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  5 Reasons that Outdoor and Indoor Fitness Equipment Are Not the Same and 4 Tips to Design the Best Outdoor Fitness Area

  Five Reasons that Outdoor and Indoor Fitness Equipment Are Not the Same and Four Tips to Design the Best Outdoor Fitness Area Back when I was in the commercial fitness equipment industry, we did a lot of R&D, prototype design, testing, and product development.  And that’s just for one machine; say an arm-curl/biceps machine.  These are called single-station strength machines, which means that one entire machine is specifically designed for one muscle or muscle group, like the upper arm/biceps.  Then there are like twenty other machines to hit the rest of the body. But one entire machine, just for one specific exercise.  Then we would take the “finished” product to the next trade show to see how an actual human related to it.  These people ranged from gym owners, to fitness enthusiasts, to professional bodybuilders.  And they were quite critical. “The resistance falls off at the end”, “I don’t like the weight ratio”, “the range of motion isn’t fluid all the way through”, and so on.  At a fitness equipment trade show, before the actual hall opens officially, there’s a time period ...
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  The Real Reason that Prince and Burke Live Purple

  The Real Reason that Prince and Burke Live Purple Microsoft’s default or core color is blue.  The official Apple colors are black and grey.  And Google covers basically everything, everywhere, all at once with the primary colors of paint and light.  But really, what’s in a color?  Microsoft’s blue represents security, trust, and loyalty.  Apple’s black is about sophistication, power, and mystery.  Hmm … mystery.  And Google?  It’s plausible that the real reason is Google’s first server was built with Lego, in blue, red, yellow, and green.  So, what’s with Burke’s purple?  The tagline of Burke’s playground and recreation products is “Play that moves you.”  But, not just in a physical way.  So much goes into research, design, and development in each play element and product and how it fits into an overall system to ignite cognitive, social, emotional, and imaginative skill development.  It’s more than just a “playground”, but we’re not supposed to know that.  We should see it as an awesome thing to climb on, slide on, swing, jump, and laugh on, while leaving the technical stuff to the ...
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  International Darwin Day and the Evolution of Playgrounds

  International Darwin Day and the Evolution of Playgrounds International Darwin day is February 12th, so in honor of that, let’s take a look at the evolution of playgrounds. In the grand scheme of things, the late 1800’s wasn’t that long ago.  We had cars, cameras, telephones, record players, electric lighting, and typewriters, but pretty much no playgrounds.  They weren’t a thing.  Very uncommon and if you did find one, it was what the name says; a place (ground) where children played.  The idea was to give kids a place to play that wasn’t in the street. Cars evolved from the three-wheeled Benz, of Mercedes fame, that didn’t even have a proper steering wheel, to the luxurious, practically self-driving, AI machines of today.  Cameras are phones.  Wait … phones are cameras?  Actually, phones are also “record players”, but vinyl is making a huge comeback.  Lighting went from that single brownish incandescent bulb that didn’t really illuminate the far corners of the house to the multi-hued, multi-colored, variable brightness, illumination experience we fully control with our … phones.  Typewriters are now a software program ...
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  Outrageous Recreation

  Outrageous Recreation When we think of recreation, certain things come to mind: Bocce ball, cornhole, playgrounds, pool volleyball, camping, pickleball and so on.  But, what about being angry?  Well … not actually being angry, but being “angry” for the sake of recreation.  There’s a term for this and it’s called Recreational Outrage. It’s an indulgence of self-induced anger and public venting over such topics as politics, religion, the fact that all the doors in that new neighborhood are yellow, and so on.  Whatever.  Recreational outrage is now a hobby.  Hey, some people play shuffleboard. It reminds me of the Monty Python skit with the Argument Clinic: “Is this the right room for an argument?” “I’ve told you once.” “No, you haven’t.” “Yes, I have.” And it goes hilariously on from there.  Like the Argument Clinic, will we see themed outrage areas in our local parks & recreation facilities or on a playground?  A place to picket, yell, scream, wear incendiary t-shirts, glue our hands to art, and so on? Speaking of France … “You weren’t speaking of France.” “I was.” “No, you weren’t.” Anyways, in France complaining is quite normal.  In ...
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  Architecturally Harmonious Furnishings and the Beastie Boys

  Architecturally Harmonious Furnishings and the Beastie Boys I worked at McDonald’s, back when we could get a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke for $1.45.  It was when cordless landline phones were new and Hot Pockets, Fruit Rollups, Nintendo, and the Beastie Boys didn’t quite hit the shelves yet.  Yeah, times were tough. I worked the graveyard shift; 10:00pm – 6:00am.  One night, I was sitting with the manager in the “dining room”, as they called it.  I said, “Man, these seats are NOT comfortable”.  In fact, they were quite ugly; harsh colors and cold-war styling, illuminated with diffused fluorescent lighting.  My manager replied, “Yeah, that’s on purpose.” “Why?”  He said, “Because we want people to eat and leave.  We don’t want lingering or loitering.”  I was just a young teenager, but even then I thought, “well, that’s not very welcoming.”  That kind of, “we don’t want you staying here” philosophy is still in play at many places and I don’t get it.  Starbucks got it right with “the third place”.  Howard Shultz’s ideas was that there’s home, work, and Starbucks.  Please ...
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  The Art, Science, and Consequences of Playground Color Schemes

  The Art, Science, and Consequences of Playground Color Schemes If we need a hammer drill, would we go to a furniture store?  How about a suit or a dress?  Would we go to Best Buy?  We wouldn’t go to GameStop for a ping pong table no more than we’d go to an appliance store to buy a watch or a purse or makeup or shoes or … okay, you get the picture.    What if there was a store like that?  Well … there was and it was called Sears.  One of the biggest reasons Sears ceased to exist is that they became everything and nothing at the same time.  Sears lost it’s identity because, according to George Troy, author of the Five Laws of Retail, upper management focused on financial shell games to enrich themselves personally and to appear successful in the short term.  They profited, but at the cost of killing Sears. Back in the 1980’s Pepsi’s marketing department launched the Pepsi Challenge.  Pepsi vs Coca Cola in a blind taste test and guess what; most people picked Pepsi.  Great ...