Outdoor Gyms

Ironé

I work on a town committee and we have received a grant to install an outdoor gym in our local area. I was wondering if anyone has used these outdoor gyms and if they are worth while. Are there any pieces of equipment you feel would not be worth getting?

I have heard that some of them can be very poor quality - has anyone come across this? Or know where I could get independent reviews of equipment?

Zamboni

This would be a good idea to copy.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.211370808886269.51122.211369468886403&type=3&__adt=2

South Dublin County Council have set up similar but not as elaborate equipment in Cabinteely and Deer Park in Dublin.
They have details of suppliers.
Just remember good procurement guidelines...

Ironé

I have already gotten 3 quotes for 10 different pieces of equipment. The company we were hoping to go with looked great but I was told by the man supplying our playground equipment that they are very poor quality - he even went so far as to show me photos. Now he easily could have a vested interest as he quickly followed this by saying he could get me a better quote

I have my funding ready I just need to pick a company and get the equipment installed. I just want to make sure we get the best quality equipment and the best pieces.

Transform

Ironé wrote: »

I work on a town committee and we have received a grant to install an outdoor gym in our local area. I was wondering if anyone has used these outdoor gyms and if they are worth while. Are there any pieces of equipment you feel would not be worth getting?

I have heard that some of them can be very poor quality - has anyone come across this? Or know where I could get independent reviews of equipment?

The one in greystones looks really really impressive and the way forward by a mile

ferike1

+1 for Primrose Park.

We need Bar-starzz/Bar-Barbians Irish Branch!

Ironé

Thanks will check those out.

discus

Ironé wrote: »

I have already gotten 3 quotes for 10 different pieces of equipment. The company we were hoping to go with looked great but I was told by the man supplying our playground equipment that they are very poor quality - he even went so far as to show me photos. Now he easily could have a vested interest as he quickly followed this by saying he could get me a better quote

I have my funding ready I just need to pick a company and get the equipment installed. I just want to make sure we get the best quality equipment and the best pieces.

Very good of you to check boards.ie, this forum is a good sounding board for ideas like this. Unlike the man you mentioned above, none of us have vested interests.

Is there a possibility of you outlining what equipment, layout and size you are looking for? We could all put our minds together, design an ideal version, and you could see how your current tenders fit into it!

Here's the equipment and installations I would like to see:

1) Pull up bars, of various heights would
2) Parallel bars, if possible have various widths
3) Horizontal monkey bars
4) Sit up stations (as seen in zambonis post)
5) Rings (see this link)
6) Benches - for people who bring their own dumbells or kettlebells to sit on and use etc., they could be wooden ones even.
7) A simple track for sprinting - 100m
8) A track (of cement, or concrete) of ~50m for people to push a prowler along (see link)
9) A number of rubbered areas (2mx3m) for people who bring their barbells.... bit of a push this one, but it could also be used for people as stretching areas.

That would be an easy design, simply constructed and cheap to maintain, within a small area.

A request and a warning - Take a look at Clontarf Promenade... They have a number of very useless pieces of equipment along the way, which they announced with much fanfare. Of the 9 or so stations, only 2 provide any sort of fitness use. The rest are useless bits of metal for the very old or very young to get a whirl at.

Such as this
Or this
Or this
All fairly useless - someone sold this to the CC as elite fitness equipment :mad:

People in positions such as your own are usually less proactive that you, Ironé, and so their lack of research means they purchase expensive equipment that gets little use. I hope more people come online to give their own ideas, and that you bring along a project that will give much more to their area. Best of luck.

Ironé

So here is what the 3 separate quotes included:

Quote 1
1) Surfboard (Double Unit)
2) ThiChi Pushing (Double Unit)
3) Seated Pedal Machine (Double Unit)
4) Pull Down Trainer (Double Unit)
5) Shoulder Joint (Double Unit)
6) Waste Movement (Triple Unit)
7) The Rider
8) Massager (Double Unit)
9) Cross Trainer
10) Parallel Bars (Double Unit)
11) Air Walker

Quote 2
Cross Trainer
Air Walker
Double Rider
Sit Up Board
Surfboard
Tai Chi Spinners
Leg Press
Waist Twister
Dip Bars
Shoulder Builder

Quote 3
Fitness Rider
Low-impact Walker
Elliptical Cross Trainer
Shoulder Flexor
Standing Rotator
Leg Press
Back Massager

I know this says nothing about the quality - but your feedback would be hugely appreciated.

ferike1

Sorry but I don't see any pull up bars there? Or Monkey bars.

