	{"id":116439,"date":"2025-10-11T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=116439"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:38:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:38:02","slug":"park-promotes-fun-and-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/park-promotes-fun-and-fitness\/","title":{"rendered":"Park promotes fun and fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A NEW outdoor exercise park in Lucas is set to support the health and wellbeing of older residents.<\/p>\n<p>The facility was developed as part of the City of Ballarat&#8217;s Ageing Well Strategy Action Plan 2024 to 2026 and it aims to provide opportunities for exercise and social connection.<\/p>\n<p>The park is open to all community members although it was designed for older residents.<\/p>\n<p>It includes equipment ranging from low impact machines to stretching stations and walking circuits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ballarat&#8217;s seniors exercise parks are a great example of how Ballarat is investing in the health and wellbeing of our older community,&#8221; Cr Damon Saunders said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They provide a safe accessible environment for older adults to encourage physical activity and exercise which is key for mobility, independence and mental health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The park was funded by the City of Ballarat with support from the Ballarat Lions Club for landscaping, plantings and seating.<\/p>\n<p>Two further outdoor exercise parks for older people are at Mount Pleasant Reserve and MR Power Reserve in Sebastopol.<\/p>\n<p>The location of Lucas was chosen for the new park due to its growing population and links to walking parks and nearby amenities.<\/p>\n<p>The newly formed City of Ballarat social activity volunteers will begin free, weekly sessions at the park in coming months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is about more than exercise equipment, it&#8217;s about building a community space where people can move, talk, laugh and feel part of something,&#8221; Cr Saunders said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A NEW outdoor exercise park in Lucas is set to support the health and wellbeing of older residents. The facility was developed as part of the City of Ballarat&#8217;s Ageing Well Strategy Action Plan 2024 to 2026 and it aims to provide opportunities for exercise and social connection. The park is open to all community [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/park-promotes-fun-and-fitness\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":116441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-116439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Park promotes fun and fitness - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new Ballarat seniors exercise park in Lucas promotes health, mobility, and social connection for older residents. Find location details and session info.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/park-promotes-fun-and-fitness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Park promotes fun and fitness - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new Ballarat seniors exercise park in Lucas promotes health, mobility, and social connection for older residents. 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