In the United Kingdom the worst thing that we can do to somebody to punish them is to
put them in prison, the worst punishment you can receive in prison is to be put into isolation
and what we're suggesting is go home, isolate, be in a room in your own and do
press-ups that's now what we're suggesting is an alternative to what is usually the
the best way for you to benefit your physical and mental health.
Alright, we're recording? Welcome to this week's episode of Modern Masculinity.
I'm Iman Amrani, I'm a journalist at the Guardian and this series is focusing on looking at some of the questions
around men's mental health, especially in the shadow of coronavirus.
So this week's episode is looking specifically at mental fitness and how that aligns with physical fitness.
We all know when we're going through a hard time that the first thing people often recommend trying
is exercise so exercise and fitness directly affects people's behaviour, their mood and it can
make people feel a lot better so I've been in two different places in the country, two very different
places, I've been to Hackney to speak to people at Hackney Wick FC, a semi-professional football club
and have also been to Liverpool to speak to Nick who was really integral in the campaign fighting
to keep gyms open whatever tier we are in.
Even though we're doing something about mental health, it isn't what every week going to be.
Heart-wrenching and hopefully this week nobody cries.
A few days before the second national lockdown, Bobby, the founder of Hackney Wick FC invited
us to their last training session to talk about how they have been affected.
The football club started five years ago, I started it after spending eight years in prison.
There was no ... football club in the borough of Hackney, so I thought I'll create a
platform for the local use of this area to give them that sort of basis to play up at a higher level.
With like covid and lockdowns and things like that, do you think that this is providing a
bit of, I guess, a support network for some guys, a bit of normality and things like that?
Yes, 100%, especially after the first lockdown, everybody couldn't wait to sort of get out together and
meet again and just be have our physical well-being because being stuck inside of
the home all the time, it kind of, for me personally, it kind of reminded me of prison now because I
want to go into another month for lockdown not knowing whether or not after a lot now we'll
be back playing football again but these are the sort of things that can send people over the edge.
So he's not here, so you're just looking at me.
That's cool, that works out.
Are we alright? Good to go? What kind of impact would you say, like,
covid and the past eight months have had on your lifestyle and the way that you're feeling?
At first, it was quite nice because it was just nice to get some time off to relax then obviously you got made
redundant so now I've just been sort of trying to get back on my feet, trying to find work which is
very difficult during this time.
I mean, it caused big disruption towards my a levels, then uni came
and now we're going to another lockdown ... Just kind of, I wasn't able to settle in into education
properly and with football, I feel like football was one of the only ways where I could just
have fun in my day-to-day life.
And do you feel like you've got people you can rely on?
Sometimes yeah, definitely.
Does football provide you with that? — Yeah, it provides
with a bit more of a sense of security, I guess. You've already got a bit of energy around and
everyone's happy from that, so you just go home sort of holding on to that a little bit, yeah,
and then obviously everything else just comes out crashing down a little bit later, aren't they?
I said to have some sort of role models within my area that did help me.
Maybe all the cousins were like friends jen from the air maybe like three four years older than me
that the but the main thing they did say is like, stay focused with your football because
that just keeps you distracted and keeps you focused.
In October, there was some really sad news that came when 17-year-old Jeremy Whiston,
who was a Manchester City Academy player was
released and subsequently took his own life and it started a whole conversation around how to offer
support for young men and prevent them from being in such vulnerable positions, I thought it would be
important whilst I was at Hackney FC to speak to some of the young players there who have also been
released from professional clubs about how they're getting on and what support is available for them.
So there'll be days where I feel like I've got nothing left now, like, what am I gonna do now?
Because I didn't have that support for someone to tell me no it's fine keep going keep pushing
and I almost went through a mental breakdown, like, and I had no one there
to help me.
All my friends knew me as that, you know, that Crystal Palace footballer,
I was living life, I was enjoying it and then to get released I was kind of embarrassed,
I kind of, it took me a while to kind of open up and tell everyone I got released.
When I look back at it, it's hard to think about because being in that spotlight it gave me a bit of confidence
to come out and talk to people and be able to say, oh yeah I'm enjoying myself,
I've got people to talk to but then after I was just like, OK, where's he gone? Like, where's he now?
