Great Exercises You Can Do At Your Local Park

In recent days, more people have decided that it is better to head outdoors for their workouts. On top of saving money on a gym membership, visiting your local park to exercise offers a ton of benefits that come from taking in some fresh air and sunshine. When you’re ready to rev up your current routine, consider trying out these exercises that are all park-friendly.

Every good workout begins with proper stretching, and you can even strike some yoga poses to turn this into a full strength-training workout. Bring a yoga mat, or look for a park with comfortable surfacing. Then, do some simple warm up stretches to get you ready for a major workout.

A traditional chin up and pull up works all of those critical muscles in your arms and upper back. Outdoor gym equipment often has multiple areas where you can give those biceps and lats a serious strength-training workout. If you are new to this type of exercise, then check out parks with multiple bar heights that let you have better control over the movement. Horizontal chin up stations work those muscles in different ways so that you can change things up each day.

Incline benches at parks are the perfect place to increase the intensity of your abdominal crunches. You’ll also find that using a balance board challenges your core in ways that you can’t always do on the ground. Once again, those trusty bars at the playground also give you a comfortable place to rest your forearms for hanging leg raises that push your core muscles to the limit.

A walk in the park is an excellent form of low impact cardio that is ideal for people within all different fitness level ranges. While you can always go for a meandering walk along the sidewalk, outdoor fitness equipment also makes it easy to maximize the intensity of this simple cardio workout. Try walking on a manual treadmill with an incline that is included in the playground furnishings. Cardio walkers also give slight resistance as you move your legs that helps you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time.

Playgrounds with quality outdoor fitness equipment typically have all of the features that you need to complete a circuit training workout. Being able to move from working out your arms to your legs and then your core allows you to turn your strength-training days into full body workouts that show quick results. Try doing some interval training by jogging in place between your strength sets. You’ll end your day at the park with a serious sense of accomplishment for how well you worked out your body.

The best part about park workouts is that it doesn’t take much to get ready. When you visit a park with the right equipment already there, all you need is a comfortable pair of shoes, some sunscreen and water. Now, go ahead and give these workouts a try. You’ll benefit from changing up your routine, and you may even find a few new favorites to add to your fitness routine.