Innovative seniors-only exercise park in North Sunshine

 NEWS   An innovative seniors-only exercise park in North Sunshine, a western suburb of Melbourne with a large Maltese community, is helping older people stay fit and active. Victoria University PhD researcher Ms Myrla Sales said the park’s platforms, steps, bridges and bars were specifically designed to give seniors a fun workout for all the skills they need in their day-to-day lives, while incorporating extra safety features like soft, non-slip rubber surfaces and rounded edges.
“This is designed to help keep you in shape for all the skills in daily life like climbing stairs, lifting shopping bags, doing the gardening or keeping up with your pet or grandchild at the park,” Mrs Sales said.
“This is something different that has not been done before and what’s great is that it allows people to be outside in the fresh air, with their friends or making new ones and keeping up their skills to stay active.”
Researchers behind the project are now inviting over-60s to give the new facility a trial so they can measure the benefits it has for maintaining strength, balance and other key skills in older people.
Those who sign up for the research project will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group will join the twice weekly exercise sessions of 1 to 1.5 hours each at the Sunshine North exercise park for 18 weeks, with guidance from an exercise physiologist. The exercises will be done in pairs and highly supervised for safety and correct technique. The other group will enjoy organised social activities including cards, checkers, chess and other board games.
All participants will also have three visits to Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus where researchers will tell you all about your muscle strength, balance skills and general health.
Both locations are easily accessed with public transport and a warm welcome, individual support and refreshments will be provided on each visit.
“As researchers we’re keen to measure how using this park helps increase strength and balance because if it has the impact we expect it to then it’s something we would like to replicate all over Australia,”  Mrs Sales said.
To learn more about this research project contact Mrs Myrla Sales at Victoria University on mobile number 0447 017 820 or [email protected]