Concerns about weight and wellness propel fitness outlets across the North Bay to target children.
Take a look around: America is fat. There’s junk in every trunk and more spare tires than a Goodyear convention. The United States Center for Disease Control determines overweight and obesity ranges by using weight and height to calculate a number called the “body mass index” (BMI). For most people, BMI directly correlates to their amount of body fat. An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show 30 percent of people ages 20 and older in this country are obese. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of many diseases and adverse health conditions, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and even some cancers.
More and more, these same weight concerns are being aimed at children and adolescents. According to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, about 12 million American youths between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight. An additional 12 million are at risk of becoming overweight. As a result, many diseases that were once virtually unheard of in children—including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes—are becoming commonplace.
The culprit, many say, is our collective lifestyle. By necessity, parents are working longer hours, meaning many children have less opportunity to participate in organized sports or other after-school activities—and face it, gone are the days when we could send Junior to the park with instructions to “be home by dinner.” These days, safety concerns combine with websurfing, television and video games to keep children sedentary. Factor in poor nutritional habits, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
In response to these findings, a number of age-specific fitness facilities have opened nationwide and across the North Bay. Many are franchises, some are independently owned, but all are taking aim at the sedentary lifestyle and bad nutritional choices that are adversely affecting our children.
A strong start
“Children should be healthy and happy,” says Lorna Brown, owner of My Gym in Santa Rosa, which opened in February 2004. “Being physically active is a way to guarantee that.”
Brown found My Gym when she was looking for things to do with her own daughter (now age 4). The concept—age-appropriate classes designed to introduce physical activity and build confidence by focusing on balance, coordination, strength and flexibility through tumbling, games, music and dance—was an instant match. “My husband and I had been looking to open some kind of franchise, and I knew I wanted to do something with children’s fitness.”
Sabina Krivenko, co-owner (with husband, Mikhail) of The Little Gym in Sausalito, echoes Brown’s enthusiasm for starting kids on the fitness path early. “I became sold on The Little Gym when I took my 18-month-old daughter to classes. She blossomed. It was wonderful to watch her develop physically, emotionally and socially. She gained the confidence to try just about anything.”
All fitness programs geared toward very young children, by necessity, emphasize listening, watching and trying. Children and their caregivers are greeted by bright colors and smiling teachers who are ready to lead the group in simple games and skills. Padded floors ensure a soft landing while soft play structures (tubes, tunnels, giant blocks and stacked steps) invite exploration. Balls and hoops of all sizes capture the imagination and foster cooperative play. Kid-friendly music plays, and group dancing and singing are encouraged.
Of course, older children are given more direct skill-building challenges (like relays and obstacle courses), but the emphasis is always on social camaraderie and encouragement. Some programs, like My Gym, remain broad-based: “My Gym appealed to me because it wasn’t focused on teaching specific sports but rather on encouraging general skills,” says Brown. “It’s more about giving children the opportunity to try—building strength and flexibility and boosting self-confidence.”
Krivenko, on the other hand, did some comparison and chose The Little Gym because it has a set curriculum, offering age-appropriate, non-competitive gymnastics, karate, dance and sports skills development. “We operate on a semester system; there are three semesters each year—winter/spring, summer and fall,” she explains. “Each semester has a lesson plan, which ensures consistency. A child can go to a class here or to any other Little Gym and they’ll be teaching the same skills.” Now nearing 4, little Miss Krivenko today participates in dance and pre-K gymnastics classes at her parents’ establishment.
In the town of Sonoma, Regina Aronson has met with success by leaving children and parents largely to their own devices. Two years ago, Aronson started Tiny Tumble Tots, a Monday and Tuesday morning playgroup for children up to age 36 months, at the Sonoma Community Center. “These kids are too young for a structured class,” she says.
