About
The Salinenpark in Bad Rappenau is located on the site of the former Rappenau salt factory. Its redesign with a fitness trail and other attractions greatly enriches what the spa town in the Kraichgau region between Heilbronn and Heidelberg has to offer.
The saltworks were closed in 1972, and the boiling houses were demolished a year later. In its place, the Salinenpark with spacious lawns and abundant trees was created. On the occasion of the 2008 State Garden Show, the grounds were fundamentally renovated and redesigned.
Today’s highlights include the new outdoor fitness equipment. They were installed in early summer 2019 and come from playfit.
Fitness course
The new fitness course is thus another attraction of the park. It also creates accessible and intergenerational offerings in the open air – and that alone is a huge attraction in times of pandemic.
Quite independently of sporting and physical conditions and ambitions, the equipment selected for the Salinenpark appeals to a huge user group.
That was also the plan. Physiotherapists and occupational therapists, among others, were therefore consulted in the selection of the equipment in order to be able to meet the needs of as many athletes as possible.
Concept
The equipment in the fitness course of the Salinenpark combines many advantages.
They are designed to attract adults of different ages and talents. This also includes those who just want to “get a taste” without having to sign up at the gym straight away.
For this target group, devices that are easy to use and safe are needed. The playfit equipment meets all the requirements of the DIN EN 16630:2015 safety standard for outdoor site-based fitness equipment.
The floor of the course is always important. After the persons responsible had bad experiences with a sandstone floor, they now decided on a floor made of shell limestone. Fall protection mats were laid under the calisthenics facility.
Equipment
Eight new and attractive fitness machines are now available to visitors in the Salinenpark. The renewal had become necessary because the old system was getting on in years. After less than a month of construction, the new fitness trail was ceremoniously opened.
The new course is divided into three training areas: endurance, strength and free training. In the endurance area, there are leg exercisers, full-body exercisers, and a sit-up bike. To strengthen the chest and back muscles, upper torso trainers are ideal for pulling and pressing. The back massager loosens the trained muscles and can also be used to strengthen the leg muscles.
The free training area offers a facility for calisthenics as well as a balance trainer.
Users
Young and old alike can keep fit in the course. For older people who can no longer exercise so well with their own body weight, there is the seated ergometer (seated bicycle). The counterpart for the younger generation is the whole-body trainer (Ergo-Cross).
There are also many joggers in the Salinenpark. They use the calisthenics equipment as an intermediate station and train on the wall bars, the hand-over-hand ladder, and the two horizontal bars.
Those who have had enough exercise can relax on the park benches. If you don’t want to train at all, you can watch from here – just watching is enough to work up an appetite…
Salinenpark
In addition to the fitness trail, the Salinenpark has a lot more to offer – for example, the gardens, which are attractive in every season. They are dedicated to the theme of “salt, brine and health” with perennials and grasses. The more than 1,000 m² largest alternating flower bed in the colours red, white, and black symbolises the former salt production in Bad Rappenau.
Another attraction are the rose gardens that have been laid out along the historic buildings of the spa and clinic administration and the “House of Health”.
There is a labyrinth of lavender on the southern slope of the garden. From here, a path lined with magnolias leads to the graduation tower. This is a kind of open-air inhalatorium, where medicinal brine trickles over sloe brushwood, evaporates, and enriches the air with salt.
Meeting place
The entire fitness trail area also functions as a meeting place – and magnificently so. Here you can often see several generations motivating and supporting each other. Or even just sit on the bench and watch each other (or others).
Studies have proven the positive effects of fitness trails, especially on older people who are not particularly ambitious in terms of sports. This applies to both physical fitness and mental well-being.
Conclusion
The exercise trail in the Salinenpark is also described by its users as a “village fountain”, where nice and friendly people always meet and find each other without much fanfare.
This is appealing not only to visitors, spa guests, and patients of the neighbouring spa and rehabilitation clinics but also to the residents of Bad Rappenau itself.
A fitness trail with intergenerational offerings in the open air is a gift – especially in times of the pandemic. Fitness equipment of the future.
We did this.
Project data
Fitness Course
playfit GmbH
Brauerknechtgraben 53
D‑20459 Hamburg
Client
City of Bad Rappenau
Physical address
Salinenpark
Salinenstraße 28,
D — 74906 Bad Rappenau
Video
Contact
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Address
More Sports Media
Am Weitkamp 17
D‑44795 Bochum
Phone
+49 234 5466 0374
+49 172 4736 332