John Jay Park

John Jay Park on the Upper East Side features a nice yet small collection of fitness equipment that is more than sufficient for most workouts. It also features some equipment that is only really useful for folks who are either extremely out of shape or disabled. Finally there is also a notable instance of hilariously incompetent equipment assembly which leaves a set of new parallel bars completely useless.


The park itself is located between East End Avenue and the FDR Drive. The fitness area is located in the far south east corner of the park, and is hidden away behind the basketball courts.

Note: As an aside, the children's playground equipment looks really cool and I wish we had equipment of that caliber when I was much younger. I do recommend bringing your kids here if you are so privileged.

 Useful Equipment

1. Pull up bars - Two bars both of which are more than adequate for most adults. 
2. Parallel bars - About 5 feet off the ground, these bars are very similar to the gymnastics equipment except that they are solid metal and do not bend. They also require a bit of a jump to mount; unless you have incredible strength. 
3. Monkey bars - These bars are quite high above the ground and feature a portion that runs parallel to the ground as well as a portion that ascends/descends. Traveling the latter portion will most certainly challenge your back and arm strength.
   
   
   

   

   Monkey Bars

   
   

   

   Parallel Bars and Pullup Bars

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Slightly less useful Equipment
   
   Equipment designed for seniors, those out of shape or disabled include the following: A leg swinging device, a slanted board-thingie, an arm rotating/bending device (see Medieval Torture Device) and a Leg Press machine. While it is wonderful that the park is dedicating equipment for this specific population, it is my personal opinion that body weight and basic free weight exercises would be far more suitable for this population. These devices have absolutely no utility for anyone with basic levels of physical fitness and health.
   
   
   
   

   

   Leg Press

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   Leg swinging device

   
   

   

   Medieval Torture Device

   
    

Incompetence
Unfortunately the park also put its money into what was supposed to be two new sets of parallel bars. However whomever installed the bars apparently had never seen parallel bars before, and certainly chose not to read the label. Instead they chose to install them as follows:

Bottom Line: Its got what you need for a full upper-body workout even if some pieces of equipment are largely useless.