Whenever I walk anywhere with my kids, it seems to take an age: they insist on swinging on bars, leapfrogging bollards and testing their balance by walking along walls. Now I realise that instead of telling them to hurry up, I should be joining in.

This instinct we all have when we are young – to turn our environments into playgrounds – quickly gets socialised out of us. It’s not helped by the fact that towns and cities have generally been planned with cars in mind, leading to car dependency and very low levels of physical activity among not just the UK population, but populations worldwide.

If we’re serious about engaging hard to reach groups, we need innovation and a change in mindset. Fitness operators need to think beyond the four walls of the club: taking activities to the public rather than waiting for the public to come to them; encouraging people to travel to the club in an active way; and taking the initiative in talking to community groups, local authorities and other relevant parties to drive change and help remove barriers to activity.

Some health and fitness providers – such as Parkour Generations and StreetGym – are already adopting this approach, teaching people to find exercise opportunities in their environment. If the wider health and fitness industry got on board with this thinking, taking to the streets to inspire people to run and jump in their everyday lives, this could have a considerable impact on the health of the nation.

And it’s not just parkour and StreetGym: a growing number of initiatives are aimed at inspiring people to approach the streets with a sense of fun – getting people moving almost without them realising. So how can the fitness industry embrace this trend and encourage people to be more active on the streets? We ask the experts…