Feeling good about himself in and out of sport has sometimes been a struggle for Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, but powerlifting has provided real benefits
Wednesday 25 July 2018 20:51, UK
When trips to the gym began to feel mundane, Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett knew it was time to step up his routine.
Now, just 18 months later, he's preparing to take part in an international powerlifting competition.
Aside from the clear fitness benefits, the strength sport is also providing a significant boost to Adrian's mental health - something he has often struggled with during turbulent times in his personal life, due to related stigmas.
With demanding roles in the sectors of business and politics in London, finding the time to balance his work with his fitness ambitions was proving problematic for Adrian. "I enjoyed going to the gym, but eventually I realised I need to have an objective," he tells Sky Sports.
"I know a couple of friends who do powerlifting, so I thought perhaps I could rejig my gym routine into some sort of tailored goal. I'm quite a competitive person, and just going to work out didn't mean very much to me. I can do it for a couple of hours and feel like I've not gone anywhere."
Getting into serious lifting, in his late 30s, proved to be less of a daunting challenge than it might sound. "Powerlifting is accessible to all, and that's one of the reasons why I got involved.
"Any trainer who's in the gym and who knows how the weight systems work can quite easily pick up a plan for you, and set you some goals and targets."
It's a sport rarely seen on TV screens, and many will be more familiar with Olympic weightlifting, with its two lifts - snatch, and clean and jerk.
"With a powerlifting competition, it's three different types of lift," explains Adrian. "Lifters have three attempts in each discipline - squat, bench press or deadlift. They can either participate in full powerlifting, using nine lifts to make a total; or lift in a 'single event', lifting just three times. Generally speaking, single lifters are specialists in their event.
"There are separate weight classes and age groups. Medals are awarded for lifting the most weight in each category, and there are also overall 'best lifters' trophies, based upon the amount lifted in proportion to body weight.
"With the right technique, anyone can do the three lifts. It's about learning how to build your body into the right process, and all the facilities are there at the gym."
From Friday, Adrian will be in action at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club, a short walk from east London's famously diverse Brick Lane. The club itself is widely recognised for its commitment to inclusivity in sport, making it an ideal venue for the competition itself - the second annual LGBT International Powerlifting Championships.
Last year's inaugural event was a big success, and with the sport absent from next month's Gay Games in Paris, it's an opportunity for athletes who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender to join together and compete, providing representation in the sport, and promoting inclusion. The driving forces behind the Championships are co-presidents Chris Morgan and Charlotte Wareing - both world champion lifters and world record holders.
For 2018, organisers have also made a pioneering commitment to truly make powerlifting a sport with no barriers to participation. For the first time in a world sporting event, there will be three gender classes - male, female, and Mx. Mx is an optional category offered to transgender, non-binary and intersex athletes, some of whom hold concerns related to competing in their gender identity. It's another way of ensuring inclusivity is integral to the Championships.
As for Adrian, his focus - aided by the regime and routine provided by powerlifting - has been challenging stigmas that are often seen as obstacles to participation in sport for gay men. "One of the issues within that stigma of mental health and being who you are is body image," he says. "If you don't fit a particular view of how you should look, it can create depression - the thought that you can't perhaps be who you think you ought to be."
Everyone thinks about body image, but a lot of people - especially men - don't talk about it, or mental health in general.
The onslaught of advertising in modern media, the Instagram craze, plus the subliminal effect of television programmes like 'Love Island', all play their part in reinforcing the ideals of body image. That affects a lot of men, but Adrian appreciates the level to which gay culture perpetuates the message of striving to achieve the perfect physique.
"You shouldn't have those images foisted upon you, but at the same time, you can't ignore the messages that society sends out," he says.
"Everyone thinks about body image, but a lot of people - especially men - don't talk about it, or their mental health in general. Gay men are a subset of that; many of them still live with a stigma of being who they are, especially if they're not out, or they aren't comfortable with that part of their identity. So the last thing they are going to then discuss is body image, and whether they fit the 'in' stereotype.
"If that's an issue for them, what they can do about it to help? Powerlifting has helped me to stabilise that feeling and work out how I can feel happier about myself."
Through Adrian's career in politics, he's become accustomed to addressing issues that are rarely spoken of. In the 2015 General Election, he stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Vauxhall and in the spirit of openness, revealed he was HIV positive - the first parliamentary candidate to do so.
In an often harrowing story, he described to BuzzFeed how a history of homophobic abuse which began in his Norfolk schooldays drove him to study so hard that it brought an onset of acute fibromyalgia, or chronic muscle pain. After recovering, he went to university in Kent and then moved to London where the freedom to finally be himself after years of repression encouraged him to explore his sexuality in increasingly risk-heavy situations. Eventually, at his lowest point, he contracted the virus - and his life changed again.
