A gym in Marlow is encouraging parents to let their children be part of their exercising programme.

Places Leisure, which is based at the Court Garden Complex by Higginson Park, have a junior gym membership where children can use the equipment with the aid of a member of staff or parent.

And whilst the gym’s general manager Nicola Allen admitted that they were not experts in childhood obesity, they hope they can encourage children, and even adults from across to Marlow to get fit.

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Statistics from the NHS Digital website have revealed that between 2017/18, 20 per cent of children who are in year six were obese.

The report, which was published in May last year, also showed that 29 per cent of adults in the country were also obese, which is an increase from 26 per cent in 2016.

Nicola told the Free Press: “We have a junior gym membership for children who want to use our gym facilities and when that finishes, we offer them young adult membership.

“But when you get to that age, people start to look at jobs, college, apprenticeships, university or anywhere you’re going in the world, and that’s where the gap will come for these people.

“And most times, after they have found their calling and they’re on decent wage, they usually come back to us.

“We’re not expertise on childhood obesity – we’re expertise on activity and we can refer people to the right places if need be.”

The gym also provides tips and advice for those who want to improve their fitness, but they admitted that those who want to get fit need to be committed to their cause.

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Personal trainer Juan Garcia said: “We have got a good number of clients who want to improve, and I would say about 80 percent of them will take their fitness progression outside of the gym.

“What I mean by that is, having a good diet, continuing exercising outside of the gym, and it’s the little things too like driving to the corner shop - walk there instead.

“You’d be surprised at how fitter you become over a period of time as that burns more calories.

“But people need to remember that whilst we can give you a programme and exercise to help you, you need to look at everything around you and that includes doing a workout and then going to McDonald’s straight afterwards."

For more information about Places Leisure, visit www.placesleisure.org/centres/court-garden-leisure-complex.