Beach-based fitness pod opens on Napier’s Marine Parade
New Zealand’s very first beach-based fitness pod, ‘Domynis’, has launched on Napier’s Marine Parade.
Domynis is the brainchild of Napier fitness professional, Levi Armstrong and his cousin, Whare Timu of Wellington. Levi gained national headlines in 2015 for his Patu Gym and its unique way of engaging and encouraging the Napier community to participate in sport.
Essentially a fitness centre based out of a shipping container, Domynis, which is named after Levi and Whare’s good friend, Dominque, who passed away from cancer in 2019, is equipped with weight rack systems, Olympic bars and weights, skipping ropes and boxing bags. It even comes complete with a sound system and lighting.
The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, has and will test the wellbeing and resilience of New Zealanders. Levi says the aim for Domynis is to be a shared space, so anyone in the community can use it.
“The uniqueness of the pod’s design is that it allows people to ‘come together, move together’, with a focus on the mental, physical and social wellbeing of whanau,” Levi says.
“This container gym or urban marae concept is also unique because it can be slotted into the community depending on need and can then be moved to another location when its service is no longer required.”
Domynis will be available on Marine Parade until January. The cost for sessions is free for rangatahi (18 and under) and $10 per week for other users.
It will then move to Maraenui where there will be no cost for community members. There will be an overlapping research project with EIT that will align with the POD in Maraenui.
For more information about Domynis follow the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Domynis