“The parents sign in and the kids go play. I play kids’ music and run a bubble machine for part of each class, but they’re mostly left to do their own thing. Five minutes before the end of class, I blow a whistle and whoever wants to meets up at the parachute for a few minutes. [A small, colorful silk parachute is laid on the ground, and parents grab along the sides then raise and lower it as children jump and dance underneath.] Then we dance.”
Healthy habits
Children’s gyms and activity programs are a great way to socialize young children and help them build confidence in their abilities. But older kids need more encouragement to change unhealthy habits, more motivation to keep going and more structure to help track their accomplishments. And as young bodies mature, the benefits of specific types of exercise (most notably strength training and aerobic activity) increase.
“Fitness is very different when you’re talking about children than it is for adults,” says Alexandra Sickinger, a former physical education teacher and national director of training for Fitniks, a Santa Rosa-based fitness club that targets children ages 6 to 12.
“Their bodies are still growing and developing. They can’t—shouldn’t—do a lot of the same things on the same level as adults.”
Fitness centers targeting older children and the tween and teen set (approximately ages 6 to 15) differ radically from the younger children’s outlets. Weight machines, treadmills and exercise bikes, similar to those found in a typical adult gym, line the walls. Unlike an adult facility, though, most have no mirrors, no scales and a plethora of television screens (but CNN’s definitely not the most requested program).
New technology that links exercise equipment to video games, or even inserts a player onto the screen as a participant, plays a key role in the Fitniks model. Members warm up on bikes linked to a game (the faster they pedal, the faster their onscreen car drives); after a heart rate check and strength training on weight machines scaled specifically for children, it’s on to the “fitertainment” portion of the program, which uses dance and running pads and interactive games to improve endurance, core strength, full-range of motion and hand-eye coordination. “One of the biggest problems these days is that kids are sitting at home zoned into video games,” says Sickinger, who also manages the Santa Rosa facility. “We might as well use that to our advantage.”
“It’s like Curves for kids,” says Mandy Robles of her program, Kidz Fit Zone in Sonoma, which is geared for ages 6 to 13. “Kids go around a set circuit and get a full body workout. To warm up, they start with a treadmill that’s linked to a movie, then the dance revolution, which enhances coordination, balance and agility. Our game bikes and iso-kinetic machine [for the upper body] are linked to PlayStation. Then they do the strength training. Next are a standing interactive game and the Jackie Chan action fitness game. A final standing interactive station is set up with a slower-paced game as a cool down. Then the kids stretch and choose either time in a massage chair or a few minutes on the machine of their choice for more gaming.”
It seems to be a winning formula. “The kids are so involved in the games, they don’t realize they’re working their muscles,” says Robles.
Warren Gendel, a former competitive bodybuilder and founder of Fitwize4Kids in Novato, isn’t as sold on cardio-gaming. “I don’t like the computer stuff,” he says. “I want to take the kids away from that, not reinforce it.”
Gendel’s operation, aimed at children 6.5 to 15, is more focused on traditional strength-training. Kid-sized machines mirror the full complement found in adult facilities, and mini trampolines, aerobic steps, rope ladders (laid on the floor), padded kick posts and other pieces of equipment are arranged as obstacle courses and individual challenges to be tackled in between. Only after two full circuits are members rewarded with 15 minutes on either a game bike or the dance pad.
“If you have good instructors and are good at what you do, these kids will have just as good a time without [the video games],” Gendel says. “And then you can reward them with a little bit of that stuff. Why leave that element in place when you can get kids exercising without it?”
More, please
“Garbage in, garbage out.” Though the phrase was originally coined in response to early computer programming foibles, it can easily be applied to the eating habits of our children. After all, what good is establishing a regular exercise routine if you punctuate each successful workout with a drive-thru reward? In response, many of the businesses interviewed for this article offer nutrition education as a part of their programs.
“We do everything we can here to promote healthy families and active lifestyles,” says Brown. “I work with a nutritionist who comes in and provides information and resources to the parents as part of their membership. We’ll have special days when we invite the children in to play and have the nutritionist on hand to speak with parents about things like portion size and healthy choices.”
