‘Last week, I visited Loddon Valley Leisure Centre near Reading to see a youth pod. Leisure Connection, who run Dorking Leisure Centre for Mole Valley District Council arranged the visit for me.

A youth pod is an area of the gym for use by young people from the age of eight which contains equipment designed to make exercise interesting.

The exercise bicycle, for example, has a screen displaying a road or track with other riders or vehicles with different levels of effort required to complete a course or ‘come out alive’.

The wall of the pod has lights placed below, above and at eye level. A random light flash area can by tapped to extinguish it and the number of extinguishing taps per minute is recorded for as a level for others to beat.

Other dedicated equipment is avalable with an instructor to explain and encourage’.

Paul Elderton says, ‘I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the instructor and the use of the game model to encourage exercise. I shall talk about this visit to people in Mole Valley to encourage a similar development here’.