20 Jan Is it time to make gym memberships free for all?

Did you make a New Year’s resolution? And if you did, have you kept to it so far?

Everyone has their own view on whether they are a good thing or not – many people will argue that it’s a waste of time as most people will break their commitment before the end of January.

But I think it’s a good thing. It’s healthy to set targets and to want to make your life better in some way.

I suppose the caveat is you don’t want to set a target that’s too high and become frustrated that you couldn’t keep to your commitment.

I’ve made that mistake before so this year my resolution is a lot more achievable, although still a big ask: to go swimming three times a week.

I used to love swimming when I was growing up but when I took an interest in football around the age of ten, swimming has been off the radar ever since.

However, my dormant passion for the water has been slowly reawakened in the last couple of years due to dabbling with wild swimming.

Wild swimming is not something I have done a lot of and I would definitely not do it in the winter months! But after a baking-hot day hillwalking in the Highlands there’s nothing better than a wee swim in a small lochan or pool to cool down and refresh.

I have some long-standing back issues which prevents me from doing any weight training, so for a while I’ve been keen to find a regular upper body work out and swimming is ideal for that.

I recently took out a membership at the Michael Woods Centre in Glenrothes and have kept to my resolution so far.

It certainly is a good way of keeping physically fit as it works out your whole body. I didn’t realise how much energy I had exerted until the size of my appetite after my first session!

What I’ve learned is that swimming is a great way to keep active during the darker evenings at this time of the year.

It’s also the perfect place to think and reflect – there are almost no distractions when you’re swimming. Mobile phone use – whether it’s scrolling through a newsfeed or messaging people – can have your whole attention sometimes depending on what you’re doing but you obviously can’t take your phone with you into the pool.

Like hillwalking, it’s an activity where it’s easy to mentally ‘switch off’ for a bit.

I just wish more people had the opportunity to do more physical exercise to improve their physical and mental health. There are so many barriers to doing so, particularly the cost of gym memberships and hall or pitch hires for people who are paid a salary below the cost of living or rely on social security.

During the cost of living crisis, many people are choosing between heating and eating so have been forced to give up the “luxury” of a gym or swimming membership to keep their monthly budget down – meaning their physical and mental health will have been impacted as a result.

But it shouldn’t be that way.

Ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh called for the trial introduction of free gym memberships for 16 to 24 year olds living in the most deprived parts of Scotland. Their call highlighted that three and five jobs lost due to the pandemic affected people under the age of 25, making it harder for many to afford a gym membership, particularly if coming from poorer backgrounds.

It was a bold idea which sadly wasn’t picked up by any of the political parties for I imagine budgetary reasons. And while I understand the reasoning, it’s potentially short-sighted.

The benefits of such a scheme could be extraordinary – it would seek to improve the mental and physical health of thousands of the poorest people living in Scotland and if successful could be rolled out to even more or all Scots.

I don’t think it’s unimaginable that we get to a point at some point in the future where because the benefits of exercise to physical and mental health are so obvious, that access to a gym and swimming facilities becomes free at the point of use, funded by taxpayers through government or local authorities.

Ideas like this are what is needed to prevent the next generation of people from becoming obese and struggling even more with their mental health. Getting more people walking, running and cycling is also key to achieving that.

I would love to see such a scheme piloted in Fife as part of a wider strategy to get more Fifers active – the more people we can support to overcome barriers to take up regular exercise, the happier and healthier our region will be.

Until then, if you’ve already given up on your New Year’s resolution, don’t worry you’ve got 11 months to think of a more achievable one for 2024!