Marcus Garvey Park (Mt. Morris Park)

Marcus Garvey Park, sometimes known by its former name, Mount Morris Park is nestled between Madison Avenue to the east and Mount Morris Park West to the west, and between 120th Street and 124th Street to the north and south. The park is essentially a square surrounded by quaint brownstones and older apartment buildings which provide a warm and local feeling. Most of the facilities including the pool, baseball fields, amphitheater, basketball courts, playground and workout area ring the lower portion of the park which is dominated by a hill and a former fire-watch tower which still stands on top.

The hill itself contains stairs which are excellent for those who wish to add hill sprinting to their workout.

The fitness area can be found on the Madison Avenue side of the park near the basketball courts roughly parallel to 121st Street. I found it to be a relatively standard NYC workout area consisting of two pullup bars, a set of parallel bars, a monkey bar, two low bars (waist high), a diagonal bar, a vertical ladder, a metal bench, pushup bars, and a three pedestal setup surrounding a pole.

The pullup bars were of slightly offsetting heights, with the taller of the two being just high enough for me to do hanging leg raises without touching the floor with my feet. The monkey bars were slightly on the lower side which meant that most adults would have to bend their knees while swinging from them. 

I found the parallel bars to be slightly on the short side of the height spectrum and would've preferred them to be a tad taller. The paint was wearing off the edges of this equipment as well (which you cannot see in this picture).

I am still in the process of discerning the utility of certain pieces of equipment such as the diagonal bar (seen on the left side of the first picture). From what I can tell it is meant for either testing ones vertical leap, or allowing for one to travel up and down the bar while hanging by only their hands.  This particular bar had numbers tagged on which may have originally stood for the height of the bar at that point. I must confess that these labels did not appear accurate to me.

I also noticed a three pedestal setup surrounding a pole towards the back of the fitness area. While I do not know what the designated purpose of this equipment is, I suspect that it was designed for stepping up. This would also explain the varying heights of the pedestals. If anyone can explain the purpose I'd love to hear from you.

Overall most of the equipment appeared sturdy enough, the area was fairly clean, and safely covered by rubber mats.

The park has a lovely neighborhood feeling to it, and certainly has a lot to offer in the realm of body weight fitness. However the equipment has a particularly bland feeling to it and I would not recommend traveling half-way across the city for a workout ..... unless you were going to see or participate in a Street Workout competition.