The park is a nice place to take a stroll. It’s common for a first date to pass through a park. They are in every town and offer great scenery. Have you ever thought about working out at the park? You need a place to get in a good workout. After all your home gym consists of an old weight bench and some dumbbells. The good thing is no weights necessary!
Parks offer quite a few different pieces of exercise equipment. These pieces may require some imagination but they work. You may want to get in a gym, but that does little to develop you as an exercise guru. Gyms are all machined based these days. A machine requires little thought and mind-muscle connection. Set the seat, then the weight pin, and start lifting. Workouts have become far too machine based!
Let’s look at some exercise capabilities of a common park setup.
- Park Bench – The park bench offers many options. The bench can be an elevation for some feet elevated pushups (for increased difficulty). It can also be an easier version of the pushup. Simply put your hands on the bench and feet on the ground. Any variation of the pushup works well using the bench. It is also a good option for step-ups. These are great for working the leg muscles, especially the glutes.
- Hills – Parks seem to be built on an elevated surface. If not, they have a random grassy hill. This is great for doing lunges. The steady incline will really hammer your quads (quadriceps) and hams (hamstrings). An advanced lifter could try reverse lunges going backwards up the hill. There is also the side lunge up the hill. Decline pushup walks are an innovative exercise. Start in a pushup position at the top of the hill. Do one pushup the walk your hands and feet forward one step. Then complete another rep. This will really fatigue your chest and front delts.
- Slides – Slides offer a great area for doing dips using the handrails at the top. Dips really work the triceps and pecs. Reverse hyperextensions can be done by lying on your stomach at the top of the slide. Hang your legs down the step portion of the slide. Raise your legs backwards like a normal reverse hyperextension. The hand rails on the slide also work well for doing body rows (aka reverse pushups).
- Monkey Bars – The greatest park invention ever! Monkey bars offer a great place for any style pullup. If you need more width, simply turn sideways on the monkey bars. The grip will be a little different, but it still hits the lats. Monkey bars can also be used for body rows, but be cautious.
A sample park workout
(failure refers to completing as many reps as possible in one set):
Warm-up 3-5 minute Jog
Elevated Pushups – 3 sets – failure
Pullups – 3 sets – failure
Hill Lunges – 3 sets – failure
Dips – 3 sets – failure
Body Rows – 3 sets – failure
Bench Step-ups – 2 sets – failure
Decline Pushup Walk – 2 sets – failure
Chinups – 2 sets – failure
Crunches – 2 sets – failure
The workout is all laid out. It’s time to print it out or write it down. Get your workout gear on and head to the park!
