Lacombe residents who enjoy a stroll around Cranna Lake will soon be able to add other exercises to their workout routines.
This summer, City of Lacombe Recreation and Culture will be installing a number of outdoor fitness machines along the Cranna Lake trail system.
Sandi Stewart, manager of recreation and culture, said that the project will hopefully encourage people to get fit and make more use of Lacombe’s trail system.
“We’re hoping it entices more people to work out,” said Stewart.
Outdoor fitness equipment parks have been around in the area for about the last five years and are quite popular in Red Deer, said Stewart.
This is the first time such equipment will be installed in Lacombe.
At this point, Stewart said she is just waiting to hear back from a few references and quotes before going ahead and purchasing the equipment to be installed.
“We’re basically just now in the final stages of doing the reference checks,” said Stewart. She added that she hopes the equipment will be ready to use by the end of the summer.
Funding for the project will be coming from donations as well as budgeted dollars from the City of Lacombe, Stewart said.
Recently, Lacombe Recreation and Culture received $1,000 from the local RBC and Stewart said they are continuing to accept further donations.
Currently, exercise equipment with non-moving parts exists in Lacombe along the Elizabeth Lake trail courtesy of an initiative from the Lacombe in Motion group. While Cranna Lake’s equipment won’t work the same way as a weight machine in a gym, the machines will have moving parts allowing different exercises than their non-moving counterparts.
Stewart said that most of the machines work with the user’s own body weight and muscles to perform an exercise.
Instead of being placed all together in a sort of ‘fitness park’ area, Stewart said the City is instead planning to place individual modules at intervals along the Cranna Lake trail system.
That way, when people go out for a walk along the trails, they can stop off at intervals to perform exercises and then continue on their walks.
Because of this, the City has focused on getting equipment that deals with core and upper body strength exercises for this project, she added.
Stewart is still waiting to hear back from some quotes and references, so she said she is not sure which machines will be purchased or how many of them. However, she did say she is hoping for at least six to be installed.
While the equipment will be dispersed in individual stops, Stewart said the City is trying to focus on getting machines that allow for simultaneous use.
She said that much of the equipment is designed to have two users at once and some even have designs for three or four people to do exercises at the same time on the same piece of equipment.
Stewart said that the Cranna Lake area was chosen because those trails are the most used of Lacombe’s trail system.
She added that further, more ‘park’ style outdoor fitness areas are a possibility in the more distant future as well.