What's he doing? Like, no one really knows what I'm doing now and I don't know myself so hopefully
I find myself in the next couple of months if corona ain't about.
As I started coming down into the semi-pro leagues i found like teams like Hackney Wick
and the staff round here kind of,
people I could like open up to tell my story to just getting advice from people and even from
people that don't play football, do other things because it's life skills.
They're not having this for the next four weeks, you reckon that'll be hard?
Yeah, it's gonna be very challenging ...
Probably more tough than I'm actually saying now.
Next month they might say, OK, it's just six months so I don't know what i'm going to do in that period
and that's going to be the same for a lot of people.
I just realised that I've always resorted back to football
with anything about stress to school, exams that they know that sport is a major thing that keeps
kids and children or even young adults, like, off the streets, I should say, or keeps them doing
something productive with their lives so when you take that away, I don't really know what to expect,
a lot of kids and people to do.
For you to lose your job, all this stuff how would you do to, like, feel good?
I tried to make other people happy. — And how do you do that?
I don't know you have to be around me to see, I guess.
So during the lockdown, I went to go speak to a guy called Nick who owns an independent gym
in the North of England. He has been working really really, hard on a campaign
that got over 600.000 signatures asking for gyms to be seen as an essential service.
Apparently we can exercise outside.
So I wanted to talk to him about why he feels like this has been such an
important point for people and I wanted to speak to some of the guys that currently haven't been
able to go to his gym during lockdown about what impact it has had on them and their mental health.
Right, where are we going? And so he said to go down the side street. Is that side street?
Nick? He's like, he's seen us on the CCTV, he sent us a picture of us on the CCTV.
I feel like I'm getting watched all the time.
I think this is it.
I don't think we're allowed to go inside. Hello!
While fighting for gyms to stay open, Nick has also been giving away much of
the equipment from the gym for members to train with at home during lockdown.
As you can see almost our entire dumbbell rack's gone, this alone is seven eight nine maybe even £10,000
worth of equipment, all of our zed bars are gone, 20/25 barbells all gone out to members
and I stand around and see nobody here whatsoever it really does break my heart.
So the numbers kind of show that there's like a lot of kind of groundswell behind keeping the
gyms open and it seems it, like, hit a really kind of emotional nerve with a lot of people.
Why do you think that is?
I think it's such an emotional response because it's all that we've got left
in modern society, I mean, you look at the fact that, like, we don't have youth centres anymore,
we don't have social clubs anymore, we don't have royal british legions anymore, the only real respite
that people got, I've got, in today's society is the gym, you know? You're not only getting the physical
health benefits, you're getting the mental health benefits, you're getting the social health benefits
and this is the only place that people have got left where they can really get that release.
So that's why I think that it's generated such an emotional response and why it's spread so quickly
because everybody understands the importance of it.
And to those people that might say something like,
well, you know, you could do home workouts, you could like, there's lots of things available
online, if the focus is on, like, fitness and health, there are alternatives available.
Why would you argue the case for gyms?
You've got to remember that in the United Kingdom the worst
thing that we can do to somebody to punish them is to put them in prison and what we're suggesting is
go home, isolate, be in a room in your own and do press-ups.
Now in the UK that's the worst thing that we can do to somebody but that's now what we're suggesting
as an alternative to what is usually the best way for you to benefit
your physical and mental health.
So now, at the moment, obviously we're in lockdown, we're a couple weeks in, the gym is closed, right?
So people aren't coming here but, you know what, with the petition going on
and like, I hear there's not going to be a debate about it where are you at at the moment
and what are you thinking kind of looking forward?
So what we've been pushing for mostly is to have gyms counted as an essential service in
the same sense of our supermarkets are essential because they're essential to day-to-day life
and good health. Exercise alone can reduce the risk of depression by 30% and as we stand right
now the national depression rate is over double what it was last year, it sat at 9.6%
last year, we're at 19.2% at this at this moment right now, suicides are at an all-time high so ...
For me personally to take away what is a fundamental pillar to society's mental health in
a time when we are experiencing the darkest period of humanity in the last 50/60 years
is, you know, it's crazy.
So after speaking to Nick at the gym, we realised that it would be really
dead and boring to do an interview with Lee and William, two of the guys who go to Nick's gym in
the car park and as we aren't allowed to film in the gym because there is a lockdown, we decided to
go to the Liverpool docks to shoot we didn't get a filming permit so we get moved on halfway through
the interview but they say some really interesting things about what the gym means to them.
