paul has had access to fitness, sport and recreational facilities and opportunities all his adult life, but this is not available to all.

Part time work at the swimming pool as a life guard from 1988-1991 netted me some money. I worked plenty of hours, particularly during summer holiday, and saved the majority of my earnings to invest in some weight training equipment. There was no gym in George Town at that time, and 30 years later there are still limited facilities available to the community (see my ideas for change below).

I had grown up on Slyvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and my teenage mind wanted to lift weights like them and try to look like them. I was fortunate enough to have a space in the garage to set up a home gym. So, I spent time reading weight training magazines and browsing the Launceston based sports stores for equipment. I finally settled on the York 2600 Mega Gym. I paid Mum and Dad my savings, and used their credit card to purchase the flat packed equipment. I then waited almost three weeks for it to arrive from the mainland.

It was delivered to my home while I was at school. I was excited to see it when I arrived home, and not disheartened to find a range of large boxes and some very cryptic instructions. With Dad’s socket set in hand I lent into the challenge of assembling the monster unit. I spent hours that evening and I was up again early the next morning; connecting, and bolting, and tightening and aligning powder coated metal, steel cables, and chalky weight stacks. Within 24 hours the shiny black and blue machine was complete.

So in early Autumn of 1990, at age 15.3, I started weight training. It has been a part of my life ever since. I handed the York 2600 onto my uncle several years later, and invested in free weights that I still own and use today. It is important to note that I have been privileged to work at or had the income to afford gym memberships and maintain my own equipment at home. I accept this is not available to everyone in our community.

Postscript

I readily acknowledged that commercial gyms or home exercise equipment are not the only ways to remain fit. People moving and recreating in our public parks are an option for low cost exercise. I also think the opening up of our school playground to the community for free use of facilities is another option. Millions of tax payer dollars are invested in school tennis courts, basketball and netball courts, as well as hockey, cricket, soccer and football fields. I’d love to see a publicly accessible outdoor cycling velodrome to spark kids interest in track cycling.

That said,  I recognise the money required to engage in, register for, purchase equipment for, and travel to, organised sport, and some facility based fitness activities can be a barrier to participation. To my mind, those vulnerable members of the community, such as those living in financial poverty, could have access to facilities and activities at reduced costs/or no cost, with the right programs in place. The ‘ticket to play’ funding in Tasmania that supports junior sport participation, and the Active Launceston initiative of free park based activities goes some way to demonstrating that programmatic responses can boost participation, leading to health gains, increased social connectedness, and some demonstrable economic benefits (via reduced primary, secondary and tertiary health system costs). Let’s build up on this and get moving.