Train Wright: Mark Wright's trained with Tyson Fury, Pixie Lott & Jamie Redknapp - now it's your turn
- Published
Train Wright |
---|
Dates: 25-29 May |
Coverage: Watch all five 40-minute workouts streamed live on the BBC Sport website and mobile app. |
The living room is the new gym and Mark Wright is here to train with us.
From 25 to 29 May, he'll be bringing his Train Wright workouts to BBC Sport. These 40-minute workouts, for all fitness levels, will be streamed live on the BBC Sport website every morning at 09:00 BST and you'll be able to watch them back afterwards. No excuses then!
Since the UK went into lockdown and gyms shut their doors, lots of us are looking for new ways to keep fit while staying safe. Wright has been helping people do that by hosting daily workouts from his house, together with celebrity and sports guests like singer Pixie Lott, presenter Laura Whitmore, ex-footballer Jamie Redknapp and boxer Tyson Fury.
He had a 'comedians' week with Katherine Ryan and Keith Lemon, and a boxing-themed week, where Fury, Tony Bellew, Carl Froch and Charlie Edwards all joined from their houses.
"All of those boxers are current or former world champions, so that's so encouraging to me that they said 'yes' to being involved," Mark told BBC Sport.
About 6,000 people tuned in to work out with Tyson and Mark and hear them share stories - like the time, earlier this year, that they partied together with Steve Aoki in Vegas, after Fury's WBC heavyweight world title win. Fury, notably, convinced DJ Aoki to play his favourite tune, Sweet Caroline, on the decks for him.
Wright goes to see all of Fury's fights. "He'd just won the world title and he's getting mobbed, but he spotted me and climbed over three tables to hand me a beer. That's the kind of man he is," he said.
The 33-year-old explains that he came up with the idea for Train Wright (it's a good title) after spending the first couple of weeks of lockdown feeling a bit sluggish and demotivated.
After that, he decided to do something about it and roped in his celeb mates too. If you haven't seen Keith Lemon doing burpees in his hallway, wearing a tank top that has Bill Murray's face on, visit Wrighty's Instagram account now for a treat.
The range of guests is testament to the comprehensive approach to Wright's workouts. They're for everyone.
"Keith Lemon had never done exercise before," Mark explains. He adds: 'But he kept up with everything, to be fair."
Katherine Ryan told people to drink wine and train when she joined from her living room.
"Yeah, I can't really endorse that," Mark says.
Then there was boxing week, where he took on a bunch of world champs.
As well as boxing, Mark's a decent footballer. You might have seen him playing in the Soccer Aid England team - including in 2016 when he got man of the match.
He also played football semi-professionally for Southend United in his younger days, after having spent his youth career with West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
He says he had a chance to move into the Premier League when he was a teenager, but lacked the application with his fitness at the time.
"I was eating cheese-and-onion pasties before training," he says.
Either way, he says that the disappointment of missing out on that experience has served to motivate him to be a perfectionist in what he does now.
Keeping active is also just as important to him in terms of mental health, especially at the moment, and he admits he benefits a lot from "getting the endorphins going".