A hidden gem/gym in my city 💪🏻💎👀
I had heard rumblings that some new outdoor fitness equipment had been installed here in my home city of Charleston, WV. I saw one lone article from the University of Charleston announcing the ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 29, 2024.
I knew this amazing addition to our city was free to use for the public, but there were not great details about where exactly on campus it was located. All it said was “The Fitness Court is located between the Boat House and the Morrison Fitness Center on the river lawn.” Since I didn’t know the UC campus very well, I forgot about the fitness area for two whole months. That is until recently when I finally decided to go on an adventure to find the outdoor fitness equipment and test it myself.
The official name of this area is the Fitness Court. This is part of a National Fitness Campaign here in the USA. Their goal is to provide cities with the best outdoor gyms in the world.
I was uncertain about this bold claim before experiencing it for the first time myself. I can now say however, this is the best outdoor gym that I’ve ever used. I’m stunned that this is not only in my city but also free to use.
There’s an app that is full of videos that explain how to do all of the different exercises.
I’ve wished for a good outdoor fitness area ever since I stopped teaching aerial yoga in 2017. That was around the same time that I joined Steem. It was a huge transition phase for me. When I stopped being able to do aerial fitness workouts, I knew I was missing out on some of the best exercises this world has to offer.
The Fitness Court consists of equipment that allows me to channel my former aerial practice along with many of my favorite gym exercises. A nice switch-up from all the weightlifting I’ve been doing the last several years.
The Fitness Court is honestly exactly what I’d dream of as an outdoor exercise area. Was this a manifestation? Possibly so. It sure seems like I’m one of the only people who cares enough to use the equipment. I’ve been three times now and I’ve only ever seen one other person there while I was. Let's talk about my experience with the Fitness Court.
After visiting and briefly trying out the equipment for the first time one evening after dinner last weekend, I knew I needed to have a full workout there ASAP.
I decided to go one night before bed around 8 PM. It was empty when I arrived, but thankfully the area was well-lit and felt extremely safe. The Fitness Court is located on the campus of the esteemed University of Charleston private school after all. I expected nothing less than the best. This college may not be huge, but it has a lot of money backing it and is very well taken care of. Not to mention it’s just across the bridge from my apartment.
I loaded up my Bose speaker and a full water jug then was on my way. This ended up being one of the best workouts of 2024 for me. I knew right away that the Fitness Court would be a place I’d be visiting regularly. Part of me was slightly upset about the fact that I’d just let this place exist for 2 months and had not used it until now. The past is the past though, no sense in dwelling. I’m just glad I finally have realized what is right under my nose.
I was feeling amazing after this workout and had a really good pump going. This had me hyped and of course, led to me taking some photos of myself during my walk back to the car.
I promise I didn’t just finish loading a dead body in the back of my car in this photo.
I woke up early for work the next morning as usual. I was decently sore, but it had not even been 12 hours yet, so I hadn’t gotten fully sore yet as I think it takes 24-36 hours to start to feel the aftereffects of a hard workout.
I happened to have some downtime at work and dropped some patients off just down the road from the Fitness Court. I couldn’t help myself and decided to return around 10:30 AM. I was in for my second workout in less than 24 hours. Sure I was sore, but I powered through it and ended up having another fantastic workout. It is official, I’m now addicted to the Fitness Court.
The rings are my favorite part of all the equipment, but there are all sorts of useful things there. You can easily get a bomb chest or back workout in. Your arms are going to feel the burn for sure too. There are plenty of options for leg workouts of course. The most shocking thing your body will experience is the use of many stabilizer muscles that are usually left idle when doing more typical exercises. This is the major benefit of calisthenics over all other forms of fitness. I’ve missed this shit so much, you have no idea.
The Fitness Court gets hit hard with sunlight, which increases the amount of sweat and calories burnt. This is a major plus in my opinion. I love the fact that I can work out shirtless and add to my summer tan. Thankfully there is plenty of shade off to the side for those times where you just need a break.
One of the best parts about the Fitness Courts is the location. It sits right on the Kanawha River and has an amazing view of our iconic golden Capitol Dome. As mentioned before, it is a mere 6 minutes from my apartment. You just can’t beat this. There is no safer place in our city and I get to enjoy the beauty of nature. This is everything I’d ask for in an outdoor fitness area. It is officially my second home now as I’ll be going to the Fitness Courts several times per week.
I’m so happy this exists. I really couldn’t be more thankful for such a thing. Shoutout to Dave Hendrickson and Chris Reed for funding such an amazing thing. Charleston has needed something like this for so long. Now that it is here, I’m going to make sure I don’t let it go to waste.
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Awesome, you guys are really lucky to have that. It's a little sad that it's empty but glad you making good use of it.
I feel tremendously lucky that this thing exists nearby to me. It's a lovely space and very well equipped. It makes me sad the place isn't popping with all sorts of active people. It just shows you how lazy people have become. They're too used to spending all of their energy on work and then sitting on their butts at home afterward. I'm hoping once school is back in session full time next month, there will be more people there.
The full body tats is just too fire bro damn that's a ripped looking specimen. I'm losing a part of my hair little by little, you've given me hope that bald looks even more fire than hair. The fitness court is awesome bro, fresh air nice stuff, this would be a cool place for a workout
Thanks bro. I got many tattoos at a young age. 100+ hours of tattoo sessions so far.
