Bayside playground plan for senior fitness

BAYSIDE seniors will muscle in on playground time, with a “senior exercise parks” initiative launched in a bid to keep oldies fit and active.

RESIDENTS will be going for g-old under a plan to turn parts of kids’ playgrounds into “senior exercise parks” in Bayside.

Under the idea being pitched to the council, outdoor cross-trainers, balance beams, step-up benches, ramps, benches with pedals, snake bars, where you slide a ring from one end to the other without touching the bar, and shoulder wheels, where one rolls the balls on the ring, could be installed in playgrounds.

Bayside City Council councillor Alex del Porto said the health initiative would allow grandparents to take their grandchildren to the park and watch them while they also worked out.

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Ann Tranter and her granddaughter, Ruby, 5, exercising in the park. Picture: Andrew Tauber

He said Bayside, which includes Sandringham, Brighton, Beaumaris and Hampton, had a growing elderly population and more needed to be done to keep them active.

“They might be installed in the playgrounds and they can work out while the grandkids play,” Cr del Porto said.

“We are encouraging them to stay fit and healthy, stay in their homes or nursing homes to live longer. I think it’s the way of the future, as Baby Boomers are getting older.”

Figures show the number of Australians aged over 65 is predicted to be 6.8 million by 2040 — 20 per cent of the nation’s population.

The senior citizen exercise parks — designed to improve strength, balance, flexibility and co-ordination — are already popular across Europe, the US and India, and Western Australia installed the first one in the country last year.

Bayside resident and grandmother Ann Tranter ensures she stays active because of her arthritis. She said exercise parks would be “so beneficial and easy to use”.

“Seniors would be strolling through the park and decide to use them without thinking,” Ms Tranter said.

Cr del Porto said the council should be proactive about helping out seniors and his idea was something that should be considered.

“It would be lovely to have some funds to have this,” he said. “I don’t want to have it on the beach but there are plenty of playgrounds here.”

Cr del Porto said the municipality’s playgrounds were quite big and there was room to build such facilities. He will present his plan to councillors at a meeting on Tuesday night when he will ask for a feasibility study into establishing senior exercise parks, looking at cost and potential locations.

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