Outdoor gym design for hotels - an expert opinion
LA7 outdoor gym at The G Hotel, Egypt
Designing an outdoor gym for hotels, resorts & residences
There is an increasing demand from high end residents and guests at hotels and residential developments for outdoor gym options, especially in warm, dry locations such as Italy and Greece.
Essentially we are looking to balance the obvious convenience and comfort of an indoor gym with the health benefits of a dose of Vitamin Nature during a workout outside in a natural context - fresh air, Vitamin D, phytoncides from the surrounding trees, soothing nature sounds, and so on.
hotel gym Seasonality & staffing
An outdoor gym will likely need to operate at least part of the year without a full-time member of staff there to facilitate workouts or group fitness classes, raising the question of safety on the one hand and a glitch in the customer journey on the other if a guest arrives and is unsure how to piece together a suitable workout.
As there are no cardio machinery or isolation machines on offer, the switch to a functional workout may not always come easily for certain hotel guests or residents, meaning some additional guidance is required.
In a resort context during summer season it may make complete sense to have a fitness coach on hand during the day to create a quick circuit workout for guests, or offer extra motivation.
Providing that coach with some pre-planned workouts is another way to ensure a guest receives a premium experience at the outdoor hotel gym. These could either be on a tablet, or printed.
Additionally, it is worth considering the role of signage to help not only explain how to use the outdoor gym equipment but also explaining how to configure a full workout with it, this avoids the risk of a guest visiting for a few minutes, feeling lost and retreating to the safety of the hotel indoor gym.
biofit gym design for porto montenegro marina, hotel and residential development
outdoor gym material selection - steel vs wood
In our opinion, there is a genuine case for combining a fully recyclable stainless steel inox rig in a hotel outdoor gym design as it provides monkey bars, pull-up bars, hooks for climbing ropes, and much more whilst withstanding high variations in temperature and rainfall.
This equates to minimal maintenance concerns, and a rig is pretty much indestructible, no matter how badly it is treated!
All wooden outdoor gym equipment has a completely different aesthetic clearly but does come with constraints, for example, our experience has taught us that the timber needs to be specifically treated before being installed on site otherwise it will only last 2-3 seasons at most.
The dream of repurposing old tree trunks into a serious outdoor gym is more for a home gym set-up than a commercial location such as a hotel or holiday resort where safety and durability are of the utmost importance.
We are big fans of wooden outdoor gym equipment provided by the likes of LegnoLandia in Italy, having learnt our lesson in the past at the Porto Montenegro outdoor gym shown above, we now prefer to bring in specialist suppliers rather than following the DIY route!
perimeter fences, lighting & music for outdoor gyms
Installing floodlights for an outdoor training facility is an additional CAPEX cost obviously but also extends the operating hours in the off-season, meaning it is a trade-off to be carefully considered.
Arguably, for summer resorts, there is logic in the gym opening only during daylight hours, although ‘closing’ an outdoor gym also suggests there is an external perimeter fence with some form of lock or access restriction in place.
As such outdoor gyms can easily run into the 500m2 - 1000m2 range, an external fence can be a considerable cost in itself, requiring a 30-50cm deep trench to be dug in order for the vertical posts to be securely installed.
Lighting in a natural context requires careful consideration of light pollution, for example to neighboring resorts, hotels or lodges. This was a concern both when working on our Singita safari hotel gym design project in a nature reserve and it rose its head again during our Porto Montenegro beach gym in a marina setting.
a symphony of tonal beiges and browns
flooring & shade in outdoor gym design
For our Porto Montenegro beach gym design, we took 800m2 of vacant car park and covered it in imported sand, quite a bit of imported sand in fact..!
During this process we learnt that there are, unsurprisingly, many different types of sand and some are better suited to fitness flooring than others.
Too fine and soft means it is hard for feet to grip but larger grain, densely packed sand can easily become uncomfortable under foot so there we recommend testing various samples first.
The project began without any shade structure in place but it quickly became clear that the intense midday heat in summer made the gym unpleasantly hot for many hotel guests, who only wanted to train early morning or later at night, which in turn created operational issues around extended gym opening hours to accommodate these requests.
Eventually, we installed a sandy beige coloured canopy similar to that used in army tents that allows just enough protection from the sun whilst also being wind resistant.
For our views on sustainable gym flooring options see here.
To enquire about our hotel gym design services contact Matt via email here.