Outdoor fitness in Lakeshore East Park

Personal trainers offer ideas for safe, creative outdoor fitness

Gyms may be back in business, but there are alternatives for those preferring to break a sweat in the sunshine.

Nick Strutzel, Certified Personal Trainer at Lakeshore Sports and Fitness (LSF), shared some zero-equipment outdoor workout ideas.

“These workouts are geared toward fat burning and cardio endurance building,” Strutzel says. “You can do a lot with your own body weight for resistance.”

Walk or jog to a nearby scenic location, like Buckingham Fountain, the BP Bridge in Maggie Daley Park or the stairs that lead to the Riverwalk at Columbus Avenue and Wacker Drive.

“Focus on getting your heart rate up and working on your cardio endurance,” Strutzel says, “and then add in some strength work.”

Head to Buckingham Fountain, do some pushups, complete a lap around the fountain and do some squats before repeating the lap. Or use the staircase by the riverwalk, doing pushups at the bottom of the stairs.

“The idea is to do some form of cardio like walking, jogging, or running, followed by body weight strength training work, like pushups, squats or lunges. You can also do core work, like planks or crunches,” Strutzel says.

New Eastside resident and NASM Certified Personal Trainer Terra Schultz trains her clients in Lakeshore East Park.

“It’s fun being in the park,” Schultz says. “We use the area by the fountains to do step-ups and balance, plyometrics, box jumps, tricep dips, leg raises, and reverse crunches.”

“The sidewalk around the park has a hill, so taking ten minutes to walk laps is a great warmup. This works to get your heart rate up,” she says.

For a change of scenery, Schultz brings her clients on a “Walkabout,” which is a brisk walk around town incorporating exercises that don’t require equipment.

“We will walk down Randolph Street and while waiting for the light to change, we will jog in place or do high knees. We can do step-ups or reverse crunches, or sometimes we bear crawl or sprint forward and backwards,” says Shultz.

Dominique LeBlanc Beers regularly works out with Schultz. “There’s always challenges,” LeBlanc Beers says, “but I like being outside. It’s been nice during this time, especially getting some fresh air.”

Schultz, who works with active, older adults as well as those new to exercise, is looking to take on additional clients. She can be reached at terra.schultz@yahoo.com.

Strutzel is currently leading Personal Training sessions at LSF. For more information, click here.