Latest news with #KieranReilly
The Independent
21-04-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Five science-backed sleep tips to supercharge your fitness efforts
Sleep is arguably the most overlooked tenet of health and fitness there is. It also tends to be the one people are most reluctant to take steps to improve. Those on a health kick will happily compare workout plans, diets, supplements and shiny new recovery tools, pouring time and money into each category. Then they go home, watch TV into the early hours and wonder why they don't feel so good. Yet experts agree that your time between the sheets could be the key to unlocking untold benefits. 'It's free, but not everyone uses it,' Coros athlete and Scotland's first four-time Olympian Eilish McColgan tells me. 'It's probably the thing that's neglected the most, but it should be a key focus – that is when your body recovers.' 'Sleep is a massive thing for me, but it's something I neglected for a long time,' fellow Olympian, Red Bull athlete and BMX supremo Kieran Reilly adds. 'I thought it wasn't a big deal, and if I focused on everything else it would be fine. But [since fine-tuning my approach in 2022] the difference in my energy levels, recovery and performance has been massive.' The problem is, elite athletes don't live the same lives as the majority of people. For the rest of the world, sleep can't always be a priority, and the fabled (though scientifically dubious) eight hours per night reads more like fiction than aspiration. For those in this camp, for whom improving sleep quantity isn't an option, upping their sleep quality might be enough to enjoy some of the impressive benefits of an optimised kip – improved appetite regulation, focus, mood and immune function, to name a few. This is something the UK's best-known trainer, Joe Wicks, found as a father of four with frequent interruptions to his nightly resting efforts. 'The first thing to really prioritise, and I think a lot of people will resonate with this, is getting your sleep right,' he says. 'When you're sleeping well, the food and exercise side of things comes a little bit easier.' He said two changes have proved transformative to this; improving his sleep regularity, and investing in a Lumie alarm clock so he can leave his phone downstairs when bedtime rolls around. 'The truth is, if you remove the phone from your bedroom, you're way less likely to doom-scroll, to wake up in the night and check your phone or to lay in bed for an extra hour in the morning – it is the most important thing you can do,' he says. If you're in the market for some sleep tips to supercharge whatever slumber you are able to snag, read on. We've spoken to experts and raided the research to find the best actionable advice for doing just that. Sleep regularity As Wicks mentions, sleep regularity is key. This simply means attempting to establish consistent times at which you fall asleep and wake up. In fact, sleep regularity is now believed to be almost as important as sleep duration for our long-term health, with a 2023 consensus statement published in the Sleep Health journal highlighting its role in 'health, safety and performance'. However, the statement also concludes that 'when insufficient sleep is obtained during the week or work days, weekend or non-work day, catch-up sleep may be beneficial'. The reason sleep regularity is so important is because of your circadian rhythm – an intrinsic 24-hour body clock plugged into every cell and system in the body. Disrupting this rhythm with irregular sleep throws the body off balance, playing havoc with our internal systems and contributing to an increased risk of conditions such as fatigue, depression and heart disease. Be careful with food and caffeine timings Don't consume caffeine in the eight hours before you plan to sleep, and avoid eating at least two hours before heading to bed, The Sleep Scientist founder Dr Sophie Bostock advises. Caffeine's stimulatory effects are widely known, and most people will be able to work out why swerving it ahead of bedtime is a good idea. With food, Dr Bostock says eating sends signals to our body that it still has a job to do – namely, digesting – so it will struggle to access deep sleep in the hours afterward. Moderate phone use It was previously believed that exposure to bright light from phone screens before bed was derailing your slumber. While this probably doesn't help, recent research suggests it doesn't play as significant a role as many once thought. However, your phone is still standing between you and a solid night's kip. A 2024 theoretical review proposed that other tech-linked factors are also at play – its phrasing of 'bedtime procrastination' may strike uncomfortably close to home for some. 'Bright light and arousal do not seem to matter as much as how we manage our screen time in the evening,' it states. 