Last month the Harrow Observer revealed how Harrovians are some of the biggest gym dodgers in London.
But one pensioner is literally bending over backwards to prove not everyone has an aversion to exercise.
Valerie Braithwaite, who describes herself as '65ish', has been training everyday for decades and has a clear message for the sloths among us.

She said: "Everyone should do a bit of exercise, it's well worth it. I think people will be surprised how doing a minute soon turns into 15 minutes and so on.

"For me it has become my life but for those who do nothing they should try to do a little regularly."

The mother-of-one, from Brookshill Avenue, Harrow Weald, has even battled cancer in the last 18 months - saying nothing could stop her love of exercise.

She added: "When I was going into hospital I would still do my exercises every day and I was doing that partly because I didn't know if I was ever going to come out.

"It was a devastating time and I did think I was going to die."

But as soon as Valerie was back on the road to recovery she went back to Blackwell Hall in Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, to get on with the classes she has been running for children for so many years.

She even saw out the last few months as a PE teacher at Innellan House School, in Pinner, where she worked for 30 years until it's closure this July.

Valerie first got into dancing and gymnastics when she was a youngster and as a child she performed alongside Hollywood's Mary Martin and Dallas star Larry Hagman in the first UK production of South Pacific.

She went on to act alongside Wilfred Brambell of Steptoe and Son fame as well as horror actor Dennis Price in a number of plays across the capital.

At present she travels back and forth to Bournemouth, where she often heads for a spot of exercise, and says that she is not the only person who enjoys her routines.

She said: "When I was there last I was doing my handstands and somersaults on the side of the road people were beeping their horns and shouting encouragement.

"That kind of applause is like a Christmas dinner for someone like me.