Pop a Squat to Ride the bus. Do Public Health Campaigns Work?
We’re about to embark on another EPIC road trip down to Texas (for a refresher on the last one, or in case you missed it, check out my post “Cross Country Cross-training”). This time we switched up the route, and will be making stops in several cities that we’ve never been to before.
When I’m exploring a new city, one of the initial things I do is locate potential outdoor spaces where I can get in an exercise session. I can essentially run anywhere, but I also appreciate options for strength training and mobility in the great outdoors. As my luck would have it, many municipalities have installed fitness equipment in their parks. Outdoor fitness parks are my ideal “home away from home gym.”
Nearly every single park I’ve gone to with fitness structures also had a track. The exercise equipment was typically installed alongside the track, so that visitors could do a lap, get on a fitness device for a few reps and repeat for a desired amount of reps and distance. My favorite method of training in these settings is to run a mile, starting and completing each lap at the pull up bar for a set of eight to ten chin ups.
In addition to having fitness gear in public parks, developing specific public health and wellness initiatives motivates citizens to incorporate a fitness-forward mentality into their daily routines. The goal behind these initiatives is to break the cycle of sedentary living, a condition that affects a substantial part of the global population (a staggering 1.8 billion people worldwide, did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity in 2022).
A Health Ticket to Ride
A program called the “Health Ticket” was enacted in 2020 in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca. The initiative let people pay for a bus ride with twenty air (aka bodyweight) squats. Riders stood in a designated square outline and performed the squats, which were tabulated by a computer that would then dispense the free ticket. Disabled individuals and senior citizens ride the bus for free, so this was not an ableist campaign by any means. In fact, it is a great way to make public services like transportation more accessible.
I don’t know the current status of “Health Ticket,” but I learned that it had expanded to more city bus stations in 2021; and that the initial campaign resulted in over 55,000 tickets being given out. That amounts to more than one million squats!
In this instance, the campaign seemingly has been a success. It got people to move, and perhaps motivated them to continue engaging in a more active lifestyle.
What’s the Verdict on Art Courts?
Another way to get people moving is to make fitness gear look appealing. Reproductions of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring’s paintings grace several outdoor gyms throughout the United States, as part of the National Fitness Campaign’s Fitness Courts project.
Both Basquiat and Haring are renowned cultural icons who livened up the streets of New York City with spray can graffiti art. The choice to put their artwork on outdoor fitness equipment is in line with their artistic expressions of strength and vitality.
Basquiat and Haring each depicted athletic subjects in their paintings, as a way to express feats of strength, endurance and determination. As a New Yorker, I’ve always associated Haring with athletics, because one of the first pieces of public art I can recall seeing was his Crack is Wack mural on a handball court at 128th Street and 2nd Avenue.
The mural’s message is stark, but juxtaposed with Haring’s cartoon-esque figuration, it doesn’t come across as pedantic. Its placement on a handball court (abandoned at the time) had to be strategic as well. Handball is a game that’s become very popular in parks throughout the city of New York. It has significant health benefits and is a great social sport as well.
Basquiat frequently portrayed major athletic trailblazers. Several of his paintings pay homage to champion boxers Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali), Jack Johnson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jersey Joe Walcott. Each of the aforementioned boxers also fought outside of the ring for civil rights. Untitled (Boxer) is an example of the merging of social justice and sports themes in Basquait’s art. An unidentified boxer raises his gloves and flexes his muscles as boxers often do when victorious. An additional interpretation of this gesture is that it resembles the Black Power salute.
One of the places I’ll be visiting on my trip down south, is Chattanooga, Tennessee. It just so happens that the city of Chattanooga has a public park called Main Terrain Art Park, which sits on former industrial land, and is filled with large iron sculptures and fitness equipment. The park is an ideal example of how to combine art and fitness to promote healthy and sustainable living. Features in the park include a running track, big green open lawns, contemporary sculptures, sustainable local plantings, a variety of objects for sitting or reclining, five fitness stations along a pathway, and a stormwater management system. Some of the large sculptures by artist Thomas Sayre are interactive and also serve as functional pieces of exercise equipment.
I’m looking forward to discovering how being immersed in a site that combines public art, leisure, landscaping and fitness will impact my overall experience. I anticipate that I’ll be very amped up, and that my mind and body will be heightened to all the amazing stimuli and interactive elements surrounding me. You can expect a recollection of my time there in a future post.
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Maybe we should have apps in our cars that we can enable, where we need to do 20 squats to turn the vehicle on. I would use it! It could have stats and daily streak records. We could compete with other users across North America, collect points and trade them in for car air fresheners or something.