Age is just a number

These inspirational individuals prove you can be fit and active at any age.

Jack Cowlishaw, 76

Jack, from Sheffield, is a keen runner and he recently signed up to his eighth 10k race in a row. He also regularly competes in full and half marathons and works out in the gym, 4 times a week.

Eddy Diget, 71

Eddy, from Oxford, has recently been named Britain’s oldest personal trainer. He works at DW Fitness and runs over 35 PT sessions a week. In the past, Eddy was in the Navy and once a champion bodybuilder.

Joahnna Quaas, 90

In 2012, Johanna was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest gymnast in the world. She recently attended FIBO and is the face of the Deutschland Trainiert (Germany Works Out) campaign.

Svend Stensgaard, 93

Svend, from Denmark, is the world’s oldest licensed powerlifter and in a recent video is seen to impressively lift 130kg. Suffering a heart attack three years ago hasn’t stopped Svend, he is taking part in the upcoming World Championships this year, where he aims to take home the silver award.

Charles Eugster, 96

Charles is an all-round athlete, especially when it comes to bodybuilding and wake boarding. He also holds world records in sprinting and rowing!

Diana Green, 81

This year, Diana will run the London Marathon – for the 13th time – on her 82nd birthday. 

This Week in the Fitness Industry

Activity Equivalent Calorie Labelling

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in Britain is arguing for ‘activity equivalent’ calorie labelling in order to reduce the UK’s obesity problem. Packaging could be utilised to not only provide nutritional information but also advise ways to change behaviour. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the chief executive of the RSPH, wants labelling to “prompt people to be mindful of the energy they consume and…to encourage them to be more physically active”.

FIBO 2016, Cologne

FIBO broke world records last week with a total of 153,000 visitors including 83,000 trade visitors from over 100 nations. According to the Deloitte study presented at the exhibition, some 52.4 million people are members of gyms at this time and growth of the European fitness market is at 4.9 per cent. The event gained a lot of media attention with nearly 1,000 accredited journalists attending from over 30 countries. Fitness technology, personalised training, functional training and group fitness remained as some of the hottest trends seen at FIBO this year. 

New public openings

Chard Leisure Centre – The new £500,000 centre, managed by 1610 Trust, officially opened on 4th April and it boasts a state-of-the-art gym and the UK’s largest Prama studio. 

Atherton Leisure Centre – Built on its former site, the new £14.7 million council-run Atherton Leisure Centre also opened on 4th April and is equipped with two swimming pools, a 100 station gym and two dance studios.  

Gym Bacteria

Nobody expects to hear that a toilet is cleaner than their gym equipment but unfortunately it looks to be true. A recent study done by Fit Rated involved swabbing 27 pieces of gym equipment at 3 different gyms and they found some pretty gruesome results. Luckily for us though they made these fun infographics to learn all about the bacteria that lingers on our gym equipment…

60 SECOND UK FITNESS NEWS - APRIL 2016

In this weeks 60 Second News; here at the LeisureDB headquarters we’re busy putting together our annual state of the industry reports. This year’s fitness report includes a new top operator in the private sector and is due to be published late April. Head to the publications section of our website to receive a notification when our reports are published.

After attending IHRSA last month our director, David Minton, will be attending FIBO in Germany this month. With more than 725 exhibitors from 40 countries there is everything from equipment suppliers to studio concepts and IT systems. If you’re one of the 138,000 people attending don’t forget to say hi if you see him.

Fitness First UK’s managing director, Martin Seibold, has reported a significant amount of interest in the chain from both investors and buyers. The number of clubs has gone from 185 to just 65 since Seibold took over in 2012, but membership has grown by 15% since May 2015. Fitness First Owner Oaktree Capital Management has said all possibilities remain on the table for the future of the company.

Lastly, Fit4Less in Derbyshire has come under criticism this month after an anti-bullying charity called its new ad ‘offensive’. The billboard poster showed Aliens abducting a person with the text ‘they’ll take the fat ones first’. Fit4Less said it wanted to create a “light hearted and humorous” ad. This isn’t the first time an industry ad has sparked controversy. Last year Protein World were called offensive and irresponsible with its ‘beach body ready?’ poster. We want to know whether you were offended by these ads? Send us a tweet to @TLDC_UK and use #AdvertWin or #AdvertFail to let us know your views.  

Thanks for watching and please do comment below!

IHRSA 2016 Highlights

Last week David attended IHRSA in Orlando. Here's a few highlights from the show.

UK Pulse Interactive combines facial recognition, Trixter bikes and augmented reality Oculus Rift for a unique workout.  

The Intel Recon Jet offers smart eyewear for your active lifestyle.

The cycling glasses show live metrics, heart rate, speed, power and ride summary, plus built-in glance detection, point of view camera, GPS maps and of course, social connectivity!

Amongst all of the incredible new fitness technology, there continues to be healthy competition amongst the big name heart rate monitoring brands MyZone, Polar and Heart Tech Plus. With the tracking companies offering new and exciting features or products such as sports bras with built-in trackers and group displays of live data streams. 

Last but certainly not least, Zumba have embraced virtual reality by connecting with YouVisit to deliver a new dance experience for customers...and David loved it!

The next trip takes David and Natalie to the FIBO exhibition in Cologne.