79 years old! What's your kind of background as well like, what is what does the gym mean to you?
It gives me a reason to get up in the morning and it gives me a better quality of life.
Apart from making me healthier and a much nicer person to speak to.
Otherwise, I get all ... whatever. — What do you mean 'whatever'?
What do you mean when you say that?
Well, you get a little ... when you get to my vintage if you haven't got an outlet for your aggression,
you start to get a little bit ... bad tempered for the people around you
and just kick the dog and stuff like that. — No, don't say that ...
You're joking, right? — I am joking, I ain't got a dog.
I think the perceived idea of a gym for people
who are not gym people is big muscular guys on steroids and all that sort of stuff but
it's just not like that, it's so that people keep fit, it's a social deal and and it gives you,
once you've finished exercising, you get a feeling of well-being and it's absolutely ...
I miss that now.
Lee is a veteran who has served in the army in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He suffers from chronic PTSD [Post-traumatic stress disorder].
Every single avenue I've gone down with treatments and so on, they've always
referred back to basically, coping techniques, gym is part of that massive jigsaw puzzle so you take
that part of it away and then literally I feel down and then I stopped taking my medication
and then next thing I'm nasty to me family, I isolate myself and it's horrible because I can
see it happening and that's a massive impact it's having not just on me but on my family because my
family can see it happening and then it's not until about three or four about a month later,
I realise, 'God what's going on here'.
It feels like there's a lot of optimism right? Saying that, you know,
after the second the gyms will be open and that, you know, things will things will be better.
What do you think will happen if maybe gyms aren't allowed to open or if they have to close again in
January when people are saying maybe there might have to be another lockdown?
It's going to be a massive snowball effect, OK? If lockdown goes on the way that it will,
the majority of people think, 'you know, I'll have a little drink tonight and before you know it,
it snowballs and people will come depending on the ale and then before you know it,
the gym has been replaced by drinking and then what's going to happen then?
Especially people in my situation, mental health issues,
it's going to be a slippery road and a snowball effect which is going to keep on rolling,
rolling and roll and roll. Do we have to move? — Yeah, OK, we are getting moved on.
Over the line, guys, we've got to get over the line.
Do you want to do it over here?
That looks good. — It does look good.
I didn't have the umbrella, we didn't have the umbrellas are we keeping the umbrellas?
It doesn't matter!
So what are you doing now then to replace the gym?
What I do now is ... watch the telly, do a little bit of exercise at home with light weights,
but you don't get the same mental stimulus, I try to do a brisk walk
but you can't seem to get the same push as you get down at the gym, when you're down
the gym the environment is such, it encourages you to achieve, to go that one step further on,
it does for me anyway.
I'm one them people who can't sit still for more than 10 minutes,
I don't give myself time to think, I don't like to give me time time to think and my worst nightmare
is sitting there with nothing to do and I find myself now more so than ever.
I finish work and I sit there and I'm like, itching, I'm itching because normally what i do is,
I've got routines, so I go to the gym, go get rid of all my stress from the day,
get rid of all the stress and all the worries, have my own little time, come back home
and then I'm a nicer bloke, I'm a nice chill bloke but now at the moment in time, what's happening?
I'm finishing work,
I'm coming home, I'm sitting there and I'm like, the kids say something or the kids do something,
the kids will do something ... I'm snapping because I'm stressed out because we build up attention from that day
and build up attention which normally used to get rid of. It's got nowhere to go.
There is such a focus on what's going on in politics at the moment that maybe we're not
taking the time to be able to acknowledge what's going on on a community level and
the fact that gyms and training will be allowed to continue regardless of what tier people are in
is in a large part down to the actors on the ground, the people who are really engaged
in communities and rallying people together and saying, look these things are essential,
they're important for people, they're important to give people something to motivate them,
to keep them going forwards, so yeah, I think that this episode has got a little bit more
optimistic than the last one. Hopefully we can move on that trajectory.
If you have any suggestions of stuff that you'd like us to talk about regarding mental health and masculinity,
please put a comment underneath or get at me on Twitter or Instagram - my handle is @imaniAmrani.
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