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Making Fitness a Family Affair
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Business New Haven
9/17/2001
By: Susan Cornell
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Family fitness programs are delivering salubrious benefits not only to their participants, but they are providing healthy business to health clubs as well.
Parents are becoming increasingly aware of the need for such programs, says Jim Ronai, director of physical therapy and sports medicine at Rehabilitation Associates Inc., a rehabilitation and health agency in Milford. Ronai explains that in order to grow up as adults with coordination, children need a foundation of coordination, balance, motor control and visual perception activities.
Ronai points out that many parents involved in such programs are ones who “started exercising in the 1980s when fitness, health and wellness was something people were interested in - it's a product of the generation,” he says. Plus, “look at the generation of kids we have now. We have a problem. Many kids are obese or overweight.
“There is an erosion of the PE [physical education] system, even in state,” says Ronai. “Two times a week for 30 minutes is not enough. It takes 30 minutes just to get them to PE.
“Combine the lifestyles of our kids creating needs for exercise with a generation of parents who were avid exercisers, and there you go.”
With at least one in five of the nation's children overweight, parents and health professionals nationwide are rightly concerned. Experts at Hartford's Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center say that more than half of the country's children are inactive, and 63 percent become inactive by the time they enter high school.
Says Deborah Keyes, director of operations for the Fitness Edge, a seven-gym chain with corporate offices in Fairfield: “Many health clubs are adding children's programs, and we are among them. We begin our child parenting programming with a pre- and postnatal program called B.A.B.Y., sponsored by Norwalk Hospital. The programs include workouts with parents and infants. Our 'Fit Kids' program takes over for the four- to six-year-old age group.”
Fit Kids is a child-only program; the parent works out separately in the building. The Fitness Edge has regular Fit Kids programs at several of its gyms. The program focuses on pre-sport and movement skills using hula-hoops and beanbags.
Dan German, owner of Creative Health & Fitness in Milford explains that, at his health club, “Parents work out in one part of the gym while the kids do their own thing.” Their own “thing” includes kids' fitness classes and karate.
German says that parents “feel much more secure having their children in the same location. They [parents] want to get out to exercise without hiring a babysitter.” Additionally, these parents recognize that “Kids don't get nearly enough exercise - and it's only getting worse.”
Nancy Hammett, fitness coordinator at Creative Health & Fitness, teaches a mother-daughter class in Nia, “a blending of dance, martial arts, yoga and more.” Explains Hammett: “Kids really catch onto the steps. It builds community.”
Adds Hammett: “It's wonderful energy to have mothers and daughters together in a mind and body fitness class done barefoot. It's spirited and high-energy. There's wonderful music. It's cardiovascular and easy on the joints. It's a chance to express themselves and work out. It's not the old no-pain, no gain - it's absolutely fun.”
Hammett agrees that “The schools aren't giving parents what they want. They're concerned about fitness and obesity. And, people want to work out rather than stay home with the kids. This way they can do both and have fun. Parents want to encourage exercise in their [children's] formative years,” Hammett adds.
From a marketing viewpoint, offering parent-child exercise programs or having the two work out simultaneously in different programs is a smart move. Ronai explains that parents might use the facility while their children are involved in fitness programs. And such programs might attract reluctant parents to the facility to exercise with their children.
“To get people to exercise in a club environment, they must make those types of programs available,” Ronai says.
As Jim Grieder, owner of Shoreline Health & Fitness in Madison, points out, “From a marketing perspective the kids' programs are appealing because it brings so many moms in here, too.” Ronai adds that such programs “probably attract more females than males to health clubs.”
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