Big Gyms are Thinking Small

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.