Cornwall, Pa ? For elderly residents who value a daily commitment to keep their heart, lungs and legs strong, one retirement community has stepped into an interactive program designed specifically for those who are no longer as strong or fit.

Residents of Cornwall Manor use a paved walking trail that runs seven-tenths of a mile around the rural, tree-lined campus. Recently, a number of forest-green kiosks sprouted along the path with instructions that enable walkers to add variety to their routines, using exercises to improve balance, flexibility and upper-body strength.

Experiment

The community is one of two test sites for Life Trail fitness stations, which is expected to go on sale early next year. The equipment also is being tested at a public park in Garfield Heights, Ohio.

Playworld Systems Inc., a manufacturer of playground and park equipment, designed the fitness stations in collaboration with Penn State University experts in kinesiology, gerontology and recreation. The Lewisburg company hopes the stations will appeal to a previously untapped audience of adults 50 and older, regardless of their fitness level.

The product was about three years in the making, inspired in part by statistics and projections showing that as American adults’ lifespans are expanding, so are their waistlines, said Ian Proud, a Playworld product designer.

“If we look at increasing longevity and increasing obesity, it really frames an opportunity for us (to develop a new product), especially when you consider that birthrates are decreasing,” Proud said.

Levels of exercise

The 10 stations along the trail at Cornwall Manor can accommodate two exercisers simultaneously. They can use a pedaling machine for a lower-body warm-up; a bench stepper to increase lower body strength; or a “forearm roll” apparatus that strengthens the hands and forearms. Each station contains instructions for beginning and advanced users.

Cornwall Manor retirement community resident Bob Gates works on his standing push-ups at one of the stations along a new fitness trail near his home in Cornwall, Pa.

“We say that if you can get up and walk to the refrigerator and walk back to the couch, you can probably at some level perform these activities,” said Geoff Godbey, a Penn State leisure studies professor who helped design Life Trail.

Five of the stations feature upper-body exercise equipment that also can be used by people in wheelchairs. For example, one station equipped with vertical grab bars for exercisers to do standing push-ups also features a horizontal grab bar for wheelchair users to perform pull-ups while sitting.

A few of the sites incorporate general health tips and provide information on ailments such as osteoporosis and arthritis.

Tweaked for seniors

Bob Gates, 84, began using Life Trail this fall. Gates already was quite active, making regular visits to the community’s wellness center, running a bowling program and playing tennis, but discovered his fitness could still use fine-tuning.

“I found out my balance wasn’t so good,” said Gates, who can now stand on one leg and extend the other one in front of him without using the grab bars at the balance station.

Traditional fitness trails, a staple of many public parks for about the past 20 years, are generally unsuitable for seniors because they usually consist of exercises for adults already in top physical condition, said David Proctor, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State.

“A lot of the trails out there were probably built for more fit and younger participants. The ability of 50- and 60-year-olds to do push-ups and sit-ups may be somewhat limited,” he said.

Each station is built from materials designed to withstand inclement weather and frequent use, such as steel posts, fiberglass panels and a polyethylene plastic roof, Proud said. So far, it seems to be holding up under the traffic at Garfield Heights, said Jane Christyson, spokeswoman for the Cleveland Metroparks system.

“It’s pretty vandal-resistant. It’s been very solidly built and very easy to maintain,” she said.

Optimistic outlook

In a community that is home to seniors with widely ranging incomes, the trail provides users with fitness amenities they might not otherwise be able to afford, Christyson added.

“It fills a real niche for people who don’t belong to a gym … or who don’t live in an expensive type of senior-citizen housing,” she said. “It brings them accessibility.”

Michael Deveney, Cornwall Manor’s wellness coordinator, said he was unsure how many residents use the equipment regularly, but suspected rainy weather has discouraged many from trying it. He plans to promote the equipment again in the spring.

“It gives an added dimension of activity for people. You’re not just going on a walk,” Deveney said.

Gates completes every exercise along the trail with his wife “every time the weather would permit us,” and even jogs between them to keep his heart rate up.

“I do the treadmill, too, but this is more fun,” he said.