Creating Social Ties
Sport must have a dominant place in the heart of cities, maintains Jean-Pierre Faye, Director of the "Sports and Territory" Delegation of the French Olympic and Sports National Committee.
He encourages creating areas specifically devoted to doing sports and integrating them within town planning projects, because these areas promote the integration of populations and their exercise of citizenship. Practicing a sport favors exchanges, develops conviviality and helps people to get to know each other and to integrate within a group.
Studies have shown that people doing sports were more stable emotionally, more sociable and happier in their relationships. Practising a sport has been known to raise our relational capital and our level of interactions with other. Therefore outdoor fitness constitutes a real psychological and relational benefit.
Based on these observations and principles, Body Boomers are real contributors to the creation of social ties and social cohesion in the heart of cities as well as in the countryside. This is especially true as they are freely available to use to everybody. This idea of an "outdoor gym" is for that matter largely developed in many countries, which have well understood their benefit.