With it’s meandering paths and plentiful trees and vegetation, in the heart of South Yarra – with frontages onto Toorak and Commercial roads, Fawkner park is a great place to leave the stress of the office behind and enjoy a bit of light lunchtime exercise!. Fawkner is one of Melbourne’s oldest parks – being set out for recreation in 1862 and it’s easy to believe that not much has changed since then!
The park is roughly rectangular in shape, with a number of pathways criss-crossing it in amongst the large oak and elm trees. We suggest a gentle jog around these pathways to get yourself nice and warmed up, before finding a bit of space in the central part of the park for some stretching and more intense exercise!
Most pathways in the park are lined with trees, which are generally fairly evenly spaced. This opens up a great opportunity for some High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Find a suitable starting location – essentially wherever there is a line of trees with some space next to them. Pick a tree as your starting point and run to the next one as fast as you can. Jog or walk back to your starting point. Repeat this five times before moving onto the second furthest tree from your start point. Run out to this tree (jogging or walking back to the start point) four times. Keep going in this pyramid manner until you reach a point where you are only running out one time (this will be the fifth furthest tree from your start point). Repeat the pyramid again, depending on your level of fitness and how much time you have.
Once you’ve finished the high intensity part of your workout you need to cool down and stretch. Go for another light jog around the pathways before completing some stretches and heading back to your day at work
This is a great workout as it can fit to any length of time or level of fitness. It’s particularly great for office workers or those who are a bit short of time as the high intensity nature of the workout reduces the amount of time you need to exercise for! Another great place for exercise is Albert Park Lake.