A few simple metal bars for pull-ups and yet it is the most fashionable sports equipment. Arrived a few years ago in France from the United States, the phenomenon of street workout continues to gain ground visibly. This last weekend again, two of these outdoor fitness spaces were inaugurated in Yvelines, Carrières-sur-Seine and Vésinet. Few are now the municipalities that have not succumbed to it.
It must be said that street workout combines the advantages: inexpensive for communities – around 30,000 euros disbursed by the city of Carrières-sur-Seine – this equipment is accessible to everyone free of charge. They are usually found on jogging routes or next to children’s play areas. With each new installation, success is almost guaranteed.
“We have a population which is doing more and more sport”, looks at Arnaud de Bourrousse, the mayor (DVD) of the town, himself “double license” at the sports association of his city. “This responds to a real demand,” he assures us. There is a great need to practice sport outdoors. We know its benefits on physical and mental health, this is no longer to be demonstrated ”.
At Le Vésinet, the apparatus – some of which are accessible to people with reduced mobility (PRM) – have been fixed behind the theater. A choice of location constrained by town planning rules. “But it was first of all a question of filling a gap, estimates the mayor (LREM) Bruno Coradetti. We don’t have much for young people ”.
“We have a lot of delay in France”, according to Florian Chauvin, sports coach
For Florian Chauvin, sports coach in the same city, the multiplication of these spaces is in full swing. “This creates a dynamic around the sport, explains this professional. We are far behind in France on this and we are starting to realize it ”.
Crossed in the middle of a session at Carrières-sur-Seine, Arnaud Dos Santos, also a sports coach – “graduate”, he specifies in allusion “to those who proclaim themselves to be coaches” – first of all congratulates himself on being able to s’ exercise in the open air. But as he also emphasizes, “these are not children’s play areas”, and unsupervised practice, especially that of teenagers, has its drifts. “They must play sports and I regret that we still say that we must avoid muscle building at their age, it is false,” he said first.
A practice boosted by influencers
On the other hand, “we must not do just anything,” he continues. A spade sent to “certain influencers” and “self-proclaimed coaches”, who if they “put a lot of people in sport during confinement”, would not always be of good advice. “Let’s say that as a professional, I sometimes see things in certain videos that strike me,” continues Arnaud.
In Houilles, Ange-Patrick finishes his cardio exercises in the Charles-de-Gaulle park. The 20-year-old knows who are the stars of the “muscu” on the web, and he himself says he has followed the videos of Tibo InShape, a 29-year-old Toulouse who has more than 8 million subscribers on his page Youtube. But he is not one of “those who want a body summer and who relax afterwards”. “Me, I mainly come there in addition to football, continues the player of the Houilles Athlétic Club (HAC). It is convenient. When I get out of class, I can go by there quickly for a little session ”.
“It is not the same public”, assures Stéphane Poitevin, manager of the sports hall.
In traditional sports halls, we look at the development of this practice with an eye more interested than worried. “It has nothing to do with what we are offering. You just have to see our machines in the room ”, sweeps Stéphane Poitevin, manager of Gigafit in Montesson, which has nearly 500 members.
According to him, street workout “does no harm” to fitness clubs. “It is possibly a complement, not more,” he adds. Especially since it is not the same audience. These are often young people who do not have the right or the means to register ”. Better, according to him, “it is perhaps a springboard for them to come to us later”. Provided, as specified by Florian Chauvin, the sports coach of Vésinet, “that it is not just a fad”.
READ ALSO. I tested the streetwork out in the streets of Paris