Now Adrian's one of more than 100,000 people in the UK living with HIV; he takes five pills a day, which he describes as "complicated". Sport has always been a constant in his life, but since learning of his positive status over a decade ago, there have been effects there too. He's a keen golfer, and being out on the course for long periods sometimes proved problematic.
"My combinations, when they were first found, were difficult for me to administer," he says. "I had lots of side effects, one of them being very irritable bowels, which is a real problem if you're on the sports field. That really put me off, thinking I've got a six-hour round of golf to play - how am I going to manage to enjoy the food arrangements in the morning, and then worry about going round 18 holes six hours later? That was a major problem when I first got diagnosed.
"Being through those issues, I can then see how other people with HIV might think 'I can't do this, because I'm going to feel embarrassed or get upset'. Naturally, it would put people off doing stuff.
"When you first get diagnosed, you have lots of questions. You wonder, are the tablets going to work? Do they have any side effects? Am I not going to feel able to go to the gym for an evening? So having that discussion with a doctor, saying you play football, for instance, and you want to know that exercise isn't going to make a difference, is really important.
"Actually, all those daily medication routines that people who are HIV positive go through, they simply become natural parts of their lives. But I think just making people aware that, if someone is HIV positive, they might need a few slightly different arrangements, or a bit more time to organise themselves, to make sure that they can fully participate like everyone else can, is a good thing."
Advances in treatment have made the virus much more manageable for those who know they are positive, but late diagnosis remains a major problem. As the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam has discussed this week, men aged 24 to 35 are still getting tested and treated at "unacceptably low rates". Those who are most at risk are men who have sex with men, and individuals of black African ethnicity.
Basketball legend Magic Johnson and double Olympic gold medal-winning diver Greg Louganis are two well-known athletes to have spoken openly about their HIV status; tennis great Arthur Ashe and British figure skater John Curry, another Olympic champion, were among the millions worldwide to have lost their lives to AIDS, both passing away in the mid 1990s. Yet despite improved knowledge of HIV and AIDS, a certain amount of stigma does still linger, particularly in the competitive arena of sport where individuals are discouraged from discussing anything that might put them at a perceived disadvantage.
"Having that openness to talk about it will then prevent anyone feeling they can't do sport, if they become HIV positive," says Adrian. "Sadly people still are becoming HIV positive, mostly at a young age, and that might then stop them from going into sport. I want to say it doesn't matter if you are, you can still do it, whatever your status.
"Talking about it means that it's not something secret, not something you have to hide. There have been some very famous athletes in the past who have been HIV positive, but they've only talked about it after they've finished their careers.
"Being HIV positive is one of those stigmas that exists even being within the LGBT community, let alone in the wider community. Therefore having people who are open about it, is a starting point; having people who are publicly open about it, is a second point; and then there's people within sport too."
Soon after the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships, Adrian will be heading to Paris to compete in the Gay Games - he's going to be out on the golf course, and also intends to play with friends from Soho FC in the football tournament (powerlifting will return to the Games at Hong Kong 2022). For someone who's HIV positive, travelling abroad can lead to increased stress due to difficulties in obtaining insurance but last month's introduction by Emerald Life of a new policy for those on medication is helping to put his mind at ease.
"It's a massive step forward," he says. "After 2004, I never used to buy travel insurance - you would have to answer loads of questions over the telephone to someone who had no idea who you were, and I felt quite uncomfortable about it.
"This new policy is inclusive of those who are HIV, on stable anti-viral medication and their viral load is undetectable. Having that reassurance of being able to travel without question or judgement makes it so much easier."
Adrian's focus, firstly, is on Bethnal Green and putting in his best powerlifting display this weekend; he's up for the challenge, having been well prepared by his power trainer Roger Hamilton-Smith, and also by Paul Rose, his trainer at SW Fitness in Covent Garden. Talking about what will be seen by many as weighty issues - body image, mental health, and being HIV positive - is not something that intimidates him either.
So why does he speak out so publicly? "The least I can do is try to help somebody else by sharing. I have an experience which is authentic, honest and, yes, maybe in places upsetting, and difficult to listen to - but I've managed to get through this, even though there have been a number of points when I possibly might not have been here.
"I believe things can change, particularly for young LGBT people going from school to teenage years, through to adult life. For example, so many of those consequences that we have now around mental health could all be put to rest if we had, say, LGBT+ inclusive sex education in schools.
"There's a consultation going on around that right now, and it's something I called for in 2015 when I did my 'coming out' story around being the first openly HIV-positive parliamentary candidate. It's a process that's fundamentally crucial, and in the long term, sport will be another area of society that will reap the benefits."
The LGBT International Powerlifting Championships 2018 take place at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club from Friday to Sunday.
