DECATUR - In the middle of Fairview Park, a different kind of jungle gym awaits the adventurous.

The brilliant jade-green structures were created with larger hands and feet in mind than the ones that inspired their bright multicolored counterparts.

The GameTime Parcourse FitCenter fitness circuits were installed late last fall, and local exercise aficionados had little chance to use them before the snowy winter rolled through Central Illinois. But with summer fast approaching and the chance for people to get outdoors again, Allison Krich, fitness center supervisor at the Decatur Indoor Sports Center, said she hopes the stations will get put to good use.

"Circuit training can be good for anyone," Krich said. "It's a good combination of just basic exercises mixed in with some cardiovascular exercise, so just about anyone can do it."

The course works by incorporating stretching, cardiovascular exercises and strengthening activities to give users a total-body workout in an outdoor setting. Signs around the equipment offer instructions and diagrams on how to do the exercises safely and effectively. Between the four sets of exercise, users are instructed to do at least five minutes of cardiovascular conditioning.

"It's actually a very nice addition to Fairview Park," Krich said. "You can get a fitness workout in, and the nice thing is there's playground equipment there."

People can supervise their children while still managing to get some exercise through the 15 distinct activities the course provides.

The first series of exercises gets users limber and warmed up for the strength training to come. Users stretch their Achilles tendons and calf muscles by pushing against a post from a standing position. They elongate the muscles of their lower backs and hamstrings using a sit-and-reach bench and a stretch rail. There also are separate stretches for the thighs, groin, legs and trunk.

Once they've stretched and done a few beginning minutes of cardio, they can start strength training. With three strength-focused routines, visitors to the park can work their shoulders at the vault bar, their abs at the sit-up bench, their shoulders, arms and upper back at the chin-up bar and their legs at the log hop station.

Krich said the open park area provides the ideal setting for the kind of workout circuit training provides because it gives fitness buffs a well-rounded workout combined with the chance to be outside.

Because people want to exercise outdoors in the summer months, Krich said they often neglect their strength regimens, but the Parcourse offers a solution of sorts.

Users can modify their workouts to target different areas or avoid straining injured or sore body parts, Krich said. Although the exercises focus on using body weight as resistance, they are still strength training and should be treated as such with a full day between workouts to allow muscles to recuperate, she said.

She offered a few more important cautions for those wanting to start right in on their new routines.

"Because it is outdoors, you would definitely want to pay attention to the weather," Krich said, emphasizing such summer conditions as rain, heat and humidity.

With the temperatures climbing recently, Krich said the best times of day to use the equipment are morning and evening, when the sun isn't directly overhead and the risks of heat exhaustion and heatstroke are minimized. And users should ease into the new exercises, she said. Krich encouraged area residents to give the new park equipment a try, as it's the only course of its kind she knows of in the immediate area.

"It does start you out on a beginning level, and then it has an intermediate, and then it has more of an advanced level, so if you haven't ever done it before, you should try it out on the beginning level to start out with," Krich said. "And then, if you feel that's easy for you, then you can move to the intermediate or advanced."

Annie Getsinger can be reached at agetsinger@herald-review.com or 421-6968.