The Essence Of Environmental Fitness

To most people, the concept of Environmental Fitness is something relatively new and unfamiliar.

However, in its essence, it simply means: programming and structuring a fitness workout in your immediate environment: one that is ultimately familiar, convenient and accessible to you.

And to most of us living here in Singapore, such an environment can be anything and anywhere: from our own homes to an outdoor park, from a nearby children's playground to even a public car park.

Let's look in detail some of the more common locations for environmental fitness training, and the types of tools/props available in these environments that could be utilized for a great workout!

A) Home Workouts

Image of man working-out at home using a chair

ANY space in your home - sitting/dining area, bedroom, balcony, garage, backyard, etc - could be effectively and creatively used to give you an effective workout.

Add to that: common-place furniture such as chairs, tables, stools, bed frames etc to every-day household furnishings/fittings such as window/door grills, walls, stairs and steps - you basically have everything necessary for a great workout right in your home!

For more details on how to construct a professional home workout routine here in Singapore, do feel free to check out our Home-Based Training Services!

B) Park Workouts

With Singapore being widely-acclaimed as a Green City - hosting a wide range of accessible parks, gardens, nature reserves and other green infrastructures throughout the country, working-out in a park setting has never been easier and more convenient!

And with the majority of public parks fully-furnished with communal facilities like: benches, picnic tables, shelters, lamp-posts, fitness corners etc, together with Nature's very own 'props' such as trees, branches, fallen logs, and open grass patches, park environments indeed make excellent and ideal workout locations!

Check out our Park Workout Series today for more details on how best to utilize a park environment for your own training routine.

C) Playground Workouts

Image of ladies working-out at a children's playground.

Playgrounds are common entities found in Singapore - seen practically in every corner of the island, scattered among both neighbourhood HDB residential blocks, private housing areas, public parks and gardens.

And with most playgrounds nowadays fully-equipped with modern children's equipment (which really make excellent training props!!!) - such as slides, ladders, monkey bars, balance beams, swing sets etc - drawing up an exercise routine using available playground props is often limited only by one's imagination and creativity..........

For more information on how best to utilize your neighbourhood playground to sculpt and shape your body, do check out our Playground Workout Series today!

D) Fitness Corner Workouts

Image of Outdoor Fitness Corner Equipment

Found in every HDB and private housing estate here in Singapore, as well as in most public parks and nature reserves in the country, the ubiquitous fitness corner is a great starting point to embark upon one's fitness journey!

Equipped with all-weather fitness apparatus and outdoor exercise stations such as: parallel and uneven beams, pull-up bars, step platforms, overhead log press stations, sit-up benches and more, these fitness corners offer residents a convenient and hassle-free route to fitness.

Check out our Public Fitness Corner Workout Series today for more ideas on how to use these fitness corners and their various exercise stations optimally in your own fitness routine.

D) Beach Workouts

Singapore, being an island and surrounded by water on all sides, is blessed with great shorelines and beaches along its coasts - presenting a superb environment to get in shape in the company of Sun, Sand and Sea!

And most of the props found on our beach fronts: including benches, picnic tables, lifeguard stands, sea walls, lamp posts, poles, fences and not forgetting the surrounding soft sand and palm trees - all serve as great training tools for the Creative Fitness Mind out there!

For more details on how best to utilize our beaches and shorelines for a fantastic fitness workout, do check out our Beach Workout Series today!

E) Stadium Workouts

Image of woman running up stadium stairs.

Public Stadiums are another ever-present amenity found in Singapore - conveniently scattered across the island for easy access.

Modern and fully-equipped: from the 400-meter synthetic track to the sideline benches to the surrounding bleachers to the stadium steps/stairs, the stadium presents the perfect workout arena for the fitness enthusiast.

Check out our Stadium Workout Series today to see how we can help you to achieve your fitness goals right at your nearest stadium.

D) Car Park Workouts

Image of empty parking lots all set for exercising

Being an urban and metropolitan city, Singapore has a wide range of parking facilities. From open-air parking lots to indoor multi-storey car parks to underground parking facilities, we seem to have them all.

At first glance, a car park or parking lot may seem like a queer location for a workout, but in reality, with the right dose of fitness know-how and creativity, an empty, safe parking lot makes a great training location!

Utilizing amenities such as the parking lot space, signage boards, kerbs, horizontal floor lines etc - one can actually have a full-body workout right in the middle of a parking lot!

