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When you’re studying for a degree, it can feel like the rest of your life is put on pause until you graduate.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Cherry, 22 from Hong Kong, goes to the University of Sheffield. She’s currently studying for a Materials Science degree, and competing as a world-record breaking professional powerlifter at the same time.

In 2018 she became the British powerlifting champion as a Junior Lifter. Here, she explains how she juggles the two.

Cherry can:

• bench just over her body weight
• squat just over double her body weight
• dead lift more than three times her body weight

Her first competition was in September, but in June 2019 she competed in Sweden, claiming a gold for Great Britain in the Junior under 43kg and smashing the world record for her category by lifting a combined total of 313.5kg.

So how does she manage to fit in training around her lectures?

She says that she goes to the gym “pretty much whenever I can”, meaning she’ll go before, between and after class. Sometimes this means getting up as early as 6am, but she says she doesn’t mind too much: “I think it helps me clear my mind, and during [an] exam period it actually de-stresses me.”

And her top tip for revising while training? Pop your notes on the treadmill!