Another Great Thing About Rio
Dotted at regular intervals along the busiest beaches in Rio, you will find little exercise stations. These include various parallel bars designed for pull-ups, chin-ups and various other strenuous exercise. These tend to be frequented by muscled up guys (of which there are plenty) who seem to enjoy the opportunity for some public flexing (of course I’m neither bitter nor jealous…).
Bit of eye-candy for anyone into this kind of guy. Personally I think he looks like he needs to eat a sandwich...
But although the great thing to which I refer in this post’s title is related to exercise, it is not designed for the beach posers. I am actually talking about free, open-air gyms designed specifically for what the Brazilians call the Terceira Idade (literally ‘third age’, meaning elderly).
Something about the term ‘third age’ makes me chuckle, though I’m not really sure why. It makes sense and seems nicer than saying straight-out ‘old’. I remember comedian Jack Dee once complaining that the English term ‘old age pensioner’ seemed rather unkind as it was essentially saying the same thing three times.
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| Academia da Terceria Idade – this one is in Largo do Machado and as you can see, people from the Primeira and Segunda Idades also get involved! |
What a great idea! As you can see from the picture above, although they’re designed for older people, people of all ages have a go and they’re really sturdy so they double as playground for the younger users.
The scheme, which started out in 2009, is all about incentivising activity and exercise. There are now 39 units dotted around the city and, apart from at night, you very rarely see them out of use. And they haven’t just been installed and forgotten about. There are daily, instructor-led exercise sessions – mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
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| Some people like being photographed more than others… Talk about death rays from the lady on the right (not that I blame her). |
Cool scheme huh? There are so many benefits to exercise and in some countries it seems that almost every activity has been made to be prohibitively expensive. Then they wonder why there is an obesity problem. Bravo Rio!
I've seen these in Toronto, too! Took me a while to figure out what they were, though, because they were nowhere near a park and yet looked like a playground feature…
-Mallory
Hey Mallory, that's cool! I think they're great and I just love seeing all those people using them the whole time. I could imagine in some places people just wouldn't be interested and they'd be abandoned, but certainly not here. I think free gyms and those schemes where you can use municipal bikes are a brilliant way to keep people healthy and active.
Tom,
I'd appreciate it if you asked me before you used pictures of me on your blog.
Thanks & Abracos,
Alex
Alex, of course I can't say for sure, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say – You wish! ;)
Alex, I agree with you, but that's no reason to give the photographer the death rays :-)
On a different note it seems sandwiches will soon be the latest food fad.
Cool,Doctor Tom! You could earn a living in health promotion. There is a global NCD crisis going on all around us. NCDs or Non Communicable Diseases like diabetes, cancer, hypertension, strokes and cardiovascular problems related to lifestyle choices (obesity, smoking, lack of exercise) are the biggest killers in all except the poorest communities where the bugs get them instead. As an ex-smoking, fat third age old fart it's tempting to say "well, you have to die of something, sometime" but that misses the point. Enjoying life and loved ones for as long as reasonably possible is fun. Why cut a good thing short if you can avoid it? Problem is that most people using gyms look frightfully fit already (chicken or egg?). At least in Rio I guess those of us with a body image issue can at least join 'em on the Academia da Terceria Idade with little risk of coming across and offending pseudo-aesthetes of a puritanical disposition ;) so I echo your "Bravo Rio!"
Great gritty, you've busted my cover.
Yes, world…I am a 65 year old woman of African Origin.