For more details on how best to utilize our car parks and parking lots for a great fitness workout, do check out our Car Park Workout Series today!

Conclusion

Hopefully, by now, this whole concept of Environmental Fitness has got you all excited and pumped-up over the limitless possibilities and usages of your immediate environment!!!

If you're anything like me, the next time you come across a park, a children's playground or even an empty parking lot, no longer would you look at them with the same, old way and shrug them off as mere commodities in your environment or estate; but rather, view them as your next potential exercise location!

Time to work out a good sweat in your neighbourhood environment now?

Comments

Functional Fitness Tools For The Older Adult And Senior Population Groups

As we age, the importance of staying active , independent and functional takes on greater meaning and significance with each passing year. In fact, today, more and more older adults and seniors are making exercise an integral part of their lives in order to safeguard and upkeep their own health, fitness and overall well-being. However, as we all know, in the realities of life, not every mature adult will have access to a gym or a fitness facility; nor necessarily need to or want to . And despite body-weight training gaining in popularity as a practical and versatile system of exercising for anyone - regardless of age - having a spread of different training options is always still preferable and useful - especially from the standpoint of novelty and variety. This is where the role of functional fitness tools comes into the picture. To be exact - and to avoid any misinterpretations - the above term is used here to refer ONLY to those fitness tools that are not only functional , port

Overcoming Common Barriers To Exercise And Fitness Among The Older Adult Senior Population

Throughout the years, studies and research have consistently shown that regular planned and structured exercise together with an active lifestyle are crucial factors in ensuring good health, well-being and longevity among our seniors and older adults. For many of us, as we age over the years, not only can exercise help us to maintain a high degree of physical functionality, mobility and independence, it can also boost our energy levels, facilitates restful sleep, and even assists in the management and control of any existing or current medical conditions that we may have. What's more, physical exercise has even been proven to be able to reverse many medical symptoms and conditions associated with aging! However, despite all the above proven benefits of physical exercise , too many seniors and older adults among our midst are still NOT incorporating sufficient regular exercise into their daily routines. In fact, many are simply too sedentary and passive for their own good! Up

Fitness Mistakes Commonly Made By Mid-Life And Senior Adults

Most middle-aged and older adults are more than aware of the many health benefits that come with regular exercise and active living. These benefits include: stronger muscles, ligaments and tendons, better heart-&-lung health, improved bone density, enhanced balance, coordination and mobility, as well as reduced risk of developing chronic diseases and ailments -including maladies like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and various types of cancer. Thus, it is no wonder that more and more mature and senior adults are now actively pursuing age-specific fitness programs more than ever before in our human history! As good as this may seem on the surface, unfortunately, there are also many in this population group who may actually be doing more harm than good to themselves by unknowingly committing various types of mistakes and errors in their own home exercise programs or outdoor fitness routines . The following will explore some of these commonly-seen fitness mistake

Improvising Your Home Workouts With Common Household Objects

With the COVID-19 pandemic still wrecking havoc throughout the world, and with most commercial gyms and fitness facilities operating with severe capacity limitations and restrictions, more and more people are now turning to in-home workouts to meet their fitness needs. In fact, home workouts have become so popular in recent times that many stores carrying home-based fitness equipment have reported soaring sales, with even some having sold-out many of their most popular home fitness items! For those of us who could not get our hands on any commercial home fitness equipment - either due to the current insane demand, or because of one's own budgetary constraints - fret not. In this post, we're going to look at various common household objects found right within our homes that could easily be used to substitute traditional fitness tools, or even used as standalone fitness props by themselves. Without further ado, the following are some great alternatives and substitutes that

Non-Running Cardio Drills For Older Adults And Seniors

Running has been around for a long time and is a popular cardiovascular exercise for many. However, for some mid-life, older adults and seniors in our midst, running may NOT actually be a suitable exercise nor a viable option for them. Common reasons cited by those who could not incorporate running into their exercise routines include: "running hurts my knees", "it's too vigorous", "it's so jarring on all my joints" to "it's too boring and monotonous" or perhaps even "my doctor says I should NEVER run at all because of my XYZ medical conditions" etc ... As valid as many of these reasons are, it does not remove the fact that such individuals are at risk of missing out on an important component of fitness - cardiovascular training - if they shy away from jogging/running and lack any substitute form of cardiovascular exercise for their bodies. As such, as a senior/older adult exercise specialist , I would usually recommen