'For some individuals and families, removing technology from bedrooms overnight could be a helpful way to prevent any possible impacts of technology use on sleep. However, restricting devices may not suit everyone, or for some families this could be difficult to implement. 'Technology is here to stay, and a harm minimisation approach is warranted – technology can be in the bedroom, but to avoid a negative impact on sleep it should not disturb you during the night [or be put on flight mode]. It should not be used later than the intended bedtime, and it should be used for less engaging activities like TV watching [before your set bedtime].' Use light to your advantage While phone light may not be as important as first thought, light in general remains vital for regulating your sleep. Consistent signalling is key to keeping your body operating smoothly, and for time-signalling, these signals are called zeitgebers or time-givers. Natural light, Dr Bostock says, is the most powerful zeitgeber at our disposal. For this reason, it's important to expose yourself to plenty of natural light shortly after waking wherever possible. Working in a well-lit area during the day will also help. Contrastingly, in the two hours before bed, turn down the lights in your home. This advice comes from a list of tips given to participants in a 2020 sleep study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, with a view to improving their sleep. Further featured advice includes the three points above, as well as keeping your bedroom quiet and cool, doing calm and positive activities before bed, 'trying to get so much sleep that you do not need an alarm clock to wake up', and learning a relaxation technique. This brings us nicely to our final point. This can be anything from meditation to journaling. You might even benefit from drafting up a quick action plan for the next day or a simple to-do list, Dr Bostock says. It's all about giving yourself a sense of control, she advises. 'Reflect on each thought, express it so it's not just churning around in your head, then move on.'
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
British BMX star Kieran Reilly out to give Newcastle another title to celebrate
British BMX rider Kieran Reilly is determined to follow in the footsteps of his beloved Newcastle and lift silverware at Saturday's inaugural Red Bull Featured event in Manchester. Reilly, who won Olympic silver in the BMX freestyle in Paris last July, had to miss the Magpies' Carabao Cup success over Liverpool at Wembley last month due to a training block in Costa Rica. The 23-year-old is no stranger to medals, having been crowned world and European champion in 2023, but has a different challenge on the horizon with Featured, a BMX competition in which 16 riders will perform major tricks without being penalised for a fall by judges. 'I was absolutely buzzing to see Newcastle win the cup. Massive for the city and a moment we've all dreamed of for so many years,' Reilly told the PA news agency. 'I managed to catch the game at the airport in Costa Rica as I've been training out here for Featured and I just couldn't believe it. Such a top performance from the boys. 'Let's hope that I can bring another title to Newcastle when I go to Featured in April.' There was little respite for Reilly after his second place at the Olympics, with focus quickly shifting to September's European BMX Championships, where he won gold. While the Gateshead rider feels he has been afforded 'more respect' since the Paris Games, what has not changed is his trademark mullet and his determination to inspire more children to pick up a bike, especially ahead of the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Reilly said: 'To be honest, I can't see us getting rid of it (the mullet) any time soon. I've typecast myself now. Everyone expects the hair out of the back of the helmet. 'We'll see if it holds on (for LA). 'The people in BMX love the sport and want it to grow. We understand how that happens and it is from targeting kids and the next generation. 'I went to a skate park, saw the older kids do a lot smaller trickers than what will happen at Featured and then I decided I wanted to do this. I hope we get that at Featured and, with the content that comes from it, kids will see it and hopefully they pick up a bike.' A key feature of BMX competition is consistency and avoiding mistakes, which is why Reilly is thrilled about the concept of Featured, with riders encouraged to go all out without fear of missing the mark. 'I have got some big plans,' Reilly revealed. 'I am pretty much going in with a list of tricks that I know will win the event. 'That kind of mentality I gained from Paris, where it is bittersweet when you don't go all in and don't get what you want, so this time I am laying it all out there.'
