An exciting and varied outdoor gym that allows users to exercise while enjoying natural and designed landscapes in an open-air environment. It has been proven that taking part in outdoor activities improves health and happiness. This goes for both children and adults, so these facilities have lots of different benefits.
Studies of UK schools have found that many children have low levels of activity and this is contributing to obesity and poor health. By improving community facilities and school sports equipment, it is easier for children and other members of the community to increase their exercise levels.
A Quick Guide To Creating The Perfect Outdoor Gym
- Makes Exercise Fun – combining outdoor exercise, natural light, and sensory stimulation helps to reduce stress and encourages healthy behaviours.
- Promote Friendships – people who use outdoor gyms often socialise while exercising, strengthening community and interpersonal relationships.
- Available to Everyone – gym memberships and exercise classes are often costly. Outdoor gyms remove these barriers allowing everyone to access gym equipment
- Improve Health – Regular physical activity is essential to health and longevity. Many people report preferring exercising outdoors, which may also have a greater effect on mental and physical well-being. Outdoor exercise is also rated as being more restorative compared to indoors since natural environments reduce emotional and physiological stress.
Here are our tips on how to create the perfect outdoor gym for your community or school…
- Engage with your community – we would always recommend engaging with your community to get their ideas, vision, and feedback. Local fitness groups may even be able to offer their advice and expertise to your project. If you are looking to add an outdoor gym to your school, we would recommend engaging with the children for their feedback too.
- Location, location, location – selecting the right location for your outdoor gym is crucial. Selecting the right location is one of the first steps to take. We recommend considering the impact on your community along with access.
- Choosing the right outdoor gym equipment – The perfect outdoor gym doesn’t need to be 100% equipment based, you can create designated areas for sit-ups, press-ups etc. We would recommend selecting equipment that provides an all-over body workout. You should also provide a mix of strength and cardio-based outdoor gym equipment, for example, outdoor skiers, outdoor pedal cycles and outdoor rowers.
- Reach out for funding – community funding is available for outdoor gyms in both the community and in schools. To receive a copy of our FREE funding guide click here
- Engage with experts – work in partnership with an outdoor space expert, where they can guide you through the process. Understand the equipment warranty too.
At Timotay we are proud to have promoted this for 30 years and how spending time in nature and getting outdoors and exercising is great for children and adults alike. We offer a FREE consultation, to book please click here
