Kids in a kids health club.
Craig Horowitz, 14, with a trainer, Taylor Kevin Isaacs, is among a growing number children using health clubs.
Posted on 01/22/2006 12:01:26 PM PST by summer
Kids in a kids health club.
Craig Horowitz, 14, with a trainer, Taylor Kevin Isaacs, is among a growing number children using health clubs.
AT 13, Jena Jerve has managed to stretch her days to do it all: keep a 4.0 grade-point average, play center on her school's basketball team and nourish her love for dancing with six hours a week of tap, ballet and jazz.
But over the last year and a half Jena has also been cramming a less typical extra-curricular activity into her busy schedule, the health club. There, for about an hour twice a week, she has discovered the rigors of weight training and the joy of building stamina on a stationary bike and fitting into jeans. "I've lost inches around my stomach and waist and legs," said Jenna, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs about 175 pounds. "I have a lot of energy now."...
The fitness industry has been tapping into the children's market in earnest over the last couple of years. Fitwize 4 Kids, a gym for children 6 to 15 where workouts are rewarded with apples and bananas and include play like jumping rope, spun off 14 franchises last year nationwide. It charges $50 to $125 a month, and plans to open dozens more.
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association says children are the second-fastest-growing market for health clubs after baby boomers over 55. Nearly one third of its 5,000 member clubs offer a children's component, the association said, and more than 4.6 million American children between 6 and 17 hold memberships with health clubs, compared with 3.2 million in 2000...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
PS And, walked home from school!
FYI.
And uphill, both ways.
This is pathetic indeed. Take away the video games, the tv, bring back mom in the home after school, PE, walk to and from school, go OUTSIDE and play, baseball, football, red rover, jump rope, play on the jungle gym in the park, etc. etc. etc.
And in the winter, too! When it was COLD! :)
It really IS pathetic. Meanwhile, the two groups of kids who are most overwieght are 1) blacks and 2) Hispanics. I am guessing not a whole lot of those kids are in health clubs that charge $125 per month. Those kids are still in school, until 6pm, in an "after school" program which I guarantee you does not involve a lot of physical activity.
PS Those two groups I mentioned are cited elsewhere in the article, as being the two groups having the most overwight kids.
" workouts are rewarded with apples and bananas and include play like jumping rope, spun off 14 franchises last year nationwide. It charges $50 to $125 a month... "
HEHE - only in America
Yeah, that was my reaction, too, on that!
Marketing genius !!
I HAVE to work to pay for Health Club for my kids. /sarc off
LOL...
When do kids ever get to be kids now? It's like today's childhood has turned into a mini-adulthood.
In the Good Ol' Days we used to make fun of the fat kids...
They get to be kids until they're 30. :)
Well, you can't do that anymore because not only is it not nice, but now you'd have to be making fun of the whole class!
LOL! You're right! I forgot they've extended the teen years to 30 now!
I see another scam to make a lot of money for someone.
My mother had a health club she sent us kids to. It was just outside our front door.
"You kids! Get out from underfoot. Go outside and play!"
We did. None of us were overweight. We were all healthy, lean, and active.
In the Summer, my mom didn't want to see us, except for lunch and at suppertime. If we showed up any other time, she'd give us a glass of lemonade and kick us back out of the house. Great mom!
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