Exercise enthusiasts are driving a city-wide fitness boom with the highly-popular F45 training circuit set to grace Wagga next week.
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In just three years, the number of gyms across the city has doubled – despite the region being labelled the fattest region in NSW by the Heart Foundation in 2015.
The figures, calculated on a per capita basis, found a whopping 81 per cent of residents did not achieve two-and-a-half hours worth of “vigorous” exercise per week.
Four 24-hour facilities have opened since that study, according to a Wagga fitness fanatic.
Personal trainer and nutritionist Aiden Muir was relieved by the emerging trend, which he said, holds the key to solving obesity-related health issues in the Riverina.
“People realise that fitness is the solution to health problems like diabetes, heart failure and stroke,” he said.
"It improves quality of life and it’s a good distraction.
“I think more and more gyms are going to continue opening.”
The power of exercise was a life-changer for 74-year-old Wagga man Alan Prowse.
In 2015, he weighed 119 kilograms and was classified as “morbidly obese”.
While the retiree was adding centimetres to his waist – he didn’t realise the long-term damage he was inflicting on his body and vital organs.
Cholesterol lined his veins and his blood pressure was reading off the charts.
When doctors told him he had the beginning stages of Type 2 diabetes, he vowed to turn his life around.
“I’m walking 100 kilometres a week, I’m eating all the right things and I honestly feel like a brand new human being,” he said.
“Everybody thinks it won’t happen to them but this illness doesn’t discriminate – one person is diagnosed with it every 8 minutes.
“I used to raid the pantry and eat whole packets of biscuits and cookies all through the day.”
But the now self-proclaimed fitness enthusiast said it is all about confidence.
“You have to know in yourself you can overcome it,” he said.
“More and more people are seeing the life-altering benefits of gym and exercise.”
The F45 Australian fitness craze will launch on Fitzmaurice Street in one week.