Great British Week of Sport: Well-being and Mental Health

This week it’s the Great British Week of Sport and today we are focussing on mental health and well-being.

Martyn Riley is a European Masters Gold medallist, an IWF Category 2 referee, and received the BWL Unsung Hero award in 2018. He has also previously been featured in Your Autism Magazine.

During lockdown Martyn looked after key worker children through his role in education, although that meant he couldn’t see his own family due to them being in a high-risk category.

While gyms were shut, he produced a home training video compilation series that span 100 volumes and featured 4107 entries from the weightlifting community.

Check out below for Martyn’s thoughts

Training from Home

“I found lockdown hard as not only could I not go to gym I couldn't see my children for 11 weeks as I was looking after other people's children.

“I kept busy by training hard from home. It helped a lot, as did my lockdown training at home volumes. It helped me to keep busy and also helped me that they were helping other people.”

Lockdown Lift-Off

“I also really enjoyed the Lockdown Lift-Off series and was proud to be the only one to win all 5 rounds as I had something to focus my mind on. It has really helped give me experience ahead of the online series which I know I’m definitely doing.

“My feeling is that the lockdown has made us appreciate what we have even more. I am so grateful to train back in the gym and have found that I am working harder than ever, as I really appreciate that we don’t know what's around the corner!”