Those should be the cornerstone of any outdoor gym.

All you would need really is a set of parallel bars and pullup bars. The rest is just expensive window dressing. Btw, I think its great what you are doing, just giving honest feedback!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3MTqRWPiZU

Those are playgrounds in Budapest and they have it pretty much spot on.

Pace2008

ferike1 wrote: »

Those are playgrounds in Budapest and they have it pretty much spot on.

I'd probably leave out the giant turquoise phallus your man's standing beside though, personally.

ferike1

I meant the pullup bars :rolleyes:

There is always one wiseguy lol

meijin

Ironé wrote: »

So here is what the 3 separate quotes included:

None of these. Most are pretty useless. Does anybody actually use that?
Website price for one of the packages around 16K :eek::eek::eek:

What "discus" listed makes more sense.

PS should I provide links to their websites?

Jarren

Go on....

Ironé

None of this stuff is made in Ireland either. It would be a good business venture.

I have to go with one of these unfortunately.

It's been great to get your advice.

Next year we're hoping to plan a lot of events and initiatives to promote health and fitness so I will def be picking your brains then too.

meijin

Ironé wrote: »

None of this stuff is made in Ireland either. It would be a good business venture.

And any of the quoted is? Not in China?

I have to go with one of these unfortunately.

Just waste of money IMO... better save it for something else.

Ironé

You misunderstood me - none of the quotes are made in Ireland is what I meant.

The money is mostly a grant specifically for this. We don't use it - we get nothing.

WalterMitty

What i always want but cant find in Dublin is stairs with non slip type surface that you can walk up to work your legs/sprint up . Step heights could vary so older people could even use them.

meijin

Ironé wrote: »

The money is mostly a grant specifically for this. We don't use it - we get nothing.

Sports Capital Program? Then somebody else can use it for something better, why waste it on equipment like that? And why is your choice limited only to those 3?

And it all sounded so promising at the start...

The Davestator

This equipment is designed to cater for people who don't exercise at all at the moment so chin up stations etc are not suitable. Most Dublin parks have very easy stuff which encourages participation instead of a free gym for SQUATS DEADLIFTS CHINS AND DIP people!

Hanley

The Davestator wrote: »

This equipment is designed to cater for people who don't exercise at all at the moment so chin up stations etc are not suitable. Most Dublin parks have very easy stuff which encourages participation instead of a free gym for SQUATS DEADLIFTS CHINS AND DIP people!

100% this.

The amount of people who'd get actual use out of the equipment would be minimal.

Be careful of proximity bias, everyone

ferike1

Ah that is a shame, well at least one has parallel bars in there I think. Get that one. Its a start

Ironé

meijin wrote: »

Sports Capital Program? Then somebody else can use it for something better, why waste it on equipment like that? And why is your choice limited only to those 3?

And it all sounded so promising at the start...

It's a leader grant and we worked our asses off to get it so I won't be walking away from it. I live in a rural town - not Dublin so there aren't anywhere near the range of facilities.

We are not limited to these 3 but these were the only companies I could find. If you know of any that do this better please send me on their details.

ferike1

You could try

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Limerick-Strongman-Club/102398083717

Limerick Strongman Club

These guys custom build gym equipment. I am pretty sure they could throw together a few freestanding pullup bars that can be placed in the group and some parallel bars. Probably cheaper but definitely infinitely more useful than all that fancy airwalker stuff.

Plus you are supporting the local economy

cc87

Ironé wrote: »

So here is what the 3 separate quotes included:

Quote 1
.......

Quote 2
........

Quote 3
.........

I know this says nothing about the quality - but your feedback would be hugely appreciated.

I dont know about anyone else......but I dont what half the pieces of equipment there do but it does sound like they will have a lot moving parts. Moving parts and the irish weather tends to mean a lot of upkeep.

Would you be able to supply links or anything to give a better indication of the equipment?

What are the limitations placed on you in terms of how to spend the money? Is there any health promotion units or sports partnerships in your area you could look to for advice? Or even local companies/tradesmen you could approach and work with?

meijin

my guess (and for anybody curious what these machines actually look like):

Quote 1
http://www.dynamx.ie/#/outdoor-exercise-range/4544790743

Quote 2
http://www.onlyoutdoors.ie/packages/10-piece-standard-set.html

Quote 3
http://www.outfit.ie - website is a bit slow... videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/outfitireland

Ironé

Thanks for the feedback so far - i'm going to look into the suggestions you have made tomorrow.

