A number of foreign fitness trainers from Australia have been working with amateur athletes to teach them how to exercise more efficiently and safely. [Photo: sh.eastday.com]

With the Olympics in the media 24-7 at the moment, there's always a boost in people taking part in sport and healthy activity, inspired by their Olympic icons.

But although the health aspects of taking part in sport are clear - if you go about it the wrong way, you can do yourself a lot of damage.

In Shanghai, a number of foreign fitness trainers have been working with local amateur athletes to teach them how to exercise more efficiently and most importantly safely.

CRI's Huang Shan has more.

Gavin Pratt is a fitness coach from Australia. He arrived in Shanghai four months ago to work with local athletes in order to help them to gear up for the 2017 China National Games.

Pratt used a professional system, which is called FMS, or functional movement systems, to help assess people's movements.

This was his first experience of coaching ordinary local residents.

"From the FMS I can see how she is moving, and maybe where her weaknesses are. In her particular instance, she had hip instability and also a lack of hip mobility. Now if you don't have that mobility or stability, then you are basically losing efficiency in your techniques. So we need to go back to the gym to make sure she is mobile and strong and therefore she will get the best out of her performance."

He Dandan is a Shanghai resident.

"Because we are amateur and they are very professional. (They can teach us) how to prevent ourselves from getting hurt, and how to run faster."

Like Pratt, Matt Jay is also a professional strength conditioning coach.

He works with track and field athletes on a daily basis, diagnosing their movements.

He says Shanghai residents don't have the same access to professional support as Australians, but their commitment to staying fit is on par with people in his country.

"There may be more professional coaches in Australia than in Shanghai. But definitely in Shanghai there is a great culture of physical activities for all the population. It is certainly on par in terms of levels of participation in physical activities. Every evening I see large groups of people in the park participating in regular activities. It seems like it's embedded in the Chinese culture, which is wonderful."

The director of the Shanghai Sports Science Research Institute Li Jianxin says participating in sport in a scientific way is vital to keeping healthy.

"People are very enthusiasm towards fitness. It is crucial for people to do sports scientifically. People are passionate towards marathon running but some people actually got sick after running the marathon. So doing sports properly is very important."

According to a report released by the national sports authority last year, Shanghai residents are in better average physical condition than residents of any other Chinese mainland city.