Table 3 Themes, sub-themes and illustrative quotes

‘Not like your regular gym’

Social aspects

Healthy Lifestyle Centre as friendly, welcoming, safe and sociable.

‘And the kids are fine sat there, aren’t they, you know? You don’t mind them sitting down on the sofa out there.’

Peers as role models.

‘It was really great for me, because yes, having these role models of like people who keeping coming, keeping coming every week.’

Role of mentors

Mentors dependable but encouraging self-sufficiency.

‘[for mentors] it’s a tightrope, you’ve got to find that balance between encouragement and not pressurising [clients].’

Activities tailored to needs.

‘different people need different advice and different guidance.’

Differences to a gym

Affordable.

‘And you think, well what if I don’t like [private gym membership], I’m just throwing money away.’

Non-competitive.

‘No posing people… don’t feel being watched or looked …. a lot of people don’t like to go to the gym because they feel a bit scared.’

‘there’s other people like me who’ve not done classes, or, you know, are not fit. And so just accept that you know there’s going to be other people in the room that are similar to you.’

Social responsibility

Duty to funders

‘I kind of felt well I’ve signed up for this and someone else is paying for this, so I should go. That’s my responsibility to go to it because it’s a good opportunity.’

‘Individual’s journey’

‘Get that motivation going’

Deciding to become more healthy through physical activity and sport.

‘…. obviously [clients] made that sort of step in their mind that they need to get more healthy.’

‘As you get older, you kind of slow down and even though I don’t look that old, I feel old. So it’s important for me to look after myself as I get older.’

‘Different things going on in their lives’

Project in the context of people’s lives.

‘when I’d lost the whole structure of my life really……something for me to build on.’

‘But I just find that I get really get into it, but then if my health’s not so great, then obviously I don’t exercise for a few weeks, and then I’m back to square one. I sort of lose the motivation a little bit.’

‘It has changed my life’

Changing usual activity patterns.

‘…my son and my daughter – I sort of say to them, you know ‘Get up, let’s go round the block. You know if they can walk somewhere they’re not always going to get a lift from me in the car. ‘Let’s leave the car and we’ll walk there instead.’

Practical aspects

Access

Difficulty from HLC location

‘So that kind of stopped them from getting to this project, which would have been something that, you know, if they’d got the transport sorted out, it would have really ran to its maximum.’

Community awareness

Need to promote project

‘I don’t remember anyone going, ‘Oh yes I’ve heard of them.’ No, I don’t think people knew of it.’

Engaging stakeholders

Promoting referrals

‘So, if you could have had them [GP’s] on-board a little bit more and a bit more of a closer relationship, that would have been nice.’