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How about 10 reps in the park?

By BETH N. GRAY
Published January 1, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - For anyone who wants to work off some holiday excess, the city of Brooksville's park and recreation department and the Hernando County Health Department have some new tricks tailored for you.

The new FitnessPar course at Tom Varn Park also targets users aiming to increase their flexibility, tone muscles and gear up their cardiovascular systems.

The $10,000 installation of fitness equipment assembled in the fresh outdoors - under wonderfully shading oaks - is the result of a partnership between the health department and the parks and recreation department.

The health department had $5,000 from a Preventive Health and Health Services federal block grant, said grant writer Karen Gidden, coordinator of the Heart Healthy Hernando Program. The parks and recreation department put in $5,000 for a required local match, said director Mike Walker. The purchase from Game Time Dominica Recreation Products of Longwood was made through a state contract, Walker noted.

The 44-by-40-foot area, with equipment substantially set in concrete and cushioned with a covering of red mulch, offers bars and benches, pipes and lifts, for stretches, strengthening and cardio conditioning.

It's like a fitness center, said Gidden, "and it's free."

The health department partnered with Hernando County in establishing a similar fitness installation two years ago at Veterans Park.

Exercise to reduce obesity is one of the aims of the fitness center, but it goes beyond that.

"Heart disease," said Gidden, "is ranked as the number one cause of death for Hernando County - 236 per 10,000 mortalities. The rate in the Brooksville area is nearly double the state's rate for 2000-2004."

Hence, the need for cardio conditioning.

Also, according to this year's Hernando County Health Needs Assessment, more than 15 percent of people responding reported having diabetes.

"This is more than twice the national average and nearly twice the Florida average," Gidden said. "Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and chronic disease conditions."

Back at Tom Varn Park, Tina Nichols, a recreation department assistant who, at 45, is a poster person for fitness, demonstrated the benches and bars for pull ups, push ups, knee lifts, log hops and vault bars, plus poles for stretching.

The center is next to the park's 1.5-mile walking trail.

"You can incorporate it with the walking trail," Nichols pointed out, suggesting stretching exercises before the walk and a workout targeting abdominal and upper body muscles afterwards.

Julie and Keith Jolink, snowbirds now in Brooksville from Michigan, do just that. They paused during a walk Thursday to offer kudos.

"I like the push-up bar," said Julie Jolink, 63. "The knee lift, I do that one. I do the lunge bar, bench press."

She gives a pass to the curl bench and sit-up bench because of problems with neck vertebrae. The park benches aren't padded as at an indoor fitness center.

Keith Jolink, 64, adds the log hop for cardio stamina to his regimen.

The installations ring central interpretive signs that show and explain how to use the equipment.

Parks director Walker said he learned of the fitness course idea as a member, along with Gidden, of the Step Up Florida Committee, which aims to encourage exercise and fitness.

He settled on the site in Tom Varn Park for its location next to the walking trail and ponds and for its shade. It also has good exposure to visitors at the softball fields where Hernando High School and the Hernando Youth Softball League play, Walker pointed out.

The Jolinks, who have been walking the park trail since they discovered it five years ago, praise the addition.

"We love ... this park. It's gorgeous," said Julie Jolink. "It's quiet, no bicycles or roller blades. They've made a nice start."

Beth Gray can be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 20:40:26]