The Independent
04-03-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
I tried an Olympian's one-move workout and it hit my whole body in just 20 minutes
Whenever I interview elite athletes, I like to ask for their bread and butter workouts then take them for a spin. I know I'll never match their athletic prowess, but it's fun to see how they train and put their other-worldly fitness levels into perspective. Over years of doing this, one thing has become abundantly clear: simple is often best. Adam Peaty had me doing heavy back squats, Eilish McColgan set me 10 lots of 1km running intervals, and All Blacks performance coach Nic Gill told me to hit 'The Bronco Test' – a series of shuttle runs which turned my legs to lead inside five minutes. Chatting to BMX star and Olympic silver medallist Kieran Reilly, this trend rang true again. The Red Bull athlete's go-to session only contains one exercise and takes just 20 minutes, yet it was still able to leave me lying on the floor, lungs heaving, staring at the ceiling. Here's how I got on, and how you can try this surprisingly accessible workout for yourself. How to do Kieran Reilly's workout Complete 10 rounds of: 300m on the rowing machine Rest for one minute 'I have a bunch of workouts in the notes on my phone that I often retest,' Reilly tells me. ' Doing 10 rounds of a 300m row, with a minute's rest between each one, is one of them. 'In BMX competitions, runs are a minute long, and a 300m row usually takes between 57 seconds and a minute, so this workout helps me build my lactate threshold for that amount of time. And the rowing machine is one of the best things for building that lactate threshold because you're using so much of your body; your arms, your grip, your back, your quads.' In other words, Reilly is developing his body's ability to work at high intensities for one-minute spells. The benefits of this could be seen in his second run at the Paris Olympics, during which he fought through fatigue to land a massive trick in the final few seconds and secure a silver medal. 'I was going into the unknown in those final 15 seconds,' he says. 'I didn't know how it was going to feel before I did my biggest trick, so I needed that mentality of, 'I don't feel great, but I'm doing it either way'.' Tips for tackling Kieran Reilly's workout Consistency is key in this workout, with Reilly targeting a time of 57-60 seconds for each 300m interval. For the rest of us non-Olympians, a slightly slower goal might be more appropriate – if you hit a similar relative intensity, you can still reap the same rewards from the session. 'Aim for consistency and don't go out too hot on that first round,' says Reilly. 'After that first round you want to feel fairly fresh, rowing at what feels like an 80-90 per cent effort, then keep consistent times from there. The goal is to look at your average time, not your fastest or slowest, then work on bringing that down over time.' My experience trying an Olympian's one-move workout If there's one thing I've learned in my years of training, it's that the simpler a session looks, the more likely it is to hurt. As soon as Reilly laid down this particular gauntlet, I knew I was in for a hard time, so I settled into the saddle of a Concept2 rowing machine with some degree of trepidation. The first round went surprisingly smoothly. I did my best to stay composed, maintain decent technique, keep my breathing regular and hold a steady pace, and was rewarded with a Reilly-worthy 58-second finish. The second, third and even fourth round went off without a hitch too. I still felt in control and my brow was bone dry, although I couldn't help noticing my time slipping by about one second with each passing interval. It was during round five that the wheels came off. My Apple Watch flashed an aggressive orange as my heart rate rocketed, and I started to wince as the oxygen supply to my working muscles was outstripped by an ever-increasing demand. The minute of rest couldn't come soon enough, but when it finally arrived it passed me by in the blink of an eye. Things got worse in round seven – my slowest of the workout, taking 66 seconds. By this point, it felt like all strength had been sapped from my muscles, and trying to maintain my previous paces seemed an impossible task. With Reilly training to go all out for 60 seconds at a time, even on tired legs, I could see how this workout would be the perfect way to prepare. But in round eight, a mental switch flicked. Knowing there were only three rounds to go, my brain drew on some hitherto untapped energy source in an attempt to finish strong. My times started to travel in the right direction, first to 64 seconds, then 62, before finishing the final round in one-minute flat. After the last stroke, I keeled out of my seat and spent a good few seconds trying to find a comfortable position – my baggy old 10K t-shirt now drenched in sweat and a plume of steam erupting from my mouth with each deep breath. This isn't a workout I'll forget in a hurry. Would I do this workout again? Absolutely. It's simple, accessible and effective, taxing your whole body, heart and lungs in as little as 20 minutes. I also love how measurable the session is. Your times are there in black and white on the Concept2's no-frills monitor, so you can always revisit this workout at regular intervals to test your progress. As Reilly says, 'if you do hard things, hard things become easier.' For this reason, I'd recommend giving it a go, making sure to set target times for each round that suit your fitness level – something you can hit consistently at an eight or nine out of 10 effort level. I can't promise there's an Olympic silver medal at the end of it, but there's certainly a sweaty, fun workout to be had.
