"A couple of years ago, the City of London authority, supported by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, tried to stop people swimming here on winter mornings. The swimmers brought a judicial review and triumphed against the risk-averse killjoys. Since then, the City, which assumed responsibility for the Heath after the Greater London Council was abolished, has installed a ticket machine charging £2 per swim that the rank and file have scrupulously ignored. They're quite right. Buying a ticket to swim in a pond is like paying to climb a mountain, walk through the woods or lie on a beach - the patenting of our natural highs.

For when you emerge dripping and glowing from the Men's Pond you are not only alive, you have slaughtered your woolly mammoth. In a flash, our atomised existence of email, mobile, iPod and BlackBerry is buried under an avalanche of endorphins."

.... "Gonadal contraction is the answer, then, to winter blues. Just don't go telling the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

(Via New Statesman - Cold water, hot blood: .)

Well spotted Pooling Resources. ...more ---> ...

| Hampstead Heath | 16 November 2007; 10:29:54 AM |# | | Discuss |

Not sure where Dame Kelly is getting her stats but we thought even more than 6 out of 10 did little more than stroll around Topshop. The Prime Minister agrees with her - read it here.

"Recent research showed that by the age of 18 four out of ten girls in Britain have stopped doing any kind of sport.

Dame Kelly, 37, is determined to do something about it. Since retiring from athletics, she has become National School Sport Champion and has been working with insurance company Norwich Union to promote sport to girls and nurture young female athletes."

(Via Get girls off sofa and into sport | Dame Kelly Holmes | The Sun |HomePage|News: .)

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| press and publicity | 16 November 2007; 10:18:15 AM |# | | Discuss |

"Parents are taking babies as young as four months to special gyms amid growing fears about childhood obesity. A US chain has signed up hundreds of babies and toddlers for 'developmental gymnastics'"

(Via the Mail online | Health Four-month-old babies attending gym classes: .)

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| in the news | 16 November 2007; 10:17:55 AM |# | | Discuss |

"The new gym at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield designed by architects Race Cottam Associates has been revealed."

(Via Leisure Opportunities News SIV reveals design of Ponds Forge: .)

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| national news | 16 November 2007; 10:17:23 AM |# | | Discuss |