Essential Fitness Movement Patterns For Older Adults And Seniors

As we age, most of us would like to continue staying healthy , active and useful for as long as we live. In order to do so, and to get the most benefits from our respective exercise programs - regardless whether we're in our 50s, 60s, 70s or even more - it is essential that we include the various foundational movement patterns in our exercise regimes. These movement patterns are not only essential for our daily physical functions and for healthy living, they are also imperative to our quality of life, and possibly having a major impact on our eventual longevity as well. The following are the basic movement patterns that the Human Body is capable of doing and which we - regardless of age - should all be actively training for: 1) Squat This is the move that we use every time we transit from a sit to a stand position, and back from a stand to a sit position. It is one of the most basic and common movements that we do every day, from getting in and out of a chair to lif

The Greatest Fitness Lies Of All Time

Despite the massive slew of health & fitness information available to us in this Modern Era, many, unfortunately, are still falling prey to the same, old, myths, fallacies & lies surrounding fitness, training, exercise and nutrition. Sadly, these myths and misconceptions don't seem to be going away, and not only have greatly distorted people's notions of fitness and exercise, but have also led many to ineffective, harmful and potentially dangerous practices and lifestyles - all supposedly in the name of fitness. To address these concerns, I have listed some of the most persistent fitness lies and myths that I have encountered in my work as a fitness coach and personal trainer through all these years; and the TRUTHS behind them: 1) MYTH: I Need To Push Myself To the MAX Each & Every Single Workout Session In Order To Achieve My Fitness Goals. TRUTH: There is indeed a place and time for hard and intense workouts like HIIT , Tabatas, Plyometrics etc. Howeve

Home Workout Tips For Stay-At-Home Mums

Speak to most stay-at-home mums and you're bound to get the idea that MANY (if not most) have already given up on their dream of being able to fit in a regular exercise program into their weekly schedule, let alone attain a figure that is Lean, Toned and Attractive ! Indeed, having had the privilege and opportunity to work with many such home-based mums here in Singapore over the years (in my capacity as a Private Home Personal Trainer) , and having observed - first-hand - my wife's own stay-at-home child-care experience in the early formative years of my 2 kids, I can attest to the fact that it can indeed be a real challenge for many stay-home mums to even THINK of exercise, let alone DO it, when faced with the myriad of tasks they confront on a daily basis. Challenges Facing A Housewife Just think about this - the chores that every stay-at-home mum inevitably faces one day or another include: doing up the laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, vacuuming the house, was

Common Fitness Mistakes And Training Misconceptions Encountered In Singapore

Recently, in one of my more contemplative moments, I decided to take a trip back in time, and tried to objectively compare the fitness scene now in Singapore with that maybe just 6-8 years ago. And what truly amazed me is this: how interest and participation in Fitness & Health have truly skyrocketed in Singapore in just these few mere years! The ever-increasing statistics of residents engaging in sports and physical activities, a mushrooming and vibrant fitness scene where practically EVERY imaginable kind, type and shape of fitness class, exercise course, event, race, competition and even training facility and venue - catering to every whim and fancy - have emerged in the country. All in all, the evidence point to the fact that Singapore is indeed fast becoming a major Fitness Hub in the world - like it or not! Fitness Classes Are Highly-Popular In Singapore! However - and this is just my personal opinion - these outward physical, infrastructural and statistical upsw

The Problem With Singapore's Gyms And Fitness Centres

Hi folks - New Year greetings and blessings to each and every one of you out there. It's 2012 - and this is my first blog entry for the year coming to you straight from the Republic Of Singapore. I would like to start the year by looking at some of the issues plaguing many of our local Singapore gyms and fitness centres nowadays. As most of you know, the fitness scene in Singapore has sort of EXPLODED in the last couple of years, and everywhere you turn, you could practically see gyms, fitness centres and exercise studios mushrooming across the nation. Unfortunately, this exponential growth in the gym business has also led to the propagation and valorization of gym training through rose-tinted lenses - while ignoring the beauty and effectiveness of other non-traditional fitness approaches - such as outdoor fitness training - that are equally, if not more, effective. To be honest, many of these folks promoting the GYM as a "Be All and End All" of fitness - do

Gymless Fitness Revolution Blog

Search This Blog