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Home » Exercise Programs » San Antonio gets AARPs only senior playground in the state – San Antonio Express-News

On a drizzly day last week, AARP celebrated the opening of a tiny, but mighty senior fitness area on San Antonios South Side.

Its on the grounds of Normoyle Park, which is tucked into a low-income neighborhood off of Zarzamora Street alongside a community center that offers senior programs.

The city park features a childrens playground, picnic tables, an outdoor pool and a skate ramp that can be used by other wheeled vehicles, among other amenities.

Now it has an AARP-sponsored FitLot pad that features stationary fitness equipment geared to senior citizens. FitLot is a New Orleans-based nonprofit that creates and equips outdoor spaces for use by people with wide-ranging fitness levels and abilities.

Normoyle sits in a predominantly Mexican American neighborhood that has traditionally been under served and includes a fair share of 50-plus residents dealing with preventable illnesses.

For AARP, the national organization that advocates for middle-aged and elderly Americans, all these characteristics fit its own check list for the new initiative: FitLots in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

AARP picked San Antonio for its Texas site, the groups 15th FitLot for 2019. It will build 21 more in 2020, and the final 17 in 2021. Each will get multiyear grants to launch the fitness sites with trainer-led classes.

Officials wouldnt say what each FitLot costs, only that its investment will allow San Antonio to hold a minimum of 54 classes each year for several years.

The outdoor, canopy-covered exercise spot is open for business and promotes movement thats safe on joints, builds core strength and increases flexibility. Its a Christmas gift to South Side seniors who cant afford to buy such equipment to use in their home or to join a gym.

With each elliptical machine AARP places throughout the country, it hopes to encourage seniors living nearby to keep moving and improving their physical and mental health, which curtails isolation and depression that can impact disease.

This one effort, or 53 of them, wont cover the sizable U.S. population block at risk, of course. The number of people in the United States 65 and up will double from about 52 million to 95 million in 2060.

Life expectancy gains are still high but slowing; and the best educated will outlive poorer, less-educated Americans.

Data has prompted experts to say that better health outcomes may depend less on medical intervention than on policies that address healthcare access.

In the backdrop of all this are other challenges. Women arent necessarily living longer as the longevity gender gap is closing. The number of traditional family caregivers will shrink as marriages decline, divorce remains popular and fertility rates fall.

So, a lot of data is driving AARPs efforts, however modest.

Senior parks are an international trend. Theyre being called senior playgrounds for play and leisure. China is credited with the concept that has spread to Japan and parts of Europe. Some are known as nursing-care prevention parks.

Way to put it.

Morie Smile, vice president of AARPs office of community engagement, says the initiative was born of a challenge from CEO Jo Ann Jenkins to mark AARPs 60th anniversary. The goal was to add strong tangible value to a community, Smile said. The first FitLot was in St. Petersburg, Florida.

This lady wandered through, Smile recalled. She was a resident for over 40 years and had brought her children and grandchildren to the park. As Im talking to her, this young guy, probably all of 20, was running past and stopped to do a couple of chin ups.

It pretty much exemplified what we really hoped, she said. I love the parks and think that the United States is catching up to what we are seeing in Europe.

Perhaps some day senior playgrounds might become a real thing. No monkey bars, of course, but I can see the swings now.

Elaine Ayala is a columnist covering San Antonio and Bexar County. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala

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San Antonio gets AARPs only senior playground in the state - San Antonio Express-News

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Home » Exercise Programs » San Antonio gets AARPs only senior playground in the state – San Antonio Express-News