As Seen in the
Orange County Register
July 23, 2006

JUNIOR GYMS

New health clubs offer strength and cardio workouts for youngsters.

By LISA LIDDANE
The Orange County Register

This month Brian Quisenberry, 10, turned to his mom and asked her to cut short their beach excursion.

He wanted to do something more fun: Go to the gym and exercise.

By 3 p.m. Brian was working his way through a circuit-training course – doing sit-ups on an exercise bench, jumping on an inflated half-dome and executing bicep curls with dumbbells.

Brian went to Action Kids Fitness Center in Placentia, a health club designed to get elementary-school-age children moving. The club is part of a nascent fitness movement revolving around child-size versions of adult exercise equipment.

But can the equipment and the workouts have a positive effect on children's health, or do they mean one more planned activity to be scheduled into children's often-overscheduled lives?

A kid-fitness solution "Times have changed," said Rob Brown, CEO of Kanga Fitness, an Atlanta company specializing in kids' cardio machines. "Kids aren't playing outdoors as much as they should be because their parents don't feel it's safe."

What's more, kids don't always get enough activity in school every day because of budget cuts in P.E., said Debi Pillarella, children's exercise spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise. And not all kids like team sports.

"We have to offer (these kids) other options," Pillarella said. "These workouts aren't a substitute for playing in the field – they're meant to supplement and complement."

Others agree.

"We've done research on strength-training and kids for 25 years, and we've found that they love exercising when equipment is customized to them and they're supervised. They have a 95 percent completion rate in meeting daily physical-activity needs," said Wayne Westcott, a children's fitness spokesman for IDEA, the international association of fitness professionals.

But the idea of adult-inspired fitness equipment for kids has taken more than a decade to get accepted.

Rande LaDue, president of Pro Fit Enterprises in Rancho Santa Margarita, remembers all too clearly the tepid response when he introduced hydraulic circuit-training machines for kids in 1994. "Quite frankly, it was premature," LaDue said. "We sold no more than 100 circuit units and shelved the rest."

LaDue repackaged the machines with a kids' workout program and turned them into a more comprehensive operation called Kids Pace Express – Kids P.E. for short. It's inspired by the highly successful model of circuit-training clubs like Curves for Women, but tailored specifically for children.

At recent trade shows, response to kids' exercise equipment was warmer than during his first try, LaDue said.

"We're still in the beginning stages of what may be the next big trend in the fitness industry after Curves," he said.

Steve Ewing and Sonya Rikhy, co-owners of Action Kids Fitness Center, say they've found a successful formula that keeps kids coming back: The program is noncompetitive and fun, and the activities change in a matter of a few minutes, Rikhy said.

Training for the future
To parents such as Andy Kapadia, kids' gyms help children make exercise a regular habit. Kapadia, 42, of Anaheim Hills, drives his 9-year old daughter, Sheena, to Action Kids Fitness Center three times a week. "In the long term, I want her to be fit," Kapadia said. "If she goes to the gym now, she won't have a problem staying fit when she's older."

Brian's mom, Shari Quisenberry, said enrolling her son in a kids' fitness center was exactly what he needed to be active. "He absolutely loved it since the first time he tried it," said Quisenberry, 43, of Orange. "We talked about it as a family. I talked to two pediatricians about whether this was appropriate for him. They were supportive."

Brian said he enjoys his workouts. "I'm getting strong," he said. "I really feel good."

Quisenberry has noticed something else about Brian since he began exercising. "He has more confidence in himself," she said. "He takes that back to school with him."