Fitness Program

Fitness is an integral facet of life at Ironwood. Each morning begins with thirty minutes of exercise. Residents follow a daily rotating schedule of running or hiking outside, calisthenics, strength training, and endurance exercises. They also practice indoors with exercise videos that introduce advanced strength-training techniques, Pilates, Tai-chi and Yoga. These exercises develop rhythm and coordination, balance, cardiovascular health, flexibility, strength, and endurance. Additional benefits are healthy weight maintenance and increased bone density. Fitness weaves into the fabric of the day as children walk between activities, care for animals, split firewood, build stone walls, forts and other landscaping structures. In this way, they learn (or remember) that health is more than attending an occasional class or checking off isolated exercises on a list. We integrate physical, emotional and mental wellbeing through an active, responsible daily life and healthy relationships with the natural world and each other.

Read more in our Fitness Program Blog