When it comes to outdoor fitness equipment, there are plenty of considerations from price to features. But there’s something you may not have considered: should your outdoor fitness equipment use added weight at all?
In most outdoor settings, the answer is no. Bodyweight gym equipment provides benefits when it comes to maintenance, safety, durability, and functionality. Read on to learn why, and what to look for when shopping for it.
What is Bodyweight Gym Equipment?
Bodyweight gym equipment uses bodyweight as resistance, rather than weighted resistance. Instead of stacks of weights and cables, bodyweight gym equipment features a fixed piece of equipment which enables users to lift, push, or pull their own bodyweight. It has no moving mechanical parts; the user is the weight.
Examples of bodyweight gym equipment includes:
- Pull-up bars: Horizontal bars used to pull the body up
- Dip stations: Parallel bars used for tricep and chest dips
- Parallel bars: Waist-height bars used for gymnastics, dips, and L-sits.
- Chest presses: Targets the chest, shoulders, and arms.
- Leg presses: Targets the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Benefits of Bodyweight Workouts
Bodyweight gym equipment isn’t the norm at most gyms, but it should be. There are many benefits of bodyweight workouts that weighted machines simply can’t provide. Read on to learn more.
Builds Functional Strength
While weighted gym equipment typically works out a single group of muscles at a time, bodyweight equipment strengthens a full group of muscles. For instance, a pull-up works the shoulders, lats, biceps, and core simultaneously. A lat pull down, on the other hand, isolates the lats.
Here’s why that matters: moving through life doesn’t require individual muscle strength, but the strength of a group of muscles working together. If you want to climb, lift heavy objects, or hoist yourself up onto something, a pull-up is far more beneficial than a lat pulldown.
Enables Creative Workouts
Contrary to popular opinion, bodyweight machinery is also less limiting than weighted workouts. Bodyweight equipment’s simple design enables a wider range of movements.
With pull-up bars, you can do assisted, traditional, and wide-grip pullups, hanging workouts like knee raises and leg raises, and other exercises. Similarly, dip bars can be used for standard dips, inverted rows, bodyweight curls, L-sits, and more. With a lat pulldown machine, you can simply do lat pulldowns, and not much else.
Adaptable to a Range of Fitness Levels
For public or mixed-use exercise spaces, simplicity is essential. Visitors may have a range of experience levels. Weighted machines require selecting and loading a weight, understanding the machine’s mechanisms, and resetting it for the next user. Using these machines without a certain level of knowledge can create an unsafe situation. Simple bodyweight machinery, on the other hand, requires much less know-how.
Why Choose Bodyweight Gym Equipment for Outdoor Fitness Spaces?
Bodyweight equipment is functional in all sorts of environments, but it’s particularly practical in outdoor fitness settings.
Lower Maintenance
Weighted machines have parts that wear out, corrode, and ultimately fail. Cables fray, weights rust, and moving parts require regular lubrication. In a controlled, indoor setting with daily staff, this type of maintenance is doable. In outdoor facilities, which are often unmanned and exposed to rain, frost, UV, and salt spray, that level of maintenance is unmanageable.
Bodyweight gym equipment is inherently less complex. There’s much less to lubricate, adjust, or maintain. Beyond the protective coatings and rubber grips, few parts need even occasional maintenance.
Safer
Most outdoor fitness facilities like parks and other public spaces are unsupervised on a day-to-day basis. For these environments, safe equipment is a necessity. Weighted machines pose much more danger, from pinched fingers and crushed limbs. Whether due to misuse or tampering, they have many more risks in an unstaffed environment. Simple bodyweight designs are much safer.
What to Look For in Bodyweight Gym Equipment
Not all bodyweight gym equipment is designed equally. For an outdoor gym, look for the following features.
Steel Construction
Outdoor gym equipment needs to be durable. Standard commercial gym equipment is made from plastic parts that simply can’t stand up to the elements. To ensure your equipment lasts, look for equipment made from heavy-duty steel.
Surface Protection
The one pitfall of steel construction is its susceptibility to rust and corrosion. To prevent it, choose bodyweight gym equipment with powder coatings. Double check that your equipment’s surface protection is made to withstand your environment.
Tamper-Proof Design
Without locking doors or regular staff, tampering with gym equipment can be a significant concern. Look for equipment with simple design and fewer parts that can be tampered with. Tamper-proof features like one-way screws and welded closures also prevent vandalism.
Ground Anchors
Ground anchors keep your equipment stable and prevent tipping incidents or theft. Make sure you use the correct ground anchors for your equipment; insufficient anchors can result in serious injury.
Choosing the Right Bodyweight Equipment for your Gym: What to Consider
When evaluating bodyweight gym equipment for your fitness space, consider the following questions to help guide your selection.
Who and how many people will use your gym?
A large public park requires much more equipment than a small residential fitness center. Similarly, a senior center calls for a different set of machinery than a military base. Consider your population before deciding the type and quantity of bodyweight gym equipment.
What is the climate?
Outdoor gym equipment in temperate climates can survive on a standard powder coating, whereas coastal or high-humidity environments require treatments beneath the powder coating to protect equipment.
What are the accessibility requirements?
For a public facility or senior center, accessibility is a must. In addition to including standard bodyweight equipment, be sure to include wheelchair-accessible bodyweight gym equipment, as well as equipment that builds balance and stability in addition to strength.
Discover Purpose-Built Bodyweight Gym Equipment for Outdoor Gyms
Bodyweight gym equipment provides a level of practical strength training that most weighted machines simply cannot match. Plus, it’s better suited towards outdoor settings. Lower maintenance needs, tamper-proof design, and durable construction make it the best equipment for outdoor gyms.
For equipment that lasts, shop TriActive USA’s purpose-built outdoor gym equipment. Get exceptional performance without the typical vulnerabilities of fitness equipment. Contact us today to get started.
