling ‘not sporty’ hold you back.
Start with walking: Try to fit it into your lifestyle and, if possible, increase your pace a little as you go.
Begin with bodyweight exercises: Don’t try to do too much at once. Start with bodyweight exercises at home for a couple of weeks before adding weights or joining a gym.
Aim for consistency in small amounts: Instead of signing up for lots of classes, focus on doing small, consistent amounts of movement at home.
Use free resources: There are plenty of free resources online (like my four-week Feelgood programme) to help you get started.
Find accountability: Having a friend or group to check in with can help keep you motivated, whether it’s in person or via a WhatsApp group.
Build confidence at home: Get comfortable with your movements at home before investing in a gym membership.
Don’t be a hero: Start within your limits and gradually build up.
Enjoy the process: The most important thing is to do something and not to feel guilty if you miss a day. Just keep going.