By Wanita Nicol
Go out and play! Your local park has all the equipment you need to tone up fast.  

Get Off The Bench!

You take the kids to the park, they run around, you sit on a bench – or in your car – and savour a quiet moment to catch up on your Instagram feed. Sound familiar? Well, this spring, we’re challenging you to stop warming the bench and join the game. Your local park is essentially an outdoor gym, minus the grunting breker dudes, lingering aroma of eu de sweat and No-Concept-Of-Personal-Space guy. Climbing frame? We prefer to call it a brightly-coloured chin-up bar. Swings? Suspension trainer. And that park bench you’re sitting on? A box jump waiting to happen.

Rules Of The Game

This workout has been designed as a circuit, with different exercises at different stations (pieces of park equipment). For each move, do as many reps as you can in 30 seconds, catch your breath for 20-30 seconds, while you move on to the next station, then follow the same pattern. Once you’ve completed the whole circuit, take a breather for a full minute, then repeat the circuit again, starting at a different station. Do three full circuits in total.

Twice The Fun; Double The Gains: Learn from the little ones: The only time kids walk at a respectable pace is in school corridors. So instead of walking from one station to the next, skip or jog between stations. Another way to up the intensity: Rope your kids in and make it a competition to see who can complete the most reps of each move – while one person goes, the other one counts.

Now, Get Creative: You don’t have to limit yourself to these exercises. Depending on what equipment you have in your park, there are all kinds of fun moves you can throw into the mix to keep the workout interesting. Check out this video for some more ideas or make up your own. Don’t forget to tag us on Twitter and Instagram – we love seeing you getting out and being active!