The Independent
12-02-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Olympic BMX star Kieran Reilly reveals the simple changes that transformed his performance and energy levels
When he was nine years old, a persistent Kieran Reilly persuaded his parents to buy him a BMX bike. It wound up being one of the best-used gifts ever given. Growing up, the now 23-year-old, would get home from school, grab his BMX and go straight to the skatepark opposite his parents' house in Gateshead. 'My parents loved it,' he laughs. 'There weren't many lads at the skatepark who wore a helmet, and if they did they wore black, so if my parents could look outside and see my white helmet then they knew I was fine.' Going pro was always the goal, but that dream appeared to be dead in the water when he left school. Would-be sponsors remained silent, so he committed to a three-year carpentry apprenticeship, but still spent every spare moment on his bike. Then, in 2020, Red Bull came calling. In the years since he's been crowned BMX freestyle European champion, world champion and earned silver at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, crediting much of his success to a series of changes he made to his workouts and lifestyle in 2022. Below, he reveals the nature of these tweaks, and how they took him from a talented athlete to the top of his sport. Time on the bike One thing has remained constant in Reilly's training: time on the bike, and lots of it. 'I usually ride five times a week,' he says. 'If you get in [to the skatepark] and there aren't many people there, you usually get your stuff done quickly, so that could be an hour and a half. If there's a bigger crew and you have a really good session that day, it could end up being three or four hours. 'It's a social thing too. You'll get into a session together where you take turns going in. There's no specific programme or anything like that, it's whatever you want to do that day, but if you want to be consistent for competition then a lot of it is repetition of tricks.' In BMX freestyle (park) competitions, riders have a couple of minute-long 'runs' to impress judges. Each run is scored out of 100 based on factors such as variety of tricks, number of tricks, height, creativity and originality. 'In the lead-up to a competition, I do a lot of 60-second competition runs; for fitness, but also for building confidence in doing certain tricks under fatigue,' says Reilly. 'Primarily, it's just repetition of tricks. You're trying to learn new things.' Stronger body, stronger performances In 2022, Reilly introduced something new to his training, which he says transformed his performance. 'I decided I needed to start going to the gym,' he says. 'I wasn't working on that side of my performance before. I thought just spending an extra hour on the bike was the same as going to the gym, but it's very much not.' His training method of choice was CrossFit – a class-based training method blending high-intensity workouts, conditioning, strength training, gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting. A quick search of his name on the CrossFit website shows he's incredibly good at it too, finishing in the top three per cent of entrants to the CrossFit Open (an annual, online global fitness competition with more than 340,000 participants last year). At ShireFit in Corby, he found an 'amazing community' who made going to the gym feel 'more like a hobby' than a chore, and he still does two or three classes each week alongside other gym work. This has had a direct impact on his performance, Reilly reckons. 'Joining the gym and starting to train went hand in hand with the best results I've ever had [in BMX competitions]. I work a lot on grip and quad endurance. It meant that in the final 30 seconds of a competition run, I wasn't fading out. I was still able to do big tricks.' He also found that packing on muscle protected his body from the falls he inevitably faced in his line of work. 'There have been a lot of crashes, and there will be a lot more, but my body is now better prepared for them,' he says. 'I now have quite a lot of muscle mass, and that definitely takes impact better than if I didn't. My body is created for impact at this point.' Kieran Reilly's go-to workout for an iron grip In 12 minutes, complete as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) of the sequence below: Ideally, you would perform this workout as written to achieve the desired stimulus – testing and developing your grip endurance. However, there are tweaks you can use to make it more accessible. For example, you can scale the weight of the power clean if 60kg feels too heavy, or use dumbbells instead of a barbell. If you don't have access to some of the equipment, the SkiErg can be substituted for any exercise machine or a 200m run. The toes-to-bar (a CrossFit staple which involves hanging from a pull-up bar and repeatedly bringing your toes up to touch it) can be swapped for V-ups. These changes won't work your grip, but they will serve up a 12-minute workout that tests your heart, lungs and core. If you do hard things, they become easier I always like asking elite athletes for their favourite workout, and I loved Reilly's response. He immediately whipped out his phone and started scrolling. 