A few years ago, leisure provision was all about opening up swimming pools, gyms, sports halls and other facilities.

That’s still an important part of it, but Stockport Council is now working with local doctors, hospitals, Life Leisure and others to do more.  We want to focus more on health outcomes.  That means it’s not enough just to build a sports hall and open the doors.  It’s about helping people to achieve their own health and fitness objectives, helping them to live longer, healthier lives.

Keith and I are trialling a device that does that.  It’s a small black unit about the size of a 50p piece than clips onto my shoe.  It’s a bit like a pedometer, but much cleverer.  It records all sorts of different exercise (walking, running, cycling, playing sports) as I go about my life.

When I go to the Town Hall, it automatically uploads all the data to my own personal webpage.  I can use that to track my fitness goals and, if I agree, my GP or fitness instructor can see it too and advise me.

Over the next few months, Life Leisure will be trialling ActiHealth will different groups of people – hopefully it’ll work and be pushed out more widely (and you’ll have your data uploaded when you walk into your local leisure centre).

Here’s what my page looks like after my first upload:

 

You can see that it records not only what I do, but exactly when I do it, and it has targets built in for me to meet.  The top left charts show I didn’t make my targets for that day, but on the top right you can see I must have done more exercise on other days because I’ve comfortably made my target for the week.

My BMI of 27.1 is in the overweight category (though actually evidence shows that having a BMI of 25-30 can be healthier than having a BMI of 25 or less, despite the “overweight” tag).

 

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