Ukrainian Outdoor Gyms Are The Best Outdoor Gyms

In his book Kachalka: Muscle Beach, photographer Kirill Golovchenko documents a famous, open-air gym outside of Kiev. More than 200 weight lifting stations, all improvised out of of scrap metal and spare car parts, stretch out over six square miles on the island of Tuhev.

First designed by a Polish gymnast and a local mathematics professor in the early 1970s, everything about this place drips of the Soviet era. The machines, more torture apparatus than fitness station, all just seem out of a different time. Even the 17 x 23 centimeter format of Golovchenko's photographs fell out of favor in the 1980s.

You can check out a nice collection from Golovchenko's book over at Time's Lightbox.