Beyond “Just Talk, Lads”: Spartan Mental Fitness & The Truth About Men’s Mental Health
Sun Nov 16 2025
In this episode of The Black Country Blokes, Kev and Lee are joined by long-time friend DR Emily Barney from Spartannn Brain Gym– back in the very room where she now runs her mental fitness sessions.
Together, they dive into a big question:
Is the message “men just need to talk” actually helping – or does it oversimplify a much bigger problem?They get properly stuck into:
Why saying “he should’ve talked” can sound a lot like blaming the bloke who’s diedHow men do ask for help – and how often nobody really listensThe reality of trying to get support when services are underfunded and impossible to accessPhones, doomscrolling, dopamine and whether we’re all addicted to constant stimulationThe pressure to provide, being a dad, and that “messy middle” of life where everyone wants a piece of youEmily’s idea of “mental fitness” – training your brain like a muscle with “mental press-ups”, gratitude reps and tiny daily winsWhy our brains are “Velcro for negatives, Teflon for positives” – and what you can actually do about itThey also talk about taking this work into prisons, rowing challenges to represent the number of men lost to suicide, and why treating people as humans not statistics might just be the start of real change.
If you’ve ever felt like you should be grateful but your head says otherwise, or you’re sick of being told to “man up” and “just talk”, this one’s for you.
👉 If you want to connect with Emily, look up Spartannn Brain Gym / Spartannn mental fitness training online.
👉 Follow, share and tag us to keep the conversation going: #MensMentalHealth #BlackCountryBlokes #MentalFitness #DadsSupportingDads
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bcb.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In this episode of The Black Country Blokes, Kev and Lee are joined by long-time friend DR Emily Barney from Spartannn Brain Gym– back in the very room where she now runs her mental fitness sessions. Together, they dive into a big question: Is the message “men just need to talk” actually helping – or does it oversimplify a much bigger problem?They get properly stuck into: Why saying “he should’ve talked” can sound a lot like blaming the bloke who’s diedHow men do ask for help – and how often nobody really listensThe reality of trying to get support when services are underfunded and impossible to accessPhones, doomscrolling, dopamine and whether we’re all addicted to constant stimulationThe pressure to provide, being a dad, and that “messy middle” of life where everyone wants a piece of youEmily’s idea of “mental fitness” – training your brain like a muscle with “mental press-ups”, gratitude reps and tiny daily winsWhy our brains are “Velcro for negatives, Teflon for positives” – and what you can actually do about itThey also talk about taking this work into prisons, rowing challenges to represent the number of men lost to suicide, and why treating people as humans not statistics might just be the start of real change. If you’ve ever felt like you should be grateful but your head says otherwise, or you’re sick of being told to “man up” and “just talk”, this one’s for you. 👉 If you want to connect with Emily, look up Spartannn Brain Gym / Spartannn mental fitness training online. 👉 Follow, share and tag us to keep the conversation going: #MensMentalHealth #BlackCountryBlokes #MentalFitness #DadsSupportingDads Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bcb. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.