Mexican officials are giving free train tickets to any passenger that wants to improve their health.

Mexico City train stations have been fitted-out with machines that dispense a free ride to any passengers who perform 10 squats.

The machines also hand out pedometers to users, so they can track their energy output.

Mexico City’s subway has over five million daily users, paying about $0.43 per trip. In a country where the minimum wage is 70 pesos ($6.05) a day, a free ride will help plenty of people.

Thirty of the squat machines have been installed so far.

The “health stations” tell passengers how many calories they have burned, as part of a novel approach for health chiefs wanting to fight Mexico's mounting obesity levels.

Official figures say about 70 per cent of adults and nearly a third of Mexican children are overweight or obese - a rate even higher than that in the United States or Australia.

“Levels of excess weight and obesity concern us greatly. For me, it's the number one public health problem,” the Mexico City’s health secretary, Jose Armando Ahued Ortega, said.

The project was devised by leftist mayor Miguel Angel Mancera.