Most Americans are not getting enough exercise, eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight or avoiding nicotine. This concerning statistic reinforces the role that local government parks and recreation departments can play in elevating the importance of wellness as a lifestyle choice and providing citizens with affordable, convenient access to fitness services and public resources.

As one of the most inclusive amenities for public spaces, outdoor fitness equipment has greatly evolved over the past decade and now provides a vast range of activities for users of nearly every age and fitness level.

While some fitness programs maintain popularity over time, there is always something new under the sun. Learn the latest trends so you can meet the demand of your members and entice new visitors.

Before making decisions about playground safety surfaces, it's important to consider how your specifics—from climate and usage to maintenance capabilities and budget—will affect the surface over time.

Hard on the heels of our annual State of the Industry Report, we offer up our annual examination of careers, salaries and demographics of more than 1,400 professionals managing recreation, sports and fitness facilities and programs.

Every once in a while, when I'm sitting in my 105-year-old house, contemplating the next round of improvements to the landscape or the maple-tree-filled gutters or the much-needed, can-of-worms plumbing job, I imagine what it would be like to have a blank slate.

Planning for any recreation facility includes many important decisions, but communication is one of the keys, including transparency about the project goals and execution process.

Learn-to-swim is the foundation on which aquatic programming is built, for the most part, but adding in recreational and therapeutic elements offers a chance to expand your audience.

Community sports and recreation centers provide a place for people to get involved in a wide variety of programs, from team sports to fitness and more. Here, we take a look at the latest in these facilities.

Camp facilities range from summer camps for youths to campgrounds and RV parks for anyone who cares to spend some time relaxing in the great outdoors. Here, we provide an overview of trends in these facilities.