About the ParkFit Project

About the ParkFit Project

About two summers ago, as I became interested in body-weight/calisthenic fitness I found that New York City lacks an accurate list of its park-based fitness inventory. Performing cursory web searches in the hope of finding a new pull up bar or set of parallel bars may bring you an article here or there about a particular spot, but as of the present moment there is no place to find a comprehensive source compilation of locations.

Through my readings, wanderings and conversations I have begun to find a number of these sites throughout the city and will be documenting them through this blog. My goal is to primarily document park-based workout spots and fitness equipment. All locations will be added as pins to the Google Map contained on the site. I will also add my knowledge of running tracks and other outdoor workout spots that I deem relevant. Information garnered from assorted websites may be used to further provide information to my readers.

While I hope that at some point this site will host a comprehensive review of all outdoor fitness equipment in the city, at the present time the information contained herein will be limited to my personal knowledge which admittedly contains a strict geographic bias to Manhattan. I most certainly welcome all emails and will happily post new verifiable information as it is provided to me.

To health, fitness and pushing limits,

- The Skyhopper








Showing posts with label John Jay Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Jay Park. Show all posts

Friday, April 4, 2014

John Jay Park

John Jay Park on the Upper East Side features a nice yet small collection of fitness equipment that is more than sufficient for most workouts. It also features some equipment that is only really useful for folks who are either extremely out of shape or disabled. Finally there is also a notable instance of hilariously incompetent equipment assembly which leaves a set of new parallel bars completely useless.


The park itself is located between East End Avenue and the FDR Drive. The fitness area is located in the far south east corner of the park, and is hidden away behind the basketball courts.

Note: As an aside, the children's playground equipment looks really cool and I wish we had equipment of that caliber when I was much younger. I do recommend bringing your kids here if you are so privileged.

 Useful Equipment

  1. Pull up bars - Two bars both of which are more than adequate for most adults. 
  2. Parallel bars - About 5 feet off the ground, these bars are very similar to the gymnastics equipment except that they are solid metal and do not bend. They also require a bit of a jump to mount; unless you have incredible strength. 
  3. Monkey bars - These bars are quite high above the ground and feature a portion that runs parallel to the ground as well as a portion that ascends/descends. Traveling the latter portion will most certainly challenge your back and arm strength.


    Monkey Bars

    Parallel Bars and Pullup Bars












    Slightly less useful Equipment

    Equipment designed for seniors, those out of shape or disabled include the following: A leg swinging device, a slanted board-thingie, an arm rotating/bending device (see Medieval Torture Device) and a Leg Press machine. While it is wonderful that the park is dedicating equipment for this specific population, it is my personal opinion that body weight and basic free weight exercises would be far more suitable for this population. These devices have absolutely no utility for anyone with basic levels of physical fitness and health.


    Leg Press





    Leg swinging device
    Medieval Torture Device

     








Incompetence
Unfortunately the park also put its money into what was supposed to be two new sets of parallel bars. However whomever installed the bars apparently had never seen parallel bars before, and certainly chose not to read the label. Instead they chose to install them as follows:



Bottom Line: Its got what you need for a full upper-body workout even if some pieces of equipment are largely useless.