'I have a bunch in my notes that I always retest,' he says. 'You know what they say; if you do hard things, they become easier. I love the feeling of finishing a really hard workout for the first time, compared with retesting it for the 10th time. My score will have changed, but I can also recognise improvements I've made physically and mentally. That translates into life, and into riding. If I reach a hard spot with a trick, I know I have the ability to push past it.' The workout he settles on is the CrossFit-style circuit above, which is designed to test the grip. Completing six rounds or above in the 12 minutes given represents 'very good going', he says. 'Grip and quad endurance are the two most important things for me, physically,' Reilly explains. 'Grip is a big thing because of how much time you spend with your feet off the bike in a 60-second competition run. When you're doing tricks with your feet off the bike, you're gripping the bars incredibly tightly, so the risk rises as your grip tires. If you have good grip endurance, then by the end of the run you can still grip and control the bike well.' The world's most overlooked recovery tool You'll be happy to hear that Reilly's go-to recovery tool won't set you back thousands of pounds. In fact, it's free. ' Sleep is a massive thing for me, but it's something I neglected for a long time,' he says. 'I thought it wasn't a big deal, and if I focused on everything else it would be fine. But since improving it, the difference in my energy levels, recovery and performance has been massive.' Since overhauling his approach in 2022, he now aims for at least nine hours per night, and the latest you'll catch him nodding off is 11pm. 'Whether I'm tired or not, when it gets to a certain time, I'm going to sleep,' says Reilly. 'Nine times out of 10, even if I don't feel tired, I will get to sleep. 'I try not to eat a couple of hours before bed, stay off my phone, and make sure I'm hydrated so I'm not drinking a bunch before I go to sleep. My girlfriend hates it because I also try to have minimal light in the house as soon as it gets to the evening – I'd rather walk around with my phone torch out than switch a light on. I'm trying my best to get into that sleep mode.' His other regular recovery tool is a weekly trip to the physio – 'I'm in maybe once a week, just to get what I call an MOT.' Reilly's diet isn't a series of numerical calorie and macronutrient goals. Instead, he aims to eat nutritious foods that support his intense training schedule. 'The biggest focus is on eating high protein foods and a lot of carbs, because of the amount of training I do,' he says. 'I also eat by a rough 90:10 rule; 90 per cent of what I eat is really clean food, then 10 per cent is eating less nutritious things I like in moderation. 'Before I was quite naive, so I didn't know that what I was eating would make me feel a certain way. Now diet's a big thing for me – I always find that what I eat today decides how I'm going to feel tomorrow.' Mindset matters My stand-out moment from the 2024 Olympics was Reilly chucking his bike across the Paris skatepark as he celebrated nailing his final 60-second run. He was the last rider, the stakes were sky high, yet still, he pulled a minute of brilliance out of his back pocket to secure a silver medal. Physically, this is a huge ask, but dealing with that amount of pressure mentally is incomprehensible for most. Luckily, he has a few mindset tricks up his sleeve to deal with such situations. 'We work with a sports psychologist at British Cycling, and we work in-depth on a lot of things,' Reilly says. 'Something that really helped me was knowing that the reason I'm doing this is for me. 'The only person who can be genuinely happy or frustrated with my result is myself, so what's the worst that's going to happen? That I'm upset with myself. That's not really that big of a deal when you think about it, long-term. That was a good way for me to take the pressure off.' Recipe for success Reilly has concocted a recipe for success in recent years. He's built a more resilient body through regular training, a nutritious and sustainable approach to nutrition, and enough shut-eye each night to support his demanding routine. His training time at the skatepark and penchant for CrossFit fill a social purpose as well as a sporting one, while his parents remain his 'biggest fans' – 'my dad would drive me to every amateur competition that was going on in the UK'. And finally, he has developed an iron mindset capable of dealing with pressure on the world stage, all while coming across as amicably humble and down to earth in our 40-minute chat. The sum of these parts? I'd wager he's in for a very exciting 2025.
