Step out, step lively in our parks
The Niagara Frontier’s many green spaces provide scenic settings for some serious exercise
By Jane KwiatkowskiNEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 05/10/08 7:23 AM
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- Sue Archie and Charity get their exercise in Delaware Park.
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Chances are you’ve seen them. They jog, walk, sit, watch. They come in different shapes, ages, species. Some go solo. Others travel in bunches. They each share
one obsession. They are park fanatics. “It’s my relaxation,” said Sue Archie. “It’s
my hour or two where I’m nobody’s nurse, nobody’s wife, nobody’s mom. I don’t have to do laundry or pay the bills or even answer the phone.
“If I don’t get out here for two days, by the third day I’m crazed,” said the intensive care nurse from North Buffalo. “I’m all tense. I need that release of endorphins.”
Apparently so does Charity, Archie’s mixed-breed exercise companion, who expressed her impatience with a series of tugs on her leash. It’s lunch hour at Delaware Park and the 1.8-mile Ring Road teems with an energy that exercise brings.
Buffalo-Niagara is park rich for many reasons. Two of them — Frederick Law Olmsted’s shining system of parks and parkways and Niagara Reservation State Park’s electrifying world wonder — carry national import.
If you are considering going green (and who isn’t these days?), your public park might be just the place to start — whether to exercise your body, energize your mind or seek a moment of reflection by a mirror lake. Even better? It’s free.
Warming up
Not everyone who visits a park is a regular. Like bears in hibernation, we may become couch potatoes during the cold months of winter.
“If someone is completely sedentary after months of winter and they go out walking through Delaware Park, they can definitely get injured because your body adapts to that sedentary mode until you retrain it,” said Timothy Naab, physical therapist for Kenneth Kurtz Physical Therapy and Associates of Williamsville.
That is why warm-ups are so critical — regardless of whether you work out every day or every week. Warming up not only reduces the possibility of soreness the next day, it helps prevent injuries like muscle sprains and strains, according to Naab. Dynamic stretching — as opposed to the conventional static stretch, where you stretch a muscle to an elongated position and hold that position — adds movement. Think walking lunges and high knees, both of which prepare the body for action.
Stretching and adequate hydration also prevent painful muscle cramps that occur when a stubborn muscle refuses to relax. While lactic acid may be the culprit — and could be brought on by the season’s first overzealous workout — cramps occur more in hot temperatures.
One more tip from Naab: Save the snack shack stop for after exercise. Not only will it provide you with an incentive, eating big before working out sends blood to your intestines rather than to your muscles where it does the most good.
“After a workout, you should first replenish what you lost through sweating: sodium, potassium, calcium,” Naab added, “and you should take in enough protein to rebuild muscle.”
Down time
When Archie first started going to Delaware Park 30 years ago, she could run circles around Ring Road. Today at age 57, she covers the distance walking or jogging with Charity, her dog. Both routinely exercise at least four days a week.
“It keeps you in shape, and if you want, helps to shed a few pounds,” Archie explained. “It clears your mind and helps prevent osteoporosis. As you get older, your bones get weak and you have to do something to build them up. Besides, I don’t want to have open-heart surgery because that’s where I work.”
There is no denying the physical benefits that exercise can bring, but what about your psyche? Doesn’t all that sweat account for some mind play?
Amherst psychologist Amy Beth Taublieb walks daily. She, and others who routinely exercise, experience not only stronger bones and muscles but a sounder sleep.
“Break a regular exercise routine and you may experience sleep onset insomnia,” noted Taublieb. “You may have a hard time falling asleep at night or early waking, getting up at 3 a. m. and not being able to return to sleep.”
Regular exercise, including walking in the park, can bring a dramatic decrease in symptoms of depression and anxiety. Not only that, park time may be the quiet time we can only dream about in our cellular world.
“From a psychological perspective, most of us have positive childhood memories of playing outside,” said Taublieb. “We go outside now, and it triggers positive memories, when the demands upon us were significantly less.”
Nature’s workout
The park setting — waterfalls, majestic trees, tranquil gardens — enhances a walker’s or runner’s exercise routine. What’s more, it may not even feel like exercise. Some parks in our area invite unusual (and competitive) workouts. Here are two:
Disc Golf: Frisbee golf is a rapidly growing sport, both in Western New York and the rest of the country, in which “golfers” throw specially designed discs at targets called pole holes. The object is simple: Players tee off on each hole and then land the disc in the “hole” in as few shots as possible.
Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island, Chestnut Ridge Park in Orchard Park and Como Park in Lancaster are three of the more challenging courses locally. Other popular courses include a 27-hole course at Joseph Davis Park in Lewiston, an 18-hole course at Evangola State Park in Derby and another 18-hole course at Wilson-Tuscarora State Park in Wilson.
Golfers play for the challenge of navigating a disc through the tight fairways and hilly terrain of Chestnut Ridge while others play Beaver Island for its well-designed and scenic course, which has several holes providing spectacular views of the Upper Niagara River.
Getting started: A basic driver and putter will cost roughly $20. For more information, visit Niagara Region Disc Golf at www.nrdg.net and Professional Disc Golf Association at www.pdga.com . Orienteering: This is an exercise in navigation. In Erie County, the Buffalo Orienteering Club ( www.buffalo-orienteering.org ) uses Chestnut Ridge, Emery, Sprague Brook and Hunters Creek in South Wales. Because it requires navigation, orienteering works both the mind and the muscles. The great thing about the sport is that it can be done alone or in groups and at any pace — from a leisurely walk to a sprint.
Registration for upcoming meets starts at 10:45 a. m. next Saturday at Sprague Brook in Glenwood; 10:45 a. m. June 7 at McCarty Hill/Rock City State Forests near Ellicottville; and 5 p. m. Aug. 12 at Emery Park in South Wales.
Getting started: The club maintains permanent courses called map hikes, which can be explored at your own leisure in Chestnut Ridge, Emery and Sardinia parks. Orienteering maps to navigate those hikes are available for purchase at every meet.
