Huron Lodge residents try new workout equipment
Huron Lodge residents embrace new outdoor workout equipment
Alex Silvester knows the importance of staying active.
Every day for the last four years, Silvester, 79, has grabbed his weights and done bicep curls.
“I do exercises in the morning all the time,” Silvester said. “I’ve got a 10-pound weight and I do 1,200 every morning. I enjoy doing it and I think it’s beneficial. I don’t have big arms but I’ve got muscles.”
Silvester, along with other residents at Huron Lodge in Windsor, will now be able to enjoy outdoor fitness. Fully accessible outdoor exercise equipment worth $30,000 was provided by the City of Windsor through its accessibility advisory committee, which has identified a number of key projects to make the municipality more accessible for all.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said the city is taking a lead role in ensuring all residents have access to amenities that help improve their quality of life. Whether you’re eight years old and going to a neighbourhood park or 108 and living at Huron Lodge, Dilkens said it’s important to encourage healthy and active living.
“If you are living at a long-term care home there’s reason for it,” Dilkens said. “Your mobility may be lessened and you may not be as active as you once were. This helps encourage and promote active living and we are happy to do that, especially in an accessible way.”
Each piece of the outdoor equipment is adaptable so those with or without mobility issues can use it. Oskar Rauscher, vice-president of the residents’ council at Huron Lodge, is in a wheelchair. He tested out the equipment and believes it’s a great investment in residents’ health. He loves that he can work on his upper body sitting in his wheelchair while breathing in fresh air.
“The day it was put out and they let us go on the concrete I was out here,” he said. “I’m an outdoor person.”
Windsor’s first female mayor, Elizabeth Kishkon, is a Huron Lodge resident and avid walker who was pleased to see the addition of the outdoor equipment.
“I think it’s very important, and I think we should all start thinking about physical health from a very early age right through to old age,” she said. “If you sit around and just watch television, you age much faster and you get sick faster.”
The equipment is part of Windsor’s 20-year strategic plan to improve the quality of life for residents.