Life Leisure is aiming for a national roll-out of its pioneering public health programme which uses web analytics, technology and specialist coaching to place inactive adults on the path towards a healthier lifestyle.

The actiSport scheme, which Stockport-based operator Life Leisure has developed through funding from Sporta, seeks to engage the 87 per cent of UK citizens who aren’t members of a gym or leisure centre by offering a structured programme of physical activity and sport with measurable outcomes. It is based on actiLife, a previous initiative (featured in Health Club Management) based on reintroducing inactive people into gym-based exercise.

Inactive patients can be referred by their GP for the scheme via their local clinical commissioning group (CCG). After an initial 1-1 consultation with an exercise professional, patients receive a ‘pebble’ activity tracker and placed on an eight-week ‘conditioning phase’. Individual activity goals are set and then monitored each week (via an online portal that displays data from the ‘pebble’) by an exercise professional who then contacts the participant to help motivate them and amend goals according to progress.

After the eight weeks, participants are then signposted into coach-led sports sessions designed for ‘non-sporty people’, ranging from badminton and table tennis to netball, swimming, cycling and running. Over the next 20 weeks these classes progress in skill level and intensity as the participants’ fitness levels and confidence increase.

The initial actiSport scheme has produced encouraging results, with the average participant improving their health stats by 20 per cent during the scheme, while 60 per cent of participants reduced their body fat. Having spent two years perfecting the actiLife and actiSport schemes, Life Leisure now hopes other leisure providers will utilise the specialist products as a solution for helping inactive people become more active.

“After almost two years of development we have created a scalable and replicable model which would enable leisure operators to better engage with inactive populations, providing them with longer term potential for new gym members and a fitness market,” said Life Leisure managing director Malcolm McPhail.

“Technology has traditionally been used to help people improve their performance – quicker times, longer distances, heart rate improvements. We are also looking to improve people’s performance but from a very different perspective – getting people who do nothing or very little to doing something and then maybe a little bit more, and of course keep them doing it.”