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Fun Playground Workout Ideas for Grown-ups

Do you remember how much fun you had exercising as a kid? No? That’s because you were having too much fun to think of it as exercise. Every time you played at the playground you were getting a full body workout. Sadly as we grow up exercise becomes more complicated and expensive. You don’t need a gym membership or fancy equipment to get a great full body work out. You can get a great workout at your neighborhood park. Below are some playground workout ideas for grown ups to get you started having fun and getting fit.

Monkey Bar Workouts

Monkey bars can give a fantastic upper body workout for grown ups. Just getting across the bars strengthens your arms, chests, upper back and grip strength, and gives you bit of a cardio work out as well. If you are like me and are too tall to cross the monkey bars, just tuck those knees into your chest for a great abdominal workout too. Don’t worry if you can’t get all the way across at first. Keep practicing and you’ll notice a marked improvement over the weeks.

Gym Structures

By gym structures I mean things with stairs or ramps, slides, bridges, etc. There are great for leg work and cardio. You can do a number of things to work out with gym structures. The easiest is to make a ‘race obstacle course’ throughout the structure. It could be something like run up the stairs (two at a time works your gultes more), across the bridge, down the slide, cross underneath the structure and then circle around to the stairs again. Climbing up and down the structure can make for the best leg workout for grown ups.

Exercising with Swings

Swings are my favorite thing at the playground. Not only are they a fun way to pretend you’re flying, but they also act like a moving rowing machine. It is easy to swing and only get a workout in part of your body so be sure to pay attention to your technique. Begin swinging using your legs and upper body to get your momentum. No cheating and pushing off the ground.

When you being and as you continue to swing, be sure to lean way back as far as your arms will let you and reach your legs as far in front of you as possible. Then when you are curling back in use your abdominal and arms to pull your upper body back in and pump your legs back as if you are trying to kick your bottom.

The further you lean our and the stronger you pull in the more of a work out you’ll get. You’ll also find yourself swinging really high. If you get too high, lay back in a ‘plank’ position and hold it until you have slowed down enough to keep going.

Precautions

Unlike exercising in a gym, you do need to be mindful of any children that might be playing at the playground.  Try and choose times when there aren’t many children around to do your playground workouts. This isn’t always possible, so use your good judgment and if there are only a few kids just be mindful of them and share the equipment.

There are many ways for grown ups to workout at a playground, some like to do more traditional exercises, like pull ups on the monkey bars, but  just using the play equipment as it was meant to be used can also give you a great workout and is a great way to spend some time playing with your kids.

This article on fun workout ideas for grown-ups at a playground has been written expert author ‘Emily Cordz’.