Play is good for everyone, regardless of age

Exercise doesn’t have to be boring. For people who don’t actively and regularly pursue sports or try to stay fit, doing exercises may seem like a tedious task. But it shouldn’t be. Everyone should enjoy the fitness the way they like and the way, which suits their own lifestyle and pace. So whether it’s senior sport (in Finnish: senioriliikunta), youngster sports or children’s play at a playground, everyone can find a suitable way of staying in better shape and feeling better.

Finnish Lappset initiated a research and development project with the funding from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. It’s called Dynamic Garden and it intends to produce a fitness and outdoor exercise park, available for all, suitable for all ages and enhanced with technology.

The Dynamic Garden outdoor exercise park will be designed to encourage and motivate persons interested in exercise and exercise enthusiasts to play, exercise, communicate and have fun, and through this improving the participant’s healthy wellbeing.

Today’s busy lifestyle means that people no longer have the time to sufficiently take care of their wellbeing and even the time a family has to spend together is shrinking.

Lappset has a firm belief that this will change and the value bestowed on outdoor pursuits, playing and spending time together will experience a renaissance.

As the population is aging it is important for public health reasons to keep senior citizens active. By developing balance and improved motor skills, it is for instance possible to help prevent falling accidents. Of course play and the joy of exercise will also fend off depression and apathy. Many senior people feel younger again when they play with their grandchildren.

Lappset explored the everyday lives of senior citizens and children in daycare in a study conducted in the mid-2000s. This multi-discipline project generated ideas that eventually developed into the Senior Sport concept.

The purpose of the Senior Sport outdoor fitness equipment is to facilitate and enrich the everyday lives of senior citizens through outdoor exercise and the physical fitness and good feeling that this produces. The playful exercises designed for the elderly improve their capacity to cope with everyday tasks. The simple routines are intended to maintain mobility and coordination, and outdoor pursuits together with other people improve mental wellbeing. Senior citizens with good mobility and fitness hurt themselves less often, saving on medical costs, and they can function better in their everyday lives.

Parkour – easy to get started, hard to let go

Parkour is the new rage in urban experiences. It may seem an underground movement or a risk-taking extreme sport but it’s neither. In fact it’s a non-competitive discipline originating in France, encompassing a set of principles combined with a way of moving within your environment and overcoming obstacles of any kind, be they physical or mental.

The physical aspect of Parkour involves practical movement techniques guided by the notions of escape and reach. For example, parkour teaches you ways to move that can be used to gain ground on a pursuer during an escape.

Parkour methods involve running, crawling, jumping, climbing, and other methods of catching yourself, grabbing and hanging, rolling and balancing, applied to all environments both urban and natural. The parkour practitioner aims to become highly proficient in all the above methods so they can be used in an emergency situation. There are no equipment needed to start, all you need is comfortable pair of shoes with good grip, t-shirt and loose pants.

A Parkour practitioner is defined not by the way they move, but rather the application of movement with regards to the philosophy and purpose of parkour.

Parkour indeed is a sport - or rather a movement, tightly connected with philosophy. The deep thinking behind parkour is that all the moves are linked to each other so that the practioner can perform various moves like a dancer or jazz musician, without reflection and coming intuitively, from the muscle memory and the creativeness of the person. The parkour practitioner wants to be so fluent in his moves that he can cross any terrain without compromise - as if there were no obstacles.

Parkour training is a very versatile form of outdoor sports as you don’t have to be an athlete to start and you can practice parkour in many different ways – according your own level and environment. Parkour is about repetition and practise, making yourself better little by little. That’s why it may be hard to let go, the addiction comes from trying to push yourself just bit more – not trying to win someone else.

There are even specialized outdoor parkour equipment makers, such as Lappset who have produced safe and multi-use equipment, which can be installed in parks or playgrounds for parkour training purposes.

Senior fitness - four things you need to keep in mind

It’s a proven fact that seniors benefit from regular exercise and need it as much as all the younger age groups. Probably given the deteriorating health and simple old age, for them it’s even more important than others.

Senior fitness (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) doesn’t have to be dreadful or arduous chore, all the senior citizens need to remember is four basic pillars to maintain their physical and mental health – yes, it encompasses both as the physical well-being is deeply linked to mental fitness and happiness.

So, what are the four pillars? They are Strength training, Cardiovascular training, Balance training and Flexibility training.

The first one, strength training builds muscles by repetitive motion using weights or external resistance and it prevents you from losing bone mass as well as improves balance. These are important when they want to stay active and prevent the risk of falling. Strength training’s aim is not to get great muscular body but to make everyday activities easier, opening a jar or getting out of car for example.

Next up is cardiovascular training, which is done by using large muscle groups in repeated motion over a longer period of time. The point of these exercises is to increase your body’s ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and get your heart pumping. This way you get endurance for climbing up the stairs, cleaning the house or just walking the shop.

