Opening up school sports facilities, as China does, can encourage people to get more exercise in the evenings

I've been promising myself I'll join a gym for a while. It's not that I like the idea of spending time in some awful posers' paradise, but I like the idea of a growing waistline even less.

Things came to a head when I saw myself in a changing room mirror at the start of summer. I almost signed up to the gym there and then, but I reasoned that summer was coming and I'd be heading outdoors on adventures that would hold the muffin top in check. I decided that I would sign up after the nights started drawing in.

In other words, I stalled until about now.

I doubt I ever really believed I'd get in better shape over the summer, but I have shed several pounds thanks to Pokemon Go, round-the-clock access to a pool during my stifling summer vacation, kick-abouts with a 10-year-old, and newly discovered woodland walks a stone's throw from home.

Basically, I've been out and about a lot more than usual - and it shows.

Which is why I was attracted to a flurry of stories recently that say it's good to get out and get active.

In one, Local Government Association in the UK called on family doctors to set physical activity goals for patients and consider prescribing exercise to tackle the nation's obesity crisis.

In another, the National Health Service Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group was considering a block on nonemergency surgery to overweight patients.

And in a third, tiny particles of airborne pollution were discovered in the brains of people who had lived in the heavily polluted metropolis of Mexico City, prompting experts to wonder whether the microscopic iron oxide particles, known as magnetite, could contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer's.

These stories, and my personal experience, all seem to back up the good, old-fashioned advice we received as children: Get out in the fresh air and take some exercise.

But that's easier said than done. Just how do we go out into the fresh air for an evening walk in winter if we live in a rural or suburban area, where streetlights are few and far between?

It's hard enough to find places to walk on dark winter evenings in South Essex, but when I go and visit my parents in rural Suffolk, it's all but impossible to avoid twisting an ankle walking in unlit country lanes.

Which brings me to my point. Why not take a leaf out of China's book and open up more running tracks and school sports fields at night - not for serious sportspeople, but ordinary folk wanting fresh air and exercise?

In China, school and university running tracks remain open until well into the night. They are free, and hundreds of people can be seen on any given track walking around, talking and laughing as they get some after-dinner exercise.

Sure, it will cost something to power up the lights and a council employee may need to keep an eye on things, but wouldn't the NHS save much more as people avoid health-related problems that come with extra weight and a lack of mobility - and no one will have to fork out big money for the gym and squeeze into spandex after a long day in the office.

The author is a copy editor for China Daily based in London. Contact the

writer at earle@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily European Weekly 09/16/2016 page12)