Last month, at least 124 gyms and leisure clubs in London pledged to donate free access to gym seasons worth up to £3m, enabling thousands of hard up Londoners to sample a range of exercise and thus improve their health.
Backed by the government and linked to the MoreActive4Life campaign, the campaign even incorporates the ever popular social networking trend, as those who sign up will also be encouraged to use a buddy system on Twitter to motivate each other.
In Fatville we know (all too well) how difficult it can be to incorporate exercise into our lives comfortably if we think of it purely as lonely ‘exercise’. After all, it requires time, it requires effort and for most people, it’s just another ‘add-on’ which we feel obliged to squeeze into our already busy lives.
Whilst we remain sceptical about gyms as a sustainable solution for many, at least by using social networking, this fitness scheme begins to embed itself within the fabric of people’s everyday lives. By allowing people to communicate and interact, this initiative will hopefully have much more success in terms of sustainability, sociability and mutual encouragement.