Two last pillars senior sports are balance and flexibility training. Balance is important to avoid to nasty falls, which for elders can be very risky. Along with the before mentioned exercises it’s necessary to maintain your posture and walk and move in a balanced way. Better balance means better quality in walking and also confidence with balance.

Flexibility exercises challenge the joint’s ability to move which can be done through stationary stretching or by ballistic stretching which means moving and bouncing. The importance of these exercises is to help your body stay limber and increase your range of movement when reaching, bending or playing with children.

Eureka Network

Eureka is a network of 39 member countries aiming to promote market oriented research and innovation by supporting for example small companies, large industries or universities, and contributing this way into European economical development and the prospering and internationalization of European enterprises and research agents.

In Finland Eureka network is represented by Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. Companies and other organizations introduces new products and services through Eureka projects, in which the new innovations are developed and commercialized and launched for the markets. The network was founded in 1985.

Rovaniemi based Lappset group started in collaboration with Tekes a large scale Eureka research and development project called Dynamic Garden, in which the purpose was to create a quality designed and technologically enhanced playground and fitness areas for all age groups. For example senior sport (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) has been under heavy development during the past years. According to plan the aim is to create a concept which combines a product and a service. The project lasted three years. Lappset has in their product line up for example Digiplay concept mobile playground equipment, which combine mobile gaming and outdoor play and this way attracts for example children to outdoor play instead of staying indoor behind the computer screen.

Lappset was founded in 1970´s and has since produced quality playground equipments. According to vision of the company it aims to produce and develop environmentally sustainable design methods for play and playground equipment. The company has expanded the traditional concept of play, and their playground environments feature innovative design and combine also new technologies into traditional playground environments.

Outdoor fitness facilities

When spring brings the first mild days and the sun starts to warm up the weather, outdoors invites to all kinds of activities and sports. More daylight gives also a new motivation to start up doing exercise, to welcome the upcoming summer with good health and feeling about yourself. Jogging and walking, or Nordic walking are good ways to start after long and dark winter, which has maybe stiffen the body and broken the regular cycle of doing sports. It is probably good to start slowly, especially if there has been a bit of a gap in doing sports or exercise in the winter.

Outdoor gyms (in Finnish: ulkoliikuntapaikka) offers fantastic surroundings for doing light exercise or even a heavier gymnastics. The areas can be used as soon as the snow has melted away. These are placed usually in the immediate proximity of parks and other recreational areas, which makes it easy to combine for example jogging and a gymnastic exercise. A proper and a well-equipped outdoor gym is as the indoor equivalent, the benefit being the fresh air all around and most likely also more visually pleasant surroundings.

Danish Norwell has designed a series of fitness equipment meant for outdoor gym and exercise. Norwell Form Funtion equipment are quite plain in their design, reflecting the Nordic taste for simplicity and minimalism. The series includes altogether 12 different kind of equipment, varying from those meant for improving the muscle fitness and agility to those that are designed for aerobic fitness an improving the balance and coordination. Norwell equipments are available in Finland through Lappset group which represents the products in Finland.

Simple Parkour movements

Parkour is a French born sport in which the practitioner aims at moving through urban environments as fast as possible using routes not so common for ordinary street wanderer. It was born in 80´s in the suburbs of Paris and gained popularity of the wider audiences Parkour was featured in couple films, among them in James Bond film Casino Royale.

Parkour is actually quite easy to start despite it looking quite acrobatic and complicated. Of course it needs a lot of training as well, and beginners should carefully listen their bodies and recognize their limits to prevent accidents and injuries. Slowly, after gaining more fitness through hard training and dedication, the more skill needing movements are possible and some movements seeming first difficult and even impossible, can be found simple and easy. The boundaries for possible movements and skills are only practitioners mental restrictions according to the philosophy of Parkour.

The idea of Parkour is not to have a defined movements at such, and the main thing in the sport is to find your way fast and smoothly, to know your bodily limitations and possibilities. However and especially, when the Parkour entered Britain and turned into Freerun, the movements started to get names and labels as well. But ultimately, there is no right or wrong movement in Parkour.

The most simple movement is drop and means to jump to the ground from something. Parkour includes as well vaults and gap jumps and also blind jumps in which the jumper doesn't see the landing. Monkey or gong is a dive over an obstacle, and in the end of the obstacle to push off with hands to bring body back to vertical level and ready to land. Overcoming the obstacle is called among other wallhop or wallpop. Cat leap seems a bit more complicated, as in this movement person gets from the hanging position into a position where she stands on her arms above the obstacle.

Lappset Parkour opens in Westminster Academy, London

L.E.A.P. or London Experience of Art du Deplacment & Parkour was opened in September in London´s Westminster Academy in the grounds´of the Academy Sport. The site, in which the equipment is supplied by Lappset Playworld, is the worlds´ biggest spot dedicated to Parkour and free run.

The equipment, made from galvanized steel, is designed by Stephane Vigroux from Parkour Generations. The facility is designed as an urban surroundings with the features and traits of a modern city spaces. Lappset Parkour products are designed in collaboration with Parkour and freerun professionals. Managing Director of Lappset Playworld Chris Jones stated that the company is pleased to be involved with L.E.A.P. and hope that the project would encourage people who may not be interested in traditional sports to go out and participate in Parkour.