You may enjoy my old tattoo post where I talk about the stories behind all of them. https://peakd.com/dtube/@daltono/gup73hsx88c
If you have a receding hairline like I do, I say just go bald. If you can grow a beard it’ll definitely look good. Even if you can’t it very well still might be a good look. It’s better than half a head of hair in my opinion.
I love the Fitness Court!
thanks for the advice brother actually I'm growing the Beard well so all I needed was the confidence to go for a new look. Hahaha and you just gave me the confidence. Damn bro 100+ hours, well it was worth it because it's the dopest I've seen for a full body. You chose the perfect colours
Try bald sometime and if you don't like it just let it grow back. You can do it if you stay confident about your appearance and don't worry what others may think.
I knew as soon as I turned 18 that I wanted to be covered in colorful tattoos. Mission accomplished.
mission well accomplished in my opinion it's just a perfect design man.. I'mma try the bald this month and see whether it's going to be cool but I think it will because I usually let the barber shave very low to the skin to hide the bald spots so it's going to be awesome
You should take before and after pics. This is the product I use to shave my head, in case you want something easier than a regular razor and cheaper than a barber. I shave my head every 2-3 days.
https://peakd.com/bald/@daltono/groomies-baldiepro-is-officially-my-favorite-way-to-shave-my-head
thanks brother this is certainly going to be my go to product. !WINE !BEER
Having some physicality is often required and important @daltono. Being fit is physically is encouraged as it helps fix the mood - mental balance and physical balance.
Having to use the right equipment and getting it right too is important. Keep this up you know! You will get back to form in no time as long as you are being consistent.
Physical aptitude is equally as important as mental. Being balanced is key as well as consistency.
Yes daltono. It's rightly important
Damn dude that's awesome! I've used a couple outdoor gyms in the past but this one looks great. I'm hoping some of the cities near me start to do this type of stuff! We need to get people back into fitness for sure.
The other day you reccomended for me to not post car photos, I guess to avoid downvotes — which I kinda ignored because I enjoy sharing the livery designs I create in Gran Turismo and see no reason why I can't continue to share them. It's my blog after all and this is supposed to be a platform where nobody controls what you post, right? Since then I've realized it's not my content that is targeted, but me as an individual. Doesn’t matter what I post anymore. Hive is a place I can safely host my content, but it’s obviously not a place I can’t count on to earn rewards for it anymore. Considering this post is highly informative, motivational, has nothing to do with video games, and offers helpful information... yet it still was downvoted into the ground. Next we get to watch all of my Mexico vacation blogs be DV’d once I start posting them late next week.
Yeah dude.. I don't like seeing it! Perhaps not putting up the car posts anymore, and do some other content? You were doing really well with the gaming content.
I think what irked people was 1 month straight of the same thing even though you added your own flavor to it. It didn't feel like it was a lot of effort put into them, even if you may have.. the look of it was just reward farming. I get their perspective.. but I also get yours.
Alternatively, you could decline rewards on the car posts.
If you stick it out, and put out other and more normal varied content I think you could go back to earning like before, but hard to say.
I'd consider you a friend on here, so it makes me sad to see these things, so hoping we can get it sorted out..
I’d consider you a friend too, which is why it’s easy to chat about things like this knowing you have no reason to be biased.
3-5 hours per design and an hour to photograph each car. Although it’s fun to me, it still doesn’t feel low effort. I’ve been playing the game since early 2022, I have a stockpile.
I don’t find myself getting irked over other people’s content, no matter how poor/repetitive some of it is and how many rewards they get for just a few paragraphs of text.
Pretty sure there’s no sorting it out.
Yeah, maybe lay low for a while, decline rewards and stick to curation for a while. If you're at 50k HP you can still earn like 15 Hive per day in curation. Not bad, really!
Hopefully this will blow over, but I would certainly say don't post those car things anymore..
@daltono Greetings comrade. I have been seeing that you have been receiving negative votes recently on your content. I believe the main cause of this (in part) is that you have been added to the Hive Watchers blacklist. If you check the comments on your blog they (HW) left you several comments asking you to avoid generating part of your texts with chatgpt or AI.
So apparently the negative votes you are receiving are partly because you are on their blacklist. Although some of those votes you have received do not belong to HWs.
In my opinion you have an excellent track record on hive, and have always created original and good quality content. Don't let this drive you away from hive.
I think the best thing would be for you to go through the HW discord to start an appeal process and remove your user from the blacklist. That will keep a large portion of the negative votes away.
Here I attach the proof that you are blacklisted and the comments left by the HW's, just in case I am not a member of the HW's team. I am just a common user who has seen the situation. Best regards.
This place is a game changer. I try to find time to go pretty much every single day. You should check the map on their app, you may have one nearby and not even know.
Yeah that's awesome, I'll give it a try!
How's the job, carting around the seniors? Get any good life advice? haha
I love the job. No good advice from any of them though. At least I’ve been able to help make dozens and dozens of different people’s days better just by being myself. Leaving for Mexico this weekend, so that’s going to be interesting. Especially since it’s unpaid time off 😫
How nice 😍
It's pretty amazing. Definitely one of the best things that's been added to this city in recent memory.