In Which We Discover a Jungle "Gym"

Have you ever found something you didn’t know existed, right in your own backyard?

Last weekend we found a park less than two miles from our house, that also has hiking trails, a playground… and these really awesome exercise stations.

I’ve been mildly addicted to Katy Bowman‘s blog ever since I found it a few years back. She has inspired me to spend most of my time barefoot or in truly flat shoes (and to have my kids do the same), do more natural movement rather than “exercise”, and develop good postural habits by, among other things, avoiding prolonged sitting, and going for more walks. I’m working on hanging from things and taking baby steps towards doing a pull-up, and when I take the kids to the playground I mess around on the monkey bars. I hold my baby most of the time rather than using a sling or stroller, and Katy’s stretching exercises totally nixed my pregnancy hip pain.

One of the things I’ve tried to do that Katy does so well is to create an outdoor movement “gym”. I found this extremely hard to do in my area, mostly because my yard is just not conducive to that and is a bit of a death trap for the little ones. So, I’m really stoked that we found this park with these cool exercise stations all along the walking trail.

I’ve never seen anything like this before, so I don’t know if it’s a thing everywhere that I’m just now discovering. The stations have various pieces of equipment to work your entire body using your weight as resistance, with instructions for beginner to advanced. There’s even a wobble board thing to do squats and planks on. Fun but tough. We’ve gone twice in three days and would’ve gone today if it wasn’t for rain and an orthodontist appointment.

The gymnastics Bobbsey twins above love it because they can practice their moves on the bars and beams. I love it because my upper body and abs are SO. SORE but it was fun and didn’t feel like “exercise” (read:boring). Julien loves it because he rides his mountain bike on the trail while we slowpokes walk. The little ones love it because they’re outside. Caleb loves it because he likes to work on his pull-ups.

It’s awesome to have to duck under fallen branches and walk past little streams inbetween your stretches, lunges, squats and such.

It’s our Jungle Gym.