Parkour is taking off on UK and it is estimated that some 40 000 people take part in the activity regularly. Parkour UK is targeting to train 500 new Parkour coaches by the end of 2012. There is however only few sites or areas in the whole country dedicated to this rapidly growing sport. Westminster Council´s Deputy Cabinet Member for Sport and Leisure Steve Summer stated that the Parkour site in Westminster Academy enables youth to express themselves with freedom, discipline and self-awareness in a safe environment.

Eugene Minogue, Chief Executive of Parkour UK told, that the site is a result of many years work and dedication and will provide the sport a platform to develop further. Lappset is based in Rovaniemi, Finland and exports playground equipments to over 40 different countries.

Children's outdoor games

Children have always had great imagination, and almost any surrounding, be it a forest, park, parking lot, concrete building block spaces or even a wasteland, have the ability to serve as a playground, an imaginary landscape for any play or game. Even plane surroundings turn into a castle, pirate ship or a cave of a dinosaur when children let their imagination fly and fantasy flow.

Besides the free flowing and spontaneous play and games, children have played organized games through the ages. Actually, the gaming wasn´t restricted for children's only activity in human mental chart until quite recently, and adults were included into the games not so long time ago. The oldest games and sports like Mancala, Cuju and polo date back in history into the times before the christian era. Modern day games include the traditional sports like football and Finnish baseball and traditional games like ten sticks on the board or blind man´s buff.

For example jump rope games or ball games are popular around the world. They are the kind or games, which can be played almost anywhere, and don´t need special equipment or special field or area to be carried out. But nowadays games and plays have also special environments to stimulate the storytelling and imaginary of the children and their games. Almost every school and apartment building yard has a playground area, which is equipped with swings and building towers, sandboxes and slides.

Playground environments are build to support children's motor, social and cognitive development and they offer suitable challenges and tasks in between the game and play for all ages. Many research show that children who have been actively taken part into physical action in their early age and have had physical exercise through play and games have better self-esteem. Playground areas serve also as a social meeting point and connects this way different people and different generations. Senior sport (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) can thus easily be a natural part of children’s play.

Getting children out to play

Social life and everyday flow of chores are more and more concentrated indoors, and people take even their jogging rounds in the rooms of gym centers instead of out in the woods or parks on the running tracks. Television, computers, game consoles, social media interaction, mobile phones and many more big and small factors keep also children rather in their own rooms and indoors than tempt them outdoors to meet each other in real life and play games out in the fresh air.

In the preschools and kindergartens children spend quite a long breaks outdoors and many pedagogical functions happen also outside. When children enter primary school, the time spent outdoors decreases when school lessons replace the outdoor activities. At the same time children enter the world of computer and video games and all the other indoor plays and hobbies. Outdoor activities start to become arranged and organized ones, involving organized sports such as football, horse riding or winter sports.

The spontaneous way of spending time outdoors is actually quite rare especially in the lives of children living in cities. Outdoor sports, such as skateboarding, Parkour, street basket ball, rollerskating and jogging still lure children and youngsters out into the fresh air and keep up the physical conditions.

Lappset Group manufactures playground equipments which are made to attract young as well as adult and old folks out to play and have social interaction across the generations. The company states that it doesn't only make playground areas, but aims to make whole environments playable. Lappset has in it´s product line up equipments for children and seniors alike, and special design has been applied to the products to keep an eye on the special need of each age group and each purpose the equipment is used. Lappset, based in Rovaniemi, Finland, exports products to over 40 countries and has subsidiaries in five different countries.

New playground applications

When I was a kid, our school yard wasn´t more than a vast sandy and gritty area surrounded by metal fence. The only playground equipment were a couple of swings and a balance beam. Nearby the school there was however a big outdoor playground (in Finnish: ulkoliikuntapaikka) area for children, with large colorful figures made from concrete and in which there was a net of tunnels and holes. In the park there was also large group swings and a trampoline, playhouses and large sandboxes with all the toys and tools needed for building sand castles and baking mud cakes.

Nowadays almost every kindergarten or a school yard features an advanced playground to stimulate children's imagination and attract them to move and play outdoors in between the school lessons or indoor play. Swings, climbing towers, climbing nets and ball game walls fills the school yards and are used in gym lessons as well as for the free time activities. The home yard has also couple of play equipment as well, such as sandbox and a swing. Modern playground equipment have been designed to fit into the environment and fill the safety standards.

The most modern playgrounds integrate digital and computer based gaming with traditional playground equipments. In Lappset Digiplay concept the company offers computer based playground equipment applications, in which for example mobile phone or motion detection are utilized in the gaming. Connections between the playgrounds in different locations and between the users makes the outdoor play interactive over the internet. Modern playgrounds are not just about physical activities any more, but support also children's mental and psychological development and give building tools for rich imagination and creativity.