Working out at an outdoor park with fitness equipment

Are you looking for additional fitness options to work out outside of the traditional gym? There are a number of options including public parks with workout equipment.

But where are they? Have you tried them out?

If you search “Where is my nearest calisthenics park?” in the search bar, the results provide an address and a map so you can find your way there.

Most parks have everything you need including pull-up bars, parallel dip bars, pushup bars, straight poles and balance beams where you can work your body.

You also can search “playgrounds near me” as most playgrounds have enough equipment to use for your workouts. Most have monkey bars. park bench and steps of some sort. You may not be able to do some exercises depending on what’s in the park but you can certainly still get a killer workout.

Simpsonville City Park Fit Trail

I recently found Simpsonville City Park in Simpsonville, South Carolina when I went to the Farmer’s Market. The park combines a walking trail along with stations for a well-balanced physical fitness routine for the entire body.

Each station offers a variety of exercises including sit-ups, pull-ups, balancing, pushups and stretches giving participants the chance to work on different muscle areas of their body.

The park had a number of stations around the trail.

Free outdoor gyms are sprouting up in city parks across the country. They are one of the latest weapons in fighting the nation’s obesity epidemic.

Nearly 50% of Americans get less than the minimum recommended amount of physical activity, and 36% of U.S. adults engage in no leisure-time physical activity at all.

A gym alternative

About 20 percent of U.S. adults (or one in four adults) are meeting both the aerobic and muscle strengthening components of the federal government’s physical activity recommendations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination each week. The guidelines also recommend that children and adolescents be active for at least 60 minutes every day.

Outdoor fitness parks provide a low-stress, no-cost environment where people can go alone or in groups and enjoy walking as part of the overall exercise.

I grew up going to a park in New Jersey that had exercise stations around it. It was fun.

Each of the stations are equipped with a detailed exercise instruction sign designed to accommodate all levels of fitness: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Depending upon your fitness level, the signs specify whether you should walk, jog, or run through the sequence of stations, which contains the exercise equipment and instructions.

The health trail system of intervals develops cardiovascular conditioning, muscle development and flexibility resulting in the overall improvement and maintenance of your fitness level.

Most of my favorite workouts are outdoors. This outdoor workout can be done anywhere, in a park or in front of your home.