Interested in building an outdoor exercise space at your park? You’d be wise to do so. Park gyms offer a free way to keep your community healthy and active. The benefits of park gyms are endless: better physical and mental health, stronger community bonds, and greater accessibility for people of all ages.
It’s no wonder outdoor park gyms are becoming a popular addition to community spaces around the nation. Happier, healthier communities result in less strain on healthcare systems, safer spaces, and more productive societies.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about park exercise equipment.
We’ll cover how to choose the right equipment, share our picks for the best outdoor exercise equipment, and lay out the necessary steps for installing a gym in your park.
Benefits of Park Exercise Equipment
Installing an outdoor fitness area in your park offers all kinds of perks to your community members, park district, and your municipality. Read on to learn the many benefits of park fitness equipment.
Improves Physical Health
Regular exercise has all kinds of physical health benefits, lowering the likelihood of heart disease and stroke to osteoporosis and even some cancers. When you combine exercise with the outdoors, you unlock even more great benefits. The increase in Vitamin D strengthens bones and the immune system, plus uneven terrain adds an additional challenge that provides a deeper workout.
Improved overall health isn’t just good for your community members, but good for your community infrastructure, too. It lowers the strain on your healthcare system and correlates to greater economic growth and better educational outcomes.
Improves Mental Health
Regular exercise results in better mental health outcomes, too. It boosts endorphins and dopamine, lowers stress hormones, and improves sleep. Exercising outdoors introduces other benefits, too. Vitamin D stimulates the production of serotonin and time spent in nature boosts focus and creativity.
Better overall mental health in your community lowers instances of violence and creates a happier, more productive society.
Strengthens Community Bonds
Going to the gym isn’t just about staying physically fit. It’s also about the community experience. Adding outdoor exercise equipment for parks gives everyone in your community a free place to gather and spend time together.
Strong community bonds foster a greater sense of connection and responsibility to one’s community. That may mean more community involvement and use of community resources.
Offers Greater Accessibility
While gyms offer places to exercise, they often come with a monthly cost that many simply can’t afford. Park exercise equipment offers a completely free alternative for a full-body workout. Adding an outdoor park gym to your community gives everyone access to an essential health resource.
Fosters Environmental Stewardship
Working out outdoors helps build a personal connection to nature, which encourages people to protect it. Spending time outside promotes a more positive attitude towards natural spaces, inspiring people to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviors, like recycling, picking up litter, and even contributing financially to the protection of nature.
Builds Support for Public Works
Outdoor park gyms encourage greater utilization of public spaces. Community members will see greater value in public works and develop a more positive sentiment towards it. That may mean more funding for your district.
What to Look for in Exercise Equipment for Parks
Park exercise equipment undergoes a lot of wear and tear, so it’s important to choose it wisely. Look for the following to determine whether your equipment is built to last:
- Durable construction: Look for equipment that’s designed for repeated use every day. Choose durable metal equipment, never plastic.
- Safe design: Park exercise equipment needs to be securely attached to the ground to eliminate tipping risk. Prevent injuries by selecting equipment without free weights. Consider features like grip tape and textured surfaces to prevent slip and fall accidents.
- Weatherproofing: Depending on your location, your equipment may be exposed to rain, wind, snow, sleet, or sun. Look for weatherproof coatings designed to resist rust or corrosion.
- Low maintenance design: Minimal maintenance is best when selecting exercise equipment for parks. Select equipment with simple mechanics.
- Variety: Greater variety will drive greater use.
- Accessibility: Park exercise equipment may be used by people of all ages and ability levels. Choose a mix of accessible equipment that anyone can use.
Our Picks for Must-Have Park Exercise Equipment
Choosing the right pieces of equipment is crucial when building your park gym. To offer a full-body workout, it’s important to select a mix of cardio and strength training equipment. Let’s take a look at some of the best park fitness equipment.
Exercise Bike
Cardio is one of the cornerstones of physical fitness. Training for strength and flexibility is great, but cardio helps strengthen the cardiovascular system and build the endurance needed to stay active.
An exercise bike is a simple solution for cardio equipment at your park gym. This bike offers the same functionality as an indoor exercise bike, working out the arms, legs, and heart. People of all ages, from teens to elderly folks, can easily and safely use an exercise bike.
Elliptical Cross Trainer
An elliptical cross-trainer offers a cardio workout that challenges the upper and lower body and core, too. Its low-impact design puts less stress on the knees and ankles during workouts, a benefit to community members of all ages, but particularly seniors and those with injuries.
Parallel Bars
Parallel bars allow plenty of flexibility for a range of different workouts. Parallel bars can be used for dips, gymnastics, and bodyweight exercises. They’re also great for injury recovery and improving balance and coordination. The possibilities are endless with parallel bars, and kids love them, too.
Balance Beam
Walking on a balance beam might not seem like much of a workout, but balance plays an essential role in physical fitness. Walking on a balance beam can help strengthen and develop core muscles and help kids work on essential motor skills. Whether you’re building a playground or selecting outdoor exercise equipment for a park, the balance beam is a great addition
ADA accessible equipment
Nobody should be excluded from exercise, especially when it comes to outdoor community gyms. It’s important to install several pieces of ADA-accessible park exercise equipment in your outdoor gym.
At TriActive USA, we offer a wide range of options to help people with disabilities get a full body workout. Explore our Wheelchair Accessible Combo Press & Pull and our Accessible Multi-Gym. Or, consult one of our experts to find the best ADA park fitness equipment for your community.
How to Build an Outdoor Park Gym
Once you’ve selected your park exercise equipment, it’s time to build your gym. Let’s walk through the three basic steps of building an outdoor park gym.
Design your gym
Before building your gym, it’s important to do some careful planning:
- Location: First, select a location for your gym. If you can, pick somewhere that’s relatively flat and naturally shaded.
- Space: To determine how much space you need, first decide how much equipment you plan on investing in. Then, add plenty of space between each piece of equipment for people to maneuver around one another.
- Layout: Finally, figure out where each piece of equipment will go.
Lay the foundation
Once you have a plan, it’s time to start preparing the area. Park exercise equipment should be installed on firm, level ground to keep it from tipping over or rocking around during use. For the safest possible outcome, lay an even concrete slab, pavers, or compacted gravel as the foundation of your gym.
Install equipment
Once you’ve laid a solid foundation, it’s time to install your exercise equipment for parks. For a safe installation, bolt equipment to the ground with concrete anchors. Ensure equipment is totally level before securing it in place.
Conclusion
Physical fitness helps maintain a happy, healthy community. Park exercise equipment is a simple way to make sure everyone in your community can come together to stay active.
At TriActive USA, we’ve developed an entire catalog of outdoor gym equipment to help communities like yours stay active. Our equipment features simple, low-maintenance design. High-gauge steel tubing and a durable powder coating offer premium durability and weather resistance.
Want to learn more about how park exercise equipment can help your community stay active? Contact us and check out our catalog to start building your park gym today.
