According to fitness experts, children and adults across the country are not exercising the recommended amount. Updating your outdoor sports court or running field with safety surfacing and eye-catching, accessible design is a great way to get people in your area moving this Summer!
Playground and outdoor areas must do their part to encourage exercise and fitness with quality surfaces for fun and safe active play. PlaySmart is here to help with our best recommendations for how playground design can be used to change behaviours and attitudes towards fitness!
Fall Protection around Gym Equipment
Outdoor gym spaces can become sites for accidents and falls, especially with equipment like monkey bars or climbing fitness apparatus. Therefore, just like when protecting surfaces on the playground, safety flooring is an important benefit of outdoor gyms with professional safety flooring installation.
To maintain safety in outdoor gyms, all equipment should be regularly maintained and inspected and have accessible instructions and guidance for use restrictions like age limits. This limits the chance of falls and potential injuries and gives all of your site users the confidence to enjoy fitness with safety and security with professional outdoor gym mats.
In areas with a critical fall height greater than 2 metres, our safety flooring experts recommend a SmartPlay shock pad underlay as an extra layer of protection under your shock-absorbent rubber grass mats. This provides protection for falls that are common in fitness parks for children as well as outdoor adult gyms.
Any equipment that involves fast or intense movement, even seated rowing or cycling calisthenics equipment requires a concern for safety. Public parks with outdoor gym equipment lack professional supervision, meaning some accidents are bound to happen. Responsible exercise area design is therefore about risk mitigation, providing proper instruction and a safe environment in case mistakes or falls occur.
Grip and Slip Protection
Slip protection on athletics tracks and outdoor sport courts is important to prevent injuries and keep the fun of fitness going!
British Standard 7188 for slip protection requires resistance to abrasions, slipping, indentation and tensile strength that our surfaces are designed and tested for. This is essential to building a safe area appropriate for both amateur fitness enthusiasts and professionals, so everyone can use your site.
All-weather sports surfaces to reduce puddling and surface runoff is also a good way to limit risks of slipping. Therefore, many of our paving and rubber mulch solutions popular for their use on outdoor running tracks and pathways are fully water permeable so your surfaces stay safe in all weather!
Providing Accessibility
For an inclusive fitness space, encouraging exercise for everyone is an important part of flooring design to consider. Therefore, ramped edges and flat surfaces provide access to those with reduced mobility are available across our range of rubber sport courts and outdoor gym mats.
Equipment choices, design and layout of your sports spaces should also consider the safety of all of your users. Wheelchair-accessible fitness structures are increasingly available from a range of playground equipment manufacturers but their spacing and the accessibility of pathways in between the equipment can be overlooked. Our playground designers and manufacturers, with over 20 years of experience, can give you the guidance you need to ensure your space is open for everyone to enjoy exercise and fitness at your site.
Colour and Design for Sport Courts
Multi-Use Sports Areas (MUSAs) are a great way to encourage a whole range of sports, providing a space for a variety of games like football, basketball, and even tennis! This wide variety of uses requires sports surface markings to stand out against each other and last over time. Nobody wants arguments over a player being offside because of confusing or faded markings!
FlexCourt rubber court surfaces are manufactured with inlaid game lines and markings designed to your specifications. This means your outdoor sport court stays vibrant and usable even with regular and heavy use with minimal maintenance requirements. For more on how FlexCourt is a unique and innovative sports court surface, you can read our full expert guide.
Create an attractive and modern sports court with bright and colourful surfaces designed specifically for your site. Introducing exciting outdoor sport court material colours and designs are a great way to encourage fitness as an eye-catching space for all ages.
For larger sport courts, bringing can also be very important, giving the fitness space a unique identity. Logos can be applied to our Flexcourt surfacing with a range of special colours and designs inlaid as part of the modular sports surface.
Make your Outdoor Space a Sports & Fitness Hub with PlaySmart!
If you are looking for new ways to renovate your outdoor sports space or gym area, PlaySmart can help! You can request a callback or quote with the handy contact form at the top of the page, or by calling: 01564 742811.