Five years ago, keeping fit was quite the challenge, trainers in Katherine have said; there wasn't much in the way of gyms or organised sport. 

Fast forward to today and residents have many options to live an active lifestyle for such a small and isolated town. 

Emungalan Crossfit Box trainer Hamish Macfarlane has lived in the Katherine region for most of his life. 

On return from a short stint away from home he has seen the demand for gyms explode. 

"At this point in time fitness across the world is becoming a huge industry," he said. 

"People have realised happiness and health are their own responsibility.

"Yes [Katherine is] lagging behind the rest of the world, which has been on the bandwagon for the past 10 years, but we are growing quickly now." 

He said the fitness boom is closely tied with Katherine's small and isolated population. 

"People take notice of what others are doing, people see differences in others and that is infectious. 

"When I was young it was all about the pubs, there was nothing else to do, but we have seen people pay the price for that and we want a better life. 

"Young people are moving away from alcohol and oldies are motivated to get fit because they want to share their life with their younger family. They want to be as healthy as possible." 

Owner of Mind Over Matter Fitness, Rhianna Smith has also seen the demand for physical activities grow and in turn businesses open to fill the need. 

Having recently opened Katherine's first 24 hour gym, catering to shift workers, early bird and late night gym-goers, she said in the past five years "everything has changed". 

"Up until recently people didn't know what was in their food and they were not aware that you have to be physical for 30 minutes. People were un-knowledgeable. 

"Today though, doctors are pushing for a healthy lifestyle and people are getting the message that fitness is really important." 

While Katherine is slowly catching up to the rest of the world in terms of realising the importance of health and exercise, far too many in town are still not reaping the benefits. 

The born and bred Katherine trainer said not enough people are taking advantage of the myriad options of gyms in town. 

"Katherine has a lot to offer, but too many are not getting off the couch and making a commitment." 

Mr Macfarlane agreed the group of dedicated fitness people in Katherine is too small. 

"More people need to get exercising in Katherine, people everywhere need to get exercising," he said.

"We have so much to offer in the way of group sport, running groups, gyms that offer Crossfit and Muay Thai, and bootcamps, but still how many clinics do we have? 

"We have a huge hospital and there is a huge health industry that makes money out of sickness." 

Twenty-three-year-old Tina Dahanayake, a newcomer to Katherine working at the YMCA while studying to be a nurse said she was "suprised" by the amount of options available in Katherine, as well as the amount of people sweating it up in the extreme heat. 

"When I arrived in October last year I was expecting one gym, but there is so much for adults to get involved in: rugby, netball, dance, swimming, rollerskating, yoga and all the gyms." 

Previously living in Melbourne, she said she could see some stand out differences in the way gyms encourage people along. 

"There are a lot of challenges (run in gyms) in Katherine, which seems to get more people involved. 

"[Fitness in Katherine] is very community orientated, it is a bonding thing and being a part of something seems to be encouraging." 

Not only that, there are a lot of programs for young people, she said. 

YMCA centre manager Darren Powell said there is "much more of an emphasis on instilling healthy habits onto our children growing up these days, in schools and at home." 

"At the YMCA, we cater for kids of all ages. We run a kids fitness class for the school aged children and then we have our active youth program and teen gym group fitness sessions. These have been really popular and the numbers for these programs are continuing to grow, which is great to see.  

"We also cater for many school groups,  whether its structured fitness lessons that we run for them or their own free training in the gym."

"Since starting my position [at the YMCA] as centre manager in Katherine one and a half years ago, membership numbers have skyrocketed, which, I guess, is a testament that people want to get fit."

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