New high-tech trail gets Penfield F.I.T.

As a walker and a runner, a biker and a hiker, I’m always pleased when I see our towns devise creative ways to encourage residents to get fit.

It’s especially good when a town can get kids excited about exercise and help them develop healthy habits.

The town of Penfield has done both at Rothfuss Park, with its brand new QR F.I.T. Trail and the Rothfuss Park Farm Walk.

The QR F.I.T. Trail is a high-tech fitness course designed for adults. It’s comprised of a series of signposts placed along a quarter-mile paved path, each featuring QR codes that link a user’s smartphone or tablet to workout instructions, and instructional videos.

Each station offers four workout options focusing on core, upper and lower body, and flexibility. Then, within each focus area, users can select one of three difficulty levels.

There are only five stations, but with the variety of exercises at each station, the different intensity levels, and the fact that the videos are changed up monthly, frequent visitors won’t get bored with the same routine.

Penfield is the first town in the area to install this the QR F.I.T. Trail system.

They’ve integrated it within their “Passport to Wellness” partnership with Wegmans, a program which also originated in Penfield and has been replicated in towns throughout the Rochester area and the country.

The Rothfuss Park Farm Walk is also part of the Passport program. This trail is designed for kids.

The Farm Walk is now about five years old. Installed along the same quarter-mile paved path as the QR F.I.T Trail, it leads children to six different signposts.

Tucked inside each are stickers representing a different crop, farm animal or tool (they’re changed monthly during the summer), which kids place on a game board they pick up from a bright red box at the trailhead.

Once the sheet is filled, they can return it to the Penfield Recreation Department for a prize. Then, when they complete all three monthly sheets, they earn a “I walked the Rothfuss Farm” T-shirt.

As an added bonus, each station includes informative panels offering a short history lesson about the farm that once stood on the site.

This program is called a “walk,” but when I was at the park, the kids I saw were running from box to box. What a great way to show young people that getting outdoors and exercising can actually be enjoyable.

Having both fitness trails in the same park has its benefits, something that Penfield recreation director Chris Bilow recently noted.

“I was up there one day last week,” Bilow said. “There was a mom doing the fitness trail while her child and a grandparent were at the playground. That is exactly what we were hoping for, to get the young and the parents to engage in physical activity” at the same time.

Visit the Our Towns East Extra Facebook page for more eastside news, and email Missy at dandceastextra@gmail.com with news tips and story ideas. See more community news at DemocratandChronicle.com/communities.

If you go

Penfield’s Rothfuss Park is located at 1648 Five Mile Line Road.

The QR F.I.T. Trail begins near the big red barn at the north end of the park. Instructions to download a QR reader are located on the signposts.

The Farm Walk begins near the playground. For more information about these trails and Wegmans’ Passport to Family Wellness program, log onto penfieldrec.org.