Another thing to bear in mind and what I should have outlined from the start is the aim of this 'outdoor gym'. We want to encourage people to get active and get fit. We want there to be something for people of all levels of fitness and ability. We wanted to include stuff in there for older people too.

If you want to get an idea of the stuff we had looked at, google outdoor gym equipment and look at pages from Ireland. They have more stuff than what was included in the quote so I will go back and see if they have some of the items you have suggested.

With regard to how can we use the money - it is specifically for an outdoor gym. I will talk to some local sports people to see what they think.

Ironé

meijin wrote: »

my guess (and for anybody curious what these machines actually look like):

Quote 1
http://www.dynamx.ie/#/outdoor-exercise-range/4544790743

Quote 2
http://www.onlyoutdoors.ie/packages/10-piece-standard-set.html

Quote 3
http://www.outfit.ie - website is a bit slow... videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/outfitireland

Impressive

I didn't think I could name them as I thought I might be breaking some board rule.

WeeBushy

There's a lot of people on here who are very creative at creating gym equipment, maybe someone on here could put together a proposal

Zamboni

The Davestator wrote: »

This equipment is designed to cater for people who don't exercise at all at the moment so chin up stations etc are not suitable. Most Dublin parks have very easy stuff which encourages participation instead of a free gym for SQUATS DEADLIFTS CHINS AND DIP people!

Fair point but with so much unused equipment in the outdoor locations in Dublin there is definately a middle ground to be reached.

Thud

Have you spoken with the people from dublin parks?
Might be able to tell you what usage has been like on the stuff they bought etc. Any downsides too (vandalism etc)

You'd probably get more bang for your buck by including some pull up bars and parrallel bars, plus they'll last a lot longer than stuff with moving parts.

The equipment in your quotes have a great novelty factor and kids love to jump on them but doubt the get a lot ot repeat users....might be wrong


Don't know if you saw this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056590410

Hanley

Cabinteely Park is absolutely AWESOME. Definiately check that out.

Photo credit to http://www.irishfitness.ie/

Zamboni

Hanley wrote: »

Cabinteely Park is absolutely AWESOME. Definiately check that out.

Agreed. It's the best I've seen.
Has anyone figured out the purpose of equipment peice number two in the photos?

Hanley

Zamboni wrote: »

Agreed. It's the best I've seen.
Has anyone figured out the purpose of equipment peice number two in the photos?

Hand walks from a dip position up and down, I'd guess.

Could use it for dynamic dips.

Could also use it for push ups, facing up or down to increase/decrease resistance.

kevpants

Hanley wrote: »

100% this.

The amount of people who'd get actual use out of the equipment would be minimal.

Be careful of proximity bias, everyone

From what I've seen though the equipment mentioned above is exactly the same as what's installed in Clontarf which is completely unused. I mean what the hell is the point of the massage roller one or the one where you just spin a wheel??

It would be nice to strike a happy medium.

I think one of the reasons these things can go unused is that anyone curious or wanting to give them a go is going to be put off by the fact that there is never anyone using them. If you had equipment that people who train would use it might increase the footfall in the outdoor gym and attract people in.

rubadub

Ironé wrote: »

So here is what the 3 separate quotes included:

Have you a link to the website on these?

ferike1 wrote: »

Sorry but I don't see any pull up bars there? Or Monkey bars.

Those should be the cornerstone of any outdoor gym.

+1

The equipment sounds similar to ones I have seen in blackrock park & near sandycove. Very expensive looking stuff and not a simple chinup bar in sight. It is like people are designing them to look impressive and sell onto people who also think they look good, but are not of much use. I would rather take an actual walk around the parks than stand on a cross trainer yoke with no resistance, none of the machines I used seemed to give any resistance.

The Davestator wrote: »

This equipment is designed to cater for people who don't exercise at all at the moment so chin up stations etc are not suitable.

On the site that manufactures the ones in sandycove & blackrock many had chin up bars & dip stations incorporated into the designs. This is very easy to do, once you have a strong frame why not stick on more bars. Any set of monkey bars could easily have a dip station incorporated at the ends. In cabinteely the most used item I see is the chinup bars, in the other parks with the fancy stuff people seem to be just messing on them for a minute like its a playground -in fact it is mainly tiny kids I see on them flying along due to there being no resistance.

This is the manufacturers site http://products.kompan.com/us/Products/FITACTIVE/X-ERCISE/index.html

I mentioned it before in this thread about parks
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056590410

This is the stuff at sandycove, I think this photo shows 5 of the 6 things they installed which costed €29,000, a decent stationary setup would have been a fraction of that.

