2012-08-07_PR_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Z��w��O�� '�"�� June 29,2e12 Mom, Dad, ~�`�� Playground's � ^�� r You �ym//mm/s*u IT was aclassic father-son moment,reversed:The 2-year-old sat and watched patiently as his parent hung upside down from the monkey bars.A few feet away,a white-haired man skipped across an S-shaped metal beam.Another man squeezed his six-foot frame onto a metal rack for situps,and two others hoisted themselves up chin-up bars. Never mind the punishing diets,the gym dates and the doctors'warnings,the quest to live a healthier,more active lifestyle has come to this:playgrounds for adults. New York City is testing its first such playground in Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx,and plans to bring as many as two dozen more to neighborhoods across the five boroughs in the next 18 months,park officials said. The goal is to lure people off their couches and into the outdoors with specially designed playground equipment—in grown-up shades like forest green and beige—that recall the joy of childhood play while tightening up flabby abs, thighs and triceps. Though there are no swings or slides—these are essentially outdoor gyms—such playgrounds not only have the look of traditional children's play spaces,but they are also built in some cases by the same manufacturers. The adult playground concept is borrowed from China and parts of Europe,where outdoor fitness areas for adults have become as routine as high-fiber diets or vitamin D supplements in preventive care,particularly for older people. Now a growing number of city and park officials,health experts and community leaders throughout the country are praising the health and social benefits of adult playgrounds.They say that the playgrounds will succeed where treadmills have failed io combating rising rates of obesity and related illnesses by enticing the grown-ups out for play dates. "Let's face it,most of us dread going to the gym,"said Dr.David Ludwig,a Harvard Medical School professor who directs the Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's Hospital."The point is to make physical activity fun,easy and accessible,mo it's the normal thing todo.^ Adult playgrounds have spread across the nation,including to Miami-Dade County in Florida,where four fitness zones with advanced strength-training equipment opened this year in neighborhoods with high rates of cardiovascular diseases.San Antonio has added outdoor fitness stations to 30 parks since 201o.Los Angeles has 30,