Throughout mental health awareness week Snap Fitness centres across the country are throwing open their doors and inviting people to see if time in the gym can help overall well-being.

Warrnambool manager Ashleigh Dyson has seen many people come through her gym doors who say they work out to help their mental health.

"Once people get started, regularly coming into a gym can help them mentally as it clears their mind," she said.

"Throughout this week we've teamed up with Intersport in giving away some vouchers and I spoke to one lady about mental and physical health and she said she could really relate to coming to the gym to help her mentally.

"I run group fitness classes here and I see people really come out of their shell in those sessions. People's confidence is able to grow and they're able to make social connections."

While there are many benefits of strong physical health, Ms Dyson said she always tried to steer people to focus on their mental well-being alongside other goals.

"Obviously there's physical outcomes in performance and appearance goals for people," she said.

"People can get caught up on their physical appearance but we find when people focus on the performance goals in lifting more or running further, the other side comes through as well.

"We try to re-adjust people's focus from appearances to performance for a more positive outcome."

Snap Fitness will have its doors open to anyone to come and try the gym until Saturday.

People are invited to a boot camp session on Saturday morning at Lake Pertobe from 9am. The gold coin donation entry fee will go towards 'Buy A Bale', a cause Warrnambool's Snap Fitness supports.

For more information head to snapfitness.com/au/gyms/warrnambool

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