By Jay Hammel

The Quincy Park District has assembled its brand-new outdoor fitness equipment at Bob Mays Park which includes workout sessions with certified trainers from the Blessing Health System starting April 7.

The first 30 registrations will receive a free dry-fit boot camp shirt.

There will be a wide range of training options making it fun and easy for people of all fitness levels to spend more time outdoors exercising, training for sports, races or everyday life.

The Blessing Health System Wellness Team will provide modifications for all class participants. Class levels will be designed to push your limits and improve your physical well-being.

This fitness playground is comprised of the park district’s 1,000 acres of land consisting of sports equipment, pools, grass, fields, playgrounds for young children, you name it.

Marcelo Beroiza, Marketing Operations Director of Quincy Park District, aspired the Quincy Park District to emulate some of the nation’s largest cities.

“The trips that I do for park districts and conventions like in Chicago, I saw that they had this stuff and thought it was so cool,” Beroiza stated. “You know, after high school and college you’re all about getting your body in good shape and can go to the gym all the time but that gets old.”

So Beroiza decided to start a project.

“I reached out to Blessing Health System because they have access to all kinds of people and are the biggest provider in town,” Beroiza said. “They employ about 3,000 people and have around 500,000 patients. It deals with the wellness campaign and we can prevent the nasty stuff happening like obesity and diabetes.”

The cost of the boot camp program is $45 and it will include 10 classes for a total of five weeks of sessions.

Online program registration is now open! Click here.

“We will be using the environment around us such as trails, hills, and blacktop,” Beroiza stated. “There will also be additional equipment like kettlebells, tires, and sledgehammers. All really cool stuff!”

Josie Eriksen, a nursing student through Blessing Reiman, spends a majority off her time in and out of different Blessing Health facilities learning about wellness prevention and how exercise plays such a huge role in a healthy lifestyle.

“Having the ability to workout outside makes everything so much enjoyable and will have a positive impact on our health. This is a great opportunity for a change of pace compared to what we are used to within our everyday workouts,” Eriksen said.

Starting in June, the Quincy Park District has plans of expanding this Outdoor Fitness equipment to South park and Moorman park as well.

“The majority of organized fitness sessions in gyms are mostly women while the men like to work out and lift heavyweights,” Beroiza stated. “We felt there was a need for high schoolers on up. You start playing on the playground at age 10 and this is like the biggest boy playground ever.”

Spring/Summer/Fall sessions will happen twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.