Zamboni wrote: »

Has anyone figured out the purpose of equipment peice number two in the photos?

I posted the pic on another forum and a gymnastics coach was just recommending to do hand walks & dips like Hanley, He didn't mention any special name for them. The rails are closer together than the parallel bars in the same park, and thicker.

Transform

Ironé wrote: »

None of this stuff is made in Ireland either. It would be a good business venture.

I have to go with one of these unfortunately.

It's been great to get your advice.

Next year we're hoping to plan a lot of events and initiatives to promote health and fitness so I will def be picking your brains then too.

then it's a complete waste of taxpayers money again.

More decisions being made by poorly informed people

Ironé

Transform wrote: »

then it's a complete waste of taxpayers money again.

More decisions being made by poorly informed people

With respect can you outline for me how well informed you are? Where do I live? What is the demographic of the area? Who uses the park and needs the equipment? Does this area, which has been badly hit by the recession, not deserve a good free outdoor fitness area that will benefit a range of members of the community?

Am I not making an effort here to become better informed?

This has been a huge amount of work and stress to get this far. It's all voluntary. I think this would be a great use of tax payers money as it would benefit such a large group of people if we can get it right.

Maybe you should become more informed yourself before making narky comments like that. But I guess sitting at your computer it's just easier to make a quick judgement with no background information at all.

andrewg82

nice idea but not with the irish climate

Ironé

rubadub wrote: »

In the other parks with the fancy stuff people seem to be just messing on them for a minute like its a playground -in fact it is mainly tiny kids I see on them flying along due to there being no resistance.

I think this seems to be the crux of the issue with these outdoor gyms - there is no challenge after so long so eventually they will just fall out of use completely. At such expense we need better than that.

I'll look at the parks you have suggested as good examples and see if we can get quotes from them too.

I really don't want to give up on the idea completely - from what many of you have been saying if we got proper equipment (monkey bars etc.) this is something that could really be used.

Thanks again. This has been a real eye opener.

Armand Tamzarian

Have to agree with the above posts. I run on the seafront in clontarf a fair bit and absolutely no-one uses the stuff thats there. The very odd time ill see someone using the dipping station but thats about it. It really is a shame becuse a lot of people hold bootcamps and train for soccer and football there so a few stations like the ones in Cabinteely would have been fantastic. I use one of the stations as distance marker as its exactly 2.5 km from my gaff. Thats about all any of them are good for.

Ironé

Armand Tamzarian wrote: »

Have to agree with the above posts. I run on the seafront in clontarf a fair bit and absolutely no-one uses the stuff thats there. The very odd time ill see someone using the dipping station but thats about it. It really is a shame becuse a lot of people hold bootcamps and train for soccer and football there so a few stations like the ones in Cabinteely would have been fantastic. I use one of the stations as distance marker as its exactly 2.5 km from my gaff. Thats about all any of them are good for.

There are two people here who do bootcamps locally - I will get in touch with them and see if we got in the equipment like that in Cabinteely if they could get use out of them.

There is a set of gym equipment like those we were quoted in Ballincollig in Cork and someone was saying to me that they are used a lot.

I'm from near Clontarf originally. Is that stuff on the coast road? I know it's quite open there - would that perhaps put some people off - being so exposed?

kevpants

Ironé wrote: »

There are two people here who do bootcamps locally - I will get in touch with them and see if we got in the equipment like that in Cabinteely if they could get use out of them.

Doing this would put you head and shoulders ahead of any employee of a local authority that has ever spent budget on anything ever to the power of infinity.

All joking aside you're doing the right thing by reaching out to the fitness community. I think conversations with local personal trainers and bootcamp owners and ask them the simple question:

"What would we have to install to get you to hold your classes or train your clients there rather than the local gyms or parks"

Armand Tamzarian

Ironé wrote: »

There are two people here who do bootcamps locally - I will get in touch with them and see if we got in the equipment like that in Cabinteely if they could get use out of them.

There is a set of gym equipment like those we were quoted in Ballincollig in Cork and someone was saying to me that they are used a lot.

I'm from near Clontarf originally. Is that stuff on the coast road? I know it's quite open there - would that perhaps put some people off - being so exposed?

Yeah its on the coast road. Along the path closest to the sea (if that makes sense) so its not really that exposed to traffic on the road. An awful lot of runners and walkers use that stretch of seafront and really only kids use the equipment there, and then only as a laugh for about 30 seconds. Its a bit of a joke to be honest and as someone said earlier a complete waste of money. I would have loved to have been in on the pitch meeting to dublin city council.

