It’s not news to anyone that kids in America are out of shape. Many studies have been conducted and much has been written on this topic in recent months. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels. However, few fitness facilities give serious consideration to kids’ exercise programs. Those clubs with enough room may offer child care services, but few clubs have any equipment or programs designed for anyone under 13 years of age. The following are examples of clubs that are not only offering youth fitness programs; they see these types of programs as the future of fitness.
A fitness and wellness center, not just a kids’ workout club in Eastchester, NY:
Michael Ciavolino decided to open a kids’ fitness facility when, as a Lacrosse coach, he saw how out-of-shape kids were today. “I would see 3rd and 4th graders who were obese and nobody doing anything about it,” he says. His new club, Children in Motion, is targeting youth from five to 16 years old. “We have two circuit training programs, one for ages 5 to 11 and one for ages 12 on up. We will be more of a fitness and wellness center, not just a kids’ workout club. We will have programs like Yoga, meditation, Spinning and nutrition programs. We want to expose kids to all levels of health. We will have guest speakers and coaches come in to introduce new sports and activities such as snowboarding on a regular basis. We are not going to require parents to sign-up their kids for long-term memberships; that’s just not practical. We will be offering 12-week programs as well as customized programs. For example, we have some local kids’ softball teams coming in for pre-season conditioning. We anticipate at least 300 kids rotating through our facility at any given time. We will also be offering “Parent & Me” circuit training classes on the equipment. We expect to be very profitable – let’s face it, that’s why we are in business – but we are proud that we are also offering a much-needed service to our community,” says Ciavolino. Ciavolino anticipates opening additional free-standing clubs in the near future, and perhaps franchising his concept. He also sees an excellent opportunity in contracting-out his services and programs to existing health clubs that may have space but don’t have the staff or expertise to implement such programs.
Helping young kids get in shape without any peer pressure in Camden, SC:
Jan Jordan, owner of the coed club, Body Connection, says her club has been open since 1986 and she has always offered family add-on memberships to kids ages 13 and up, but she sees a tremendous problem with even younger kids being overweight today. “Look at the local schools, there are kids in Kindergarten who are huge; it’s a pitiful situation. And kids can be so cruel. We added our kids circuit training program in January not only to help attract more family memberships and create new profits, but more importantly, to help the younger kids get in shape without any peer pressure. Our program will be non-intimidating and fun; we will be encouraging and accepting. Hopefully we will be able to change some young lives,” says Jordan.
Family fitness and youth programs as the next major trend in Patchogue, NY:
Matthew Swift, Steve Curran, Violet Shubert and Bill Leonello are professionals who have been successful in fitness-related businesses and saw a huge need for a youth fitness facility when the local school system cut their sports programs for budget reasons. They also saw the need for a family type of facility that removed the obstacles and limitations (such as childcare, high costs, parking, limited hours, etc.) which prevent families from joining fitness centers. General Manager Matthew Swift of the soon-to-be-open Finest Fitness says, “We see family fitness and youth programs as the next major trend. Our facility will be 25,000 square feet on three floors of family-type activities with something for everyone. We will have a separate circuit training area for women, cardio equipment area, aerobics room, general selectorized equipment weight room, free weight room, a kids’ circuit training room, kids’ sports program, juice bar, childcare, and even a baseball school with batting and pitching cages. Our kids’ sports program is designed for ages 3 to 7 and covers the fundamentals of sports through active play. The fundamentals of good nutrition are also introduced at this level since these are the ages where habits and tastes are developed. Our kids fitness program will target ages 7 to 13 with the kids circuit. Both of these groups were normally the kids that got stuck in babysitting because they were too small for the adult equipment. We will be offering age-specific classes and programs for all fitness levels. We will have two or three trainers for each kids’ program, six personal trainers and 10 trainers for baseball. We will be open 24 hours with classes running from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.” Swift anticipates this type of facility to be so successful, that they are making plans to franchise their fitness package.
Rande LaDue is the President of Pro*Fit Enterprises. He can be contacted at 888.604.2244, or by email at pace@cox.net, or visit www.kidspaceexpress.com.