How to Design a Fitness Focused Playground
Being physically active is one of the most important actions people of all ages can take to enhance their overall health. A well-designed fitness playground gives kids and adults the opportunity to experience heart-healthy cardiovascular activity and strength training exercises through the right level of challenge and access for all abilities. Through a variety of fitness courses and specifically designed circuits and equipment, fitness playgrounds are a great way to capitalize on staying physically fit while enticing everyone to exercise outdoors.
Playground Exercises
Playgrounds offer more benefits than fresh air and a means to get out of the house. There are a multitude of playground exercises for adults and kids that transform a person’s physical fitness by building strength and improving endurance. Playground exercises can be a fun family activity and a great example for kids to see adults taking care of their health. Playground exercises that encourage climbing, jumping, and running lead to increased cardiovascular health and greater upper- and lower-body strength. Playground fitness equipment can also help to improve balance, agility, and hand/eye coordination.
Designing Adult Fitness Playgrounds
There is a kid inside all of us waiting to be unleashed. Playgrounds that tap into the desire to let loose will entice adults to get moving and active. Our wide range of fun and effective playground fitness equipment pulls that inner child off the sidelines and onto the playground with both creative and challenging activities. Outdoor adult fitness playgrounds are a great way to introduce new movements to a fitness routine or add extra challenging exercises to an already robust program. Introducing variety into an exercise program keeps engagement high, targets new muscle groups, and eliminates a training plateau.
By making fitness fun, engaging, and inclusive, people of all ages and abilities will be more encouraged to adopt an active lifestyle. And parents who get moving with their children on a playground can experience the benefits of exercise and increased physical activities. Seeing parents exercise and taking care of their bodies has the added benefit of setting a good example for children, increasing the likelihood for them to participate in heart-healthy activities.
Designing Children’s Fitness Playgrounds
Playgrounds are a great way to motivate kids to be active, and our playground fitness equipment is designed with kid-style fitness in mind. Both our freestanding elements and predesigned circuit training courses introduce fitness as fun. And when fitness is fun, children are more likely to try an activity and stick with healthy fitness habits.
Various playground components provide specific fitness benefits that are crucial to healthy child development. Climbing, jumping, and running lead to increased cardiovascular health and increased upper- and lower-body strength.
Playground fitness elements like the Curved Balance Beam, Spring-Up, and Step-Up also help to improve balance, agility, and hand/eye coordination. ABC Recreation can help you put together a thoughtful fitness playground design that serves all ages of your users. We offer specific playground fitness equipment sized accordingly for various age groups that will appeal to each group’s desire for adventure with age-appropriate challenges.
Circuit Training
Circuit training is a form of whole-body conditioning that combines endurance training and resistance training with high-intensity aerobics. In circuit training, all exercises or movements are performed at a station in a circuit or loop. Strength building, muscular endurance, better balance, and coordination along with increased aerobic fitness are all benefits to circuit training. After completing a workout station, instead of resting, you move quickly to the next station. It’s ideally performed fast paced, in which one exercise is done for 30 seconds to 5 minutes and then the next exercise immediately after.
A muscular strength and endurance circuit alternates muscle groups, such as upper body, lower body, and core, so little or no rest is needed between stations. Circuit training is a great option for people who want to combine a strength and aerobic routine into one workout.
Our HealthBeat® Outdoor Fitness System includes 14 stations to choose from that target muscle strength, cardiovascular health, balance, and flexibility. Patented resistance technology on all our HealthBeat equipment builds strength to deliver a better workout. Our wheelchair-accessible stations, like the Parallel Bars and Hand Cycler, also ensure everyone of all abilities has the opportunity to improve strength and cardiovascular health. HealthBeat signage includes links to instructional videos that can be viewed on a smart device while at each fitness station so each movement can be done correctly and safely.
HealthBeat can be combined with any two stations together on a single post. The station pairing enables the system to be more cost effective and also requires a smaller footprint because one post can produce double the fitness opportunities. And because HealthBeat stations can be purchased individually, circuits can be designed specific to your needs.
In addition to HealthBeat, our FitCore™ Extreme outdoor fitness system promotes whole body fitness and agility. These configurable, high-intensity strength training courses are a fun way for kids, teens, and adults to challenge and improve their fitness. FitCore Extreme can be experienced both individually as one works to master each obstacle or in a group as a friendly competition. FitCore Extreme fitness equipment can also be made to be a circuit training course by looping the exercises repeatedly.
At ABC Recreation, our fitness playground design experts will help you create a fitness playground or circuit training layout based on your needs, available space, and budget. We place a high priority on adaptability, inclusivity, and longevity to ensure your outdoor fitness equipment will serve several purposes and a multitude of community needs for years to come. If you would like additional information or would like to add outdoor fitness equipment to your next project, please contact us.
