The Playnasium: Reinventing the Exercise Wheel
While the online revolution has delivered many obvious benefits, an unfortunate downside is that we have become an increasingly stagnant society – alarmingly so among little people. According to a recent Australian Health Survey, daily physical activity among pre-school-aged kids matched evenly with screen time (around six hours), but a large variance occurred once they hit primary school, with only 1.5 hours’ physical activity and increased screen time.
And with many parents juggling many balls in the air, exercise often slips down the pecking order of importance.
A project recently launched by YMCA Victoria – the ‘Playnasium’, a new set of play equipment designed to give parents a workout and enable parent-child bonding – aims to reverse these trends, and the concept has the backing of experts. Associate Professor Kylie Hesketh of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University says research shows there are many benefits to bonding during exercise. “Active parents have children who are more active.”
According to the advertising agency that developed the project, the three new items of play equipment – the Pull-Upsy-Daisy, the Row-Row-Row Machine and the Pec-a-boo – “use children’s weight as exercise weights, allowing parents to work out whilst powering their children’s play. The result means families can be at the park and the gym at the same time.”
Each piece of equipment is designed for different age groups and muscle groups.
Whether the equipment becomes mass-scale remains to be seen, but the agency says it will be used in “community activations” across Victoria over the coming year, “with a view to work with councils to have the equipment permanently installed in playgrounds across the country.”
Fingers crossed it gets rolled out – anything that gets us all moving more gets a thumbs-up from us!
Here’s a demonstration for each new machine: