Could you tell our readers what street workout is about?
What street workout is about? It’s a really good question. Everyone will have a different answer and will interpret it in a different way. I hope that others who practise it will agree with what I’m going to say. Personally I think that apart from building muscles and strengthening one’s mind street workout is mainly connected with people integration. Street workout is a good way to exchange experiences and meet new people. It’s also the simplest way to talk to oneself. I believe that it not only develops our mind from the mental point of view but also shapes our character and who we are. Street workout is demonstrating to others that we can achieve everything but it depends solely on us if we do. Of course, we should not forget about having fun and spending pleasant time outdoors.
How did your adventure with this kind of exercise start?
It started in 2012 when I saw a film on YouTube. It presented a few black ghetto men who did it. I liked it and thought I could do it myself. This is how I started to train and fathom the secrets of exercising with the use of your own body mass. Since then street workout has become one of my regular activities. I started meeting new people who had the same goal and discovering possibilities as well as needs connected with this sport. As a result, together with my friend whom I also train with, we set up the Phoenix Time Foundation whose aim is to support and develop physical activity as well as promote healthy lifestyle among people of all ages.
Do you often meet as a group in order to train together? It is difficult to ask about the motivation of every member of your group but at least you can tell us what motivates you to train every day.
We meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 18:00 in the Street Workout Square in Gliwice, which was built at the end of 2014 in an Orlik playground. This is where we train.
What motivates me? Honestly speaking, it’s a very broad subject, starting from meeting new people to self-discipline. I think that it is all about what we are interested in. The most important thing is to do what we love and enjoy. Then the motivation comes naturally.
If you were to give three pieces of advice to someone who wants to start training what would they be?
We always have to give everything we can or we should give up any efforts all together. What’s the point in doing something half-heartedly? We can never give up. Of course, there are always moments of doubt when we want to pass things up but then we should remind ourselves why we started in the first place. My last piece of advice is concentration and patience. We should focus on what we do in order to train as best as we can. The better we do it, the better results we achieve. Patience is necessary because we cannot see any effects immediately, after 2 or 3 training session. I can promise the results will eventually come. It’s only a matter of time.
What kind of training equipment do you need?
In fact, we only need good will and some space. Street workout is all about training with the mass of your own body, including pull-ups, push-ups, crunches or typical gymnastic exercises such as planche, flag or handstand. This doesn’t really require any special training equipment.
“Planche”, for example, is a push-up with your legs in the air, “gun” is a crouch on one leg, “supermen” is a dynamic push-up with a jump and your legs and arms stretched up and “muscle-up” is hanging from a pull-up bar with straight arms. There are much more exercises, of course, but it’s better to show them than talk about them.
Can anyone, regardless of their age, do street workout?
We set our own limits and the most important thing is how much we want to do something. In our Phoenix Team we have a man whom I respect a lot due to his age. Eugeniusz Bednarek is 51 years old and he trains as much as we do. Hence, I always say that age is just a number.
Do only men train?
Recently street workout has become more and more popular among women and I must say it looks beautiful. We should remember that many women combine pole dance and street workout. I must admit the results are amazing. It seems that the best place to find a wife is the Street Workout Park (laughter).
The Street Workout Poland Championships 2015 is taking place this August in Bydgoszcz. Are you going?
As much as I would like to attend, for these are very prestigious awards, I will not be able to do so due to my injury. But it is my pleasure to help the organisers in preparing this event, so i extend a cordial invitation to all.
We hope you’ll recover soon. Could you tell us where we can usually meet you?
As I have already mentioned, you can meet our group every Tuesday and Thursday around 18:00 at the Orlik playground in Gliwice. We also train there individually during the day. Moreover, there’s our Facebook profile with lots of interesting information about the Phoenix Team, the Foundation and much more. I also invite everyone to follow my personal fan page.
More information about the Street Workout can be found on:
Phoenix Time Foundation | Phoenix Team Poland | Juan Zumeta
Street Workout World Cup 2015 Stage of Bydgoszcz – August 22, 2015
Photo © from private archives of Juan Zumeta