North Trail Park's new wheelchair-accessible, multigenerational outdoor fitness area highlights a growing trend within the Miami-Dade County parks – public recreational spaces equipped with exercise equipment for community use. Individual activities like the adjustable Butterfly (left) can be combined with group workouts like the four-person leg press (center).

North Trail Park, in Miami, Fla., is a daily attraction for many segments of the local community, and offers a variety of amenities that include athletic fields and sports courts, a skate park, Zumba classes and a jogging path. To greater serve the park's users, planners looked to the growing trend of user-friendly outdoor fitness equipment as a way to encourage a more diverse population to enjoy the park.

Putting the "Great" in "Great Outdoors"
While outdoor fitness equipment has been in existence for decades in the form of pull-up bars, parallel bars, push-up bars and the like, these passive implements are typically used by a limited number of fitness enthusiasts.

Accessible units like the chest and vertical press (pictured) were designed so that users can exercise their upper bodies without transferring out of their wheelchairs. The gym was installed next to the parking lot to ensure accessibility and visibility for the community.

Outdoor fitness supplements the benefits of typical exercise with additional advantages that are specifically related to being outside. Exercise has been proven to help reduce stress and improve mood because of the "feel-good" hormones that exercise triggers within the body: dopamine, endorphins, serotonin and adrenaline. Medication is often prescribed to increase levels of these hormones to combat depression, which is why many doctors will recommend exercise to anyone with mood and anxiety issues. The benefits of outdoor fitness include the fun factor that comes from variety and a change of scenery during exercise. Activities that may not feel like a workout, like hiking, cycling, or walking, are noticeably different than exercise on an indoor stationary bike or treadmill, due in part to the sensory stimuli of the outdoors. Choosing the outdoors for fitness also delivers vitamin D via sunlight, which has been proven to lower the risk of some cancers, including breast cancer. Most importantly, outdoor fitness is easy because, for the most part, it's free.

Hydraulic units like the ab toner (left), butterfly (center) and bench press (right) use two-directional pistons that double the impact of a workout and provide eight adjustable levels of tension resistance. The machines are designed to be weatherproof and require little maintenance.

Blazing a Trail
The North Trail Park outdoor fitness zone is similar to the other fitness zones throughout Miami-Dade County; physical activities are based on self-weighted resistance units coupled with three wheelchair-accessible stations for more inclusive activities. The self-weighted resistance equipment provides low-impact, mild-to-moderate resistance and is an excellent option for those looking to increase their physical activity level with entry-level fitness. In this park, however, adjustable resistance units are available as well. For a more intense workout, users can take advantage of new hydraulic units, each of which provides eight levels of resistance. The hydraulic units also incorporate two-directional pistons to exercise the reverse muscles and double the impact of the workout. Finally, those with mobility impairments can enjoy the wheelchair-accessible exercise units.

Endorsed by U.S. Paralympian Jennifer French, these specially designed upper-body units allow users to exercise without transferring out of their wheelchairs. Greenfields Outdoor Fitness supplied 10 exercise units of various types for the project.

Ten exercise units of various types (Greenfields Outdoor Fitness) were installed at the park on a 40-foot by 46-foot concrete slab. A shade structure (Shade Systems) provides shelter from the Florida sun.

The social aspect of this new outdoor fitness zone is a driving force behind its growing popularity. Many of the exercise units are designed to accommodate multiple users, creating a space that is fun, social and motivational. The North Trail Park outdoor gym allows up to 20 people of all ages and fitness levels to exercise simultaneously – encouraging families, friends and neighbors to participate together.

"This fitness zone was a brilliant idea," said park manager Yuliet Grillo. "Our Zumba ladies use it before [their classes] to stretch and they also use it afterward to work out. All the leagues that we have at the park use the machines every afternoon to warm up, exercise and train."

Runners that frequent the park's jogging path make use of the gym as well. A shade structure was installed to provide relief during warm Miami summers, as the fitness zone is used from before sunrise to well after sunset.

The new fitness zone is a notable advantage at a park that already features a skate park, a jogging path, athletic fields, sports courts and Zumba classes.