Park Fit NYC: East River Park

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

Sunday, April 13, 2014

East River Park

East River Park is part of the beautiful riverfront promenade stretching along the southern part of Manhattan's East River waterfront. The park contains amphitheaters, athletic courts and a bike trail that runs under the historic Williamsburg Bridge.

Nestled East of the FDR drive between East Houston Street and East 6th Street lies the parks fitness equipment as well as a full 400 meter track which can be seen in the background of the picture above. This Alphabet City parks features a pullup bar, set of parallel bars, decline benches, monkey bars (horizontal ladder) pull up rings and set of decline parallel bars shown in the picture above.

The fitness area is covered in rubber matting designed to protect participants who fall off the bar or perhaps take a hard fall. Most of the equipment is comprised of metal bars planted on wooden stakes. While the equipment is solid but it has definitely taken a beating over the years and might benefit from a paint job.
Given the proximity to a first class running track, this workout location is one of the most comprehensive outdoor fitness locations in New York City.