For many professional athletes, retirement often signals unwanted weight gain. Tom Daley, however, has gone in the opposite direction – packing on 9kg of muscle in the two years since retiring from diving. Somehow, the 32-year-old still looks just as lean as ever.

Since calling time on his career after the 2024 Paris Olympics, Daley has embraced the kinds of training he was never allowed to do while competing, including heavy weight training, hiking and HIIT classes.

At the same time, he’s also enjoyed stepping away from the strict mobility and flexibility routines that once dominated his life.

‘I used to find it the most tedious thing to do every single day – it was the first thing that went when I retired,’ he says.

That said, Daley still recognises the importance of staying strong and mobile through his joints. He’s just happy to put that work on the back burner for now.

‘I’ve been doing lots of different things, which has been really fun,’ Daley exclusively tells Men’s Health. ‘Before, with diving training, I was very restricted with what I was able to do. I had to stay very small, very flexible and very powerful. I was never allowed to put on muscle or any kind of weight. I had to stay very light, pingy, jumpy.’

‘Since retiring, I think I’ve put on something like 20 pounds [9kg]. But I’ve stayed lean. I’ve been able to lift weights – before, I was never able to do much upper-body work because I couldn’t make my shoulders, chest or arms bigger.

‘I was always allowed to train legs because we needed that to jump really high. The higher you jump, the more time you have in the air. But for hitting the water, you had to stay really flexible through the shoulders and small enough to enter the water without making a splash.’

Daley’s husband, screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black, even helped install a squat rack in their garden so the former diver could focus more seriously on lifting weights and building a more consistent routine.

Still, Daley isn’t spending all of his time in the weights room. He quickly realised he prefers training with other people, particularly in group settings that push him harder.

‘Now I’ve been able to adjust my training, which has been fun,’ Daley says. ‘I was never able to do Barry’s workouts because of the impact from all the running around, and although they’re lots of fun, they’re not fun to do on top of six hours of diving training a day.

‘I also get to go hiking, which I would never have had time to do before. I have a Peloton where I’ll just jump on and do random cycling workouts whenever I want.’

Like most parents, though, balancing training around family life remains a challenge.

‘It’s hard finding that consistent routine to get to the gym, especially with the kids and school,’ he adds. ‘But now it’s all starting to fall into place.

‘What I’ve realised is that I really enjoy group fitness workouts because I spent my whole career training as part of a team. You never quite push yourself the same unless you’re with a workout partner or in a team environment.’

Away from sport and training, Daley has also found other ways to keep himself occupied while helping his body and mind switch off – most notably through knitting.

It’s a hobby he first picked up in 2020 after his diving coach suggested he needed something outside sport to help him decompress. Around the same time, Dustin Lance Black pointed out how many actors knit between scenes while filming.

Daley quickly became ‘obsessed’, teaching himself through YouTube videos before spending even more time learning during the Covid lockdowns.

It’s something he credits with helping his mental wellbeing and performance levels, particularly ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Now, as part of Bupa’s ‘Express Your Health’ campaign, Daley is encouraging others to find a similar creative outlet.

Daley created a knitted panel for Europe’s largest hand-painted mural, which he hopes will encourage people to express difficult health experiences through creativity.

‘I knit a panel to express how I feel about my journey through injury, and how sometimes in sport things feel like they’re falling apart,’ Daley explains. ‘The road to recovery isn’t always straight and narrow.

‘The texture of knitting really reflects that – even when you recover, things are never quite the same and there are always bumps along the way.

‘This whole campaign is about encouraging people to talk about their health journeys and being able to express it, not just through talking about it, but being able to express it through art and giving it a go.

‘You can actually get your hands on the original pieces. I believe the actual panel that I knit is in the Bupa offices. It took me quite a while to make, so hopefully it finds a good home.’