David Cameron and Barack Obama today engaged in a bout of treadmill diplomacy as they tried to grapple with the problems of the global economy.
The two leaders took to the gym together at the US President's Camp David retreat in Maryland in an effort to come up with a solution to the eurozone crisis.
The unusual setting for their high level discussions took place ahead of the main working session on the global economy at the G8 summit.
It came after officials had worked through the night to find an agreed form of wording on the issue for the final summit communique.
The president was said to have called for Mr Cameron at around 7.15am at his log cabin - called Maple - at the complex high in the picturesque Appalachian Mountains.
After a session pounding the treadmills, the two men emerged still deep in conversation. They were seen walking back to the cabins around 7.50am.
Labour's Chris Bryant said the treadmill summed up the prime minister, tweeting Cameron was "all puff and bother getting nowhere."
Officials attending the summit were coy about which man had been the more athletic performer - instead emphasising the intellectual content of their encounter.
Television pictures later showed the G8 leaders, casually dressed, squeezed round a tiny round table in one of the cabins, as they opened their talks for the day.
Mr Cameron, wearing a grey jumper and check shirt, was placed between Mr Obama and Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev - both sporting blue, open neck shirts.