Ironé

kevpants wrote: »

Doing this would put you head and shoulders ahead of any employee of a local authority that has ever spent budget on anything ever to the power of infinity.

All joking aside you're doing the right thing by reaching out to the fitness community. I think conversations with local personal trainers and bootcamp owners and ask them the simple question:

"What would we have to install to get you to hold your classes or train your clients there rather than the local gyms or parks"

Yeah I definitely think that's what needs to be done. There are two women who do bootcamps, a physio who does pilates, a GAA club and a soccer club. It makes no sense to proceed without their input. Thanks again so much - all your input has kind of put me on this path - which should have been glaringly obvious to be honest.

Just to be clear - I am doing this as a volunteer on a town development association. Unfortunately our local authority has not the budget or the personal to get involved in this - although thankfully they cover the insurance. It would be way too expensive to that as an individual group.

If anyone reads this who is thinking of doing similar and wants any information on the process we went through PM me anytime.

Ironé

Armand Tamzarian wrote: »

Yeah its on the coast road. Along the path closest to the sea (if that makes sense) so its not really that exposed to traffic on the road. An awful lot of runners and walkers use that stretch of seafront and really only kids use the equipment there, and then only as a laugh for about 30 seconds. Its a bit of a joke to be honest and as someone said earlier a complete waste of money. I would have loved to have been in on the pitch meeting to dublin city council.

I know where you mean - you are a good bit back from the road alright. That's a shame as it is a lot of money. I would be gutted if we put in something and it just lay idle. I'd be physically sick looking at it every day.

Hanley

Ironé wrote: »

.

Maybe you should become more informed yourself before making narky comments like that. But I guess sitting at your computer it's just easier to make a quick judgement with no background information at all.

Baaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha :D:D:D

Long Legged Mack Daddy

Ironé wrote: »

I work on a town committee and we have received a grant to install an outdoor gym in our local area. I was wondering if anyone has used these outdoor gyms and if they are worth while. Are there any pieces of equipment you feel would not be worth getting?

I have heard that some of them can be very poor quality - has anyone come across this? Or know where I could get independent reviews of equipment?

These outdoor gyms are a novelty and a waste of public money. I know of three parks with them and you very rarely see anyone using them. They're white elephants waiting to be scrap metal.

ferike1

Hence we are saying keep it cheap and simple, with the one in cabinteely being the benchmark.

Doug Cartel

I haven't seen any of the local outdoor gyms, but one thing I saw on holiday that looked fairly neat was a small collection of bars and whatnot with a large sign describing a beginner, intermediate, and advanced circuit you could do on them. I thought it was good that it showed how to combine the equipment into a workout instead of just leaving you figure it out yourself.

Transform

Ironé wrote: »

With respect can you outline for me how well informed you are? Where do I live? What is the demographic of the area? Who uses the park and needs the equipment? Does this area, which has been badly hit by the recession, not deserve a good free outdoor fitness area that will benefit a range of members of the community?

Am I not making an effort here to become better informed?

This has been a huge amount of work and stress to get this far. It's all voluntary. I think this would be a great use of tax payers money as it would benefit such a large group of people if we can get it right.

Maybe you should become more informed yourself before making narky comments like that. But I guess sitting at your computer it's just easier to make a quick judgement with no background information at all.

That's a laugh as I used to do personal training years ago from the park in cabinteely using the benches and playground in the mornings and was asked by the park manager(jim, not sure if he is still there now but really proactive guy) in selection of the equipment that went in - much of what was suggested were those totally rubbish air walkers and all the other stuff you listed which I told him to completely avoid

I pushed for all the equipment to be set up in one area but they wanted to go for it being spread out around the park.

I live on the edge of that park and use it often. Oh and I have worked in the fitness industry for 15 years now so can decide quickly as to what's useful and what's a waste of money.

Best of luck with it

Mickk

I think cardio and machine based outdoor equipment (which is pretty much everything on your quotes) doesn't get used not because it's in a public location but because it just doesn't work. It might look similar to a gym piece and have the same name but it feels nothing like a gym cross trainer or chest press. The reason that pullup, dip and other bodyweight pieces get used is that they are exactly the same as you would get in a commercial gym, you can really do a workout on them.

Unfortunately they do only cater to a young beginner or fitter audience but the fact is that there is nothing practical available for older beginners or overweight people... Also at the end of the day, I think it's unanimous that any cardio/machine resistance outdoor gyms very rarely get used and are a waste of space. Even on south beach, with the weather and a very health and fitness concious attitude, they have both types on the beach and it's always the bodyweight one that has people working out.