Two proud Made in Britain members have joined the campaign to ‘fight the flab’ in one of the country’s most deprived and obese cities.
The Great Outdoor Gym Company (TGO) from Kent has been working with Hull City Council since the London 2012 Games in the city’s attempts to deliver its own Olympic legacy.
TGO has installed eight free-to-use outdoor gyms in Hull that are readily accessible to people of all ages and abilities, breaking down the barriers to physical activity and acting as a gateway to improving health.
One of them, Shaw Park Eco Gym, is powered entirely by human movement and is lit up at night at no cost allowing people to exercise around the clock, attracting official visits from as far afield as Japan and Hungary – and being voted second best outdoor gym in the world after California’s muscle beach.
Now TGO has engaged Made in Britain founding company Zaun, the main perimeter and security fencing provider for the London Olympics, enclosing the latest Hull project at Barbara Robson Park in Sutton Village.
Kingston upon Hull East MP Karl Turner (pictured) officially opened the Barbara Robson Green Gym, where the effort made by gym users is converted into electricity that is used to power the lights in the park, the adjacent floodlit multi-use games area (MUGA) and to charge mobile phones. The gym is the first of its kind in the city and only the 5th in the UK.
It includes a wealth of easy-to-use equipment for health and fitness fun, while Zaun has installed a free-standing basketball unit at the MUGA ringed with Duo8 panels and attractive BowTop fencing around the outdoor gym.
TGO founder and MD Matt Delaney, ex London Director of Sport England, PE teacher and professional basketball player, wanted to help communities get more active by offering high-quality training facilities in every community.
He said: “Hull has been a brilliant pioneering partner for us in championing our green energy gyms. We have a real opportunity to transform local parks and playing fields into health and wellbeing spaces for the whole community and tackle health issues from the angle of prevention rather than cure.”
Sutton Ward councillors funded the gym while NHS North Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support Unit has employed a fitness instructor to advise and run programmes to encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles.
