June 1 - Joanne Bennett, 34, used to leave her 4-year-old daughter in the babysitting center at her gym while she worked out. But this winter, Bennett thought better of leaving Caitlin to sit for an hour while she was getting fit. Bennett’s gym, New York Sports Club of West Nyack, N.Y., was offering new kids classes, so she enrolled Caitlin in gymnastics. “It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” says Bennett. “I don’t want my children to be couch potatoes. Some kids we know are 7-years-old and already on calorie-restricted diets because they are just vegging. And even I used to be like: ‘Oh, God, the gym’. But I don’t want it to be that way for Caitlin, so we’re going together.”
Bennett isn’t the only one looking to avoid the 21st century plagues of childhood obesity and an overly sedentary lifestyle for her child. The alarming statistics are well known. Sixteen percent of American kids are obese and obesity among 6-11-year-olds has more than tripled in the past 30 years, according to the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit organization associated with the National Academy of Sciences. The institute also reports that fewer than 10 percent of schools offer daily physical education. These are the kind of numbers that are prompting fitness-conscious parents to look for ways to get more physical activity into their kids' lives—even if it means scheduling exercise the way they might a violin lesson.
In response, the fitness industry is undergoing a huge makeover. Upscale health clubs that used to cater to professional adults are adding everything from video dance classes for kids to prep for sports-team tryouts. And it’s not just gyms. Personal trainers and exercise equipment makers also have a new focus on kids and families. From 1998 to 2003, the number of health club members under 18 in the United States rose by 25 percent, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association.
“We realized that we needed to provide parents with an opportunity to involve their kids in some kind of activity while they were working out to relieve some of the guilt,” says Cheryl Mueller Jones, a vice president at Town Sports International, which owns New York Sports Clubs. The 140-club chain began offering kids club classes in the fall of 2000 and now has 15,000 children enrolled. “The growth in our kids programs is dramatic—more than double what we’re seeing with adults,” says Jones.
Bally Total Fitness, which used to be known more for sexy ads featuring glossy twentysomethings, is also seeking younger members. “We only had a few children’s programs in four cities four years ago, now we have 15 or 16 cities,” says Norris Tomlinson, national director of group exercise. “We’re finding that with all the phys-ed cutbacks at schools, parents are looking for an alternative. We see this as a great area to grow.”
Along with new kid-friendly attitudes at traditional gyms, there’s a crop of familycentric clubs spreading kudzulike across the country. One of the most successful, Life Time Fitness Inc., is almost a megachurch of family wellness. The company’s standard facility is a $22.5 million dollar, 150,000-square foot space featuring multiple pools, spas, gymnasiums, cardio centers, restaurants and a 6,000-square-foot children’s activity area with rock climbing, basketball and swimming classes. Life Time’s 40 clubs in eight states have 535,000 members in total.
“We generally see 2,500 to 3,500 unique visitors per day through each of these centers,” says spokesman Jason Thunstrom. The Minnesota-based company even runs a “Life Time University” to train its 8,500 staff. Family memberships are a reasonable $120 per month with no cap on the number of kids. “People are getting more savvy about health and the fact that we’ve been family-focused from day one only helps us,” says Thunstrom. The 13-year-old company went public in June 2004 with an opening price of $18.50 on the New York Stock Exchange. By May of 2005, shares were trading just above $28.00. Thunstrom reports that the company will open six new clubs this year.
The Little Gym, an Arizona-based company that caters exclusively to kids under 12, has also seen extraordinary growth. It plans to open 42 new clubs in the United States this year for a total of 195. “For a second year in a row we’ll increase our total number of gyms by about 40 percent and we’re just thrilled,” says Karen Gray, the company’s marketing manager.
Exercise equipment makers are getting into the youth-fitness game with new kid-size products. Pro*Fit Enterprises and HOIST Fitness are two manufacturers that have recently come out with child-size circuit-training machines. HOIST, which proposes that its equipment is part of the “solution to the youth obesity problem,” sells a nine-piece kids circuit-training package with safety features like weight stacks that don’t pinch small fingers and seats that move like a ride. “We know that it’s inactivity along with diet that’s causing the prevalence of overweight kids and we thought there would be a need for this kind of fitness equipment,” says HOIST cofounder Randy Webber.
Personal trainers for kids, even at $50 to $100 per hour, have become increasingly popular, especially amongst sports-minded teens. “Nationwide, we’re seeing an increase over the past two years of at least 50 percent in adolescents training with trainers,” says Ron Clark, President of the National Federation of Professional Trainers. Children who use trainers are usually on two tracks. “There are parents who say, I want my kid to be on a sports scholarship, and others who say that they just care about their child’s health,” explains Todd Durkin founder of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego. “Overall, the number of kids coming in here has quadrupled.”
Dave Golia, 44, has three sons working with Durkin’s trainers. Two are high-school athletes intent on honing skills for elite sports teams. The third, 13-year-old Taylor, is more scholarly. “Guys like Taylor can get lost on school teams,” says Golia. “The coaches want to win and they will pay more attention to the best athletes,” he adds. “Taylor wants to increase his body strength and gain confidence, and that’s not necessarily going to happen at school.” Golia began twice-weekly personal training sessions with Taylor a few months ago, and both are thrilled with the results. “It’s had a really positive effect on his health and more importantly, we’ve really bonded,” says Golia.
But what about families that don’t have hundreds of dollars per month for trainers or gym memberships? That’s where moderately priced places like the YMCA come in. To improve the fitness of the 3 million kids in their after-school programs, the Y worked with the Centers for Disease Control to develop its Youth Health and Fitness Training Program which will roll out this month. It aims to incorporate one hour of physical activity into their afternoon routine. “We’re responding to the reports about children’s health and requests from parents,” says Mike Spezzano, the YMCA’s national health and fitness program specialist. “Our focus is let’s go for the masses rather than go for the select few that can afford a service.”
For parents in the middle, like Joanne Bennett, whose kids are neither sedentary, nor without recreational options, exercise classes are more of a pre-emptive measure. Bennett hopes that an early emphasis on fitness might help the whole family avoid those dreaded extra pounds later. “It’s so easy for kids to sit down in front of the TV and do nothing,” says Bennett. “I don’t want it to be that way for Caitlin. I want her to grow up and be excited about exercising.” And the fitness industry does too.