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WHERE TO DO CALLISTHENICS
IN MEDELLÍN: BELÉN
Your guide to callisthenics workout zones and outdoor gyms in Belén
11th Oct 2024 | 7-min read
Cerro de las Tres Cruces
Located at the top of Cerro de las Tres Cruces, Lomo de Los Bernal
Will you have done a callisthenics workout against a better backdrop than Cerro de las Tres Cruces? Unlikely.
What you should know about the climb up to the Cerro de las Tres Cruces outdoor gym
Getting to this mountaintop gym is the real workout. The climb to the top of the Hill of the Three Crosses is only about ¾ mile (1.2km), but with an elevation gain of 1,050 ft (320m), it is the definition of short but sharp. Assuming you’re a fit person and you don’t stop, you should be able to reach the summit in under 45 minutes. Honestly, the fact that someone thought to stick a workout park in such a location shows how active locals are and how much they value their outdoor workouts.
If it’s been raining, trail running shoes or walking boots are a must for the climb, especially when it comes to the descent. You can tell from afar who’s not wearing appropriate footwear from the mud on their arses and the rest of their bodies! Because of the steepness of the dirt trail, I wouldn’t even contemplate this climb in the rain. Besides, the clouds would block your view. If it’s sunny, think about a hat or sunscreen, as so much of this climb is exposed to the sun. I’m sure you’ll have water with you, but there are stands selling snacks and drinks at the base, halfway point and summit of the climb. However, I think they may only be open till around lunchtime.
Locals will tell you to only climb Cerro de las Tres Cruces on weekend mornings because of the risk of robbery later in the day or during the week when fewer people are around. From my experience, there could be some merit in this advice. I climbed mid-afternoon on a Sunday and only passed one family going up and only a few people coming down. That said, I didn’t feel unsafe and didn't see anyone suspicious.
Carved-out mud steps make up sections of the Cerro de las Tres Cruces trail
What is the Cerro de las Tres Cruces workout zone like?
When you finally get to rest your quads at the top, more than just callisthenic bars await you. Whilst one area of the workout zone is dedicated to callisthenics workouts, where you’ll find pull-up bars and parallel bars of various heights, as well as a Swedish ladder, the other area is more of an outdoor gym with upper- and lower-body resistance machines. All apparatus is in good condition and must have been recently installed.
I imagine this workout zone must be most crowded on weekend mornings as that is the busiest time to climb the hill.
Parque de los Emprendedores
Parque de los Emprendedores, Nueva Villa de Alburrá
Think playground, but with a few weathered pieces of callisthenics equipment thrown in one corner rather than an out-and-out workout area. A set of parallel bars and five pull-up bars of different heights - that’s all there is for your callisthenics workout. However, for a novice like me, that’s absolutely fine.
Whilst I found this callisthenics workout space perfectly safe - it was my go-to workout place given its proximity to where I lived - I could see it making someone feel a little uneasy. I wonder whether a solo female would be put off from working out there. As I said, it’s not a callisthenics park, and you’ll often find people just sitting around smoking on the nearby benches, so it can feel like everyone’s watching you (if that kind of thing makes you uncomfortable). The playground and workout area are located on a small embankment above the road; you don’t get people passing by minding their own business like you do at other callisthenic workout zones in the city - so you do feel a little more exposed. There was never anyone working out here (which I liked), but the one time there was, I got the impression the guy was just prolonging his session to see if the opportunity appeared to grab my bag.
All that being said, these callisthenics bars aren’t in some dodgy neighbourhood. After all, Time Out voted Nueva Villa de Alburrá the third coolest neighbourhood in the world in 2018!
Bonus workout option: If you venture up to the top of the embankment and go to the other side of the football pitch/dog park, you’ll find a few resistance machines.
Unidad Deportiva de Belén Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga
Located within Unidad Deportiva de Belén Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga, Rosales
Unidad Deportiva de Belén is the place for callisthenic workouts in Belén and perhaps the whole of Medellín. It’s also got to be the biggest outdoor gym in the city. I’d go as far as to say that Unidad Deportiva de Belén is the benchmark for outdoor gyms and what local authorities can do. Given the variety of workout equipment available here, you’ll want to reconsider whatever gym membership you may have or be thinking about.
What I like about this outdoor gym is that it is located within a sports complex, so you have basketball courts on one side and the entrance to the outdoor swimming pool on another side. There is even a toilet block on another side, admittedly, the floor was always flooded whenever I went. You don’t have pedestrians walking past or a road running along one side of the gym. It’s a workout zone with just you and other gym-goers and calentistas or people coming to and from sports courts and pitches.
The outdoor gym is divided into two distinct areas. On one side, you have callisthenics equipment and this is the more spaced out part of the gym. Pull-up bars, parallel bars, monkey bars, Swedish ladders, scramble nets - they’re all there. Some bars are even built in a sand pit. (They must be for those advanced calentistas who need to safely dismount from their gymnastics-like routines.) Everything is in great condition. There is also more callisthenic equipment in the main workout area.
I found the main area of the outdoor gym to be the busiest. This section is for those who wish to do more traditional workouts. With a range of equipment, including leg curl machines, squat racks, shoulder press machines and bench press racks, to name just a few, you can target all the muscle groups. At a guess, there could be three dozen pieces of apparatus or equipment here. Since a lot of this equipment is duplicated, you should always be able to get on the piece of apparatus you wish. You can easily combine your gym workouts with callisthenics as this area also includes pull-up stations and dip stations, not to mention frames to do ring training. There are even tyres to flip!
In case you’re wondering if there’s some kind of catch, there isn’t! Work out at Unidad Deportiva de Belén for free. I’d love someone to explain why you should pay for gym membership when you have these kinds of outdoor public gyms available to you. And with a climate like Medellín’s, you’ve got to be outside.
Incidentally, if you’re a footballer, Unidad Deportiva de Belén has four football pitches, which makes it a popular place to play football. The sports complex is also where one of the local rugby teams trains.
The photos of the outdoor gym at Unidad Deportiva de Belén are courtesy of www.locationcolombia.com.
Where else can you do callisthenics in Medellín?
There are other callisthenic parks and outdoor gyms all across Medellín, which you can find just by walking or running around like I did. Calisthenic Parks is a site that lists where you can do open-air workouts across the city. I couldn’t tell you how accurate and up-to-date most of the locations for callisthenic parks are, but the site can give you some ideas about where you can do callisthenics in Medellín.
Do you have anything to share about these callisthenics locations in Belén or any other workout area in Medellín?
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