Townsville group, Marn Business, creating a positive community for men to improve mental, physical health

A group of Townsville men are creating a positive community focused on mental and physical wellbeing. With their motto ’healthy living, heavy lifting,’ they’re reshaping what it means to be strong and making a big impact.

Wilfred Reuben, a founder of Marn Business a community for men to pick each other up and chase a healthier lifestyle whether that be in the gym, or working to improve their mental health.

A group of mates who began lifting weights in the gym have now become role models for other men in the community as they spread positive messages promoting mental health and healthy living.

The Marn Business brand was first created in 2021 and featured a few YouTube videos and social media posts sporting their slogan ‘healthy living, heavy lifting’.

Since then, it has grown into a community for men to pick each other up and chase a healthier lifestyle whether that be in the gym, or working to improve their mental health.

Wilfred Reuben was one of the original Marn Business founders and has since enjoyed watching it transform into what it is today.

“We’ve kept it on with this resurgence because we realise that healthy living is not necessarily just going to the gym … healthy living is just being happy no matter what you do as long as you’re not harming yourself or others and you are trying to enjoy life to the fullest,” he said.

Members of Marn Business complete a nine kilometre group walk to honour the nine lives lost to suicide everyday

“Heavy lifting is that joint understanding that heavy lifting is not about being in the gym and beating your personal best but realising as men we have a lot of lifting that we do in life whether we are fathers, uncles, brothers or nephews, we hold a responsibility in our families, no matter our culture.”

“We have men tag the Instagram page and post stories just because they want us to see that they’ve worked out today, but we’ve had another brother boy that’s messaged recently about just opening up and saying he just hasn’t been having a good time recently.”

Wilfred Reuben, a founder of Marn Business a community for men to pick each other up and chase a healthier lifestyle whether that be in the gym, or working to improve their mental health.

The group have hosted events such as a nine-kilometre group walk to honour the nine lives lost to suicide every day and often encourages everyone to join them in the gym.

“There’s definitely a lot of action that we want to take in terms of bringing awareness and bringing a spotlight to a lot of issues that are difficult to talk about,” Mr Reuben said.

Mr Reuben said he believes a community of men that is created through a brand such as Marn business is “breaking the mould of what it is to be a man.”

“The generation before us, they were the sons of men that went to war, and that generation of men weren’t given a platform to speak up about their issues, and sometimes they’d take their secrets to the grave and hold a lot of pain away,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what culture or creed you follow, all of us are men, we still have to bear a lot of heavy lifting … with this community, we are sort of trying to open up and say you’re not alone.”

Originally published as Townsville group, Marn Business, creating a positive community for men to improve mental, physical health