Fitniks offers separate nutrition programs as well. “But beyond that, we try to educate the kids in small ways,” says Sickinger. “We talk about why fruits and vegetables are smart choices, and they can only bring water with them into the gym.”
Fitwize4Kids employs a director of nutrition who develops a monthly curriculum for all the company’s outlets to follow. “Every month we post different nutritional information for the kids to read while they workout,” says Gendel. “We include more information in our monthly newsletters and host a nutrition workshop on the last Wednesday of every month.
“When kids are done with their workout, we make it mandatory that they take a piece of fruit [a basket of apples sat on the counter when I visited],” he continues. “When we tell them why to eat a piece of fruit, it’s so much more effective than a parent saying, ‘If you don’t eat this….’ There’s a different reaction when you educate them about the benefits.
“They’re really starting to understand what goes into food. Parents are really excited about that. Kids are reading labels and talking to their parents about what’s in food and what healthy choices are. When I hear things like that, I know this program is really working.”
Confidence restored
“Attitudes toward health and fitness begin forming in the early years,” says Brown. “The thrill of accomplishment from achieving a physical task builds self-esteem and confidence that carries over into all aspects of a child’s life.”
She’s right. Ultimately, children’s fitness is about self-esteem. A strong body and eager mind are building blocks for adult success. And so as focused as these businesses are on promoting healthy lifestyles, they all do so carefully, ever wary of the fragility of young egos. This is especially true of those geared toward older children.
Unlike a typical adult gym, there are no mirrors on the walls, and children cycle through in a set pattern, meaning no child is being watched or waited on by another. “We have no mirrors in here. We don’t have scales,” says Gendel. “It’s about personal achievement—how many reps they can do—and feeling good about themselves.”
What’s more, routine intake assessments (measuring weight, BMI and the like) aren’t available at Fitwize4Kids or Kidz Fit Zone. “We didn’t want to focus on weight, but now parents are seeing their children lose weight and get in shape and are beginning to ask us for those numbers,” Sickinger explains of Fitniks’ decision to start an assessment program. “We’re going to start assessments, but only provide the numbers to the parents, not the children; they can decide what—if anything—they want to do with the information.”
“Fitness isn’t just about losing weight,” she continues. “It’s about being healthy. Someone can be thin and still be unhealthy, so we try to emphasize a healthy lifestyle and teach the kids that fitness is what’s inside.”
Going it alone
Starting your own business is always risky. No matter how inspired your concept or in-depth your business plan, there are always unexpected twists and lessons to be learned.
“I had this idea when my 6-year-old was a baby,” says Aronson, “because she started crawling and, besides the living room, there was nowhere for her to go. I couldn’t do it then, but I started getting ideas, researching where I could buy equipment, looking into insurance and those kinds of things. I looked into franchises, but they cost $35,000 to $50,000. I only spent $5,000 to get started.
“I was almost ready to start and found out I was pregnant again. At that point, it turned into a waiting game. I watched to see if anything else showed up in town. Just before my second daughter turned a year old, there was still nothing here, so I proposed the idea to the Community Center. Since I was just starting, the idea of getting my own building was a little scary. I wanted to start and see how it went before making that kind of commitment.”
It’s gone well. Aronson has a dedicated group of families (many now bringing second and third siblings to her classes), word-of-mouth is bringing in new members from as far away as Napa and she recently received a $5,000 grant from the county to invest in more equipment. And though her arrangement with the Community Center suits her needs for the time being, she admits, “I’m antsy because I’d like to do some more things. I’m always looking for a place that would work.”
Aronson cites parking issues, zoning restrictions and Sonoma’s high rents as reasons to stay put…for now.
Robles has encountered her own challenges since opening Kids Fit Zone in July 2006. So far, location seems to be the biggest stumbling block. Housed in a small office complex away from the town square, she explains, “We get a good response from people who come in, but I don’t think parents like that they have to leave their child for only an hour, since there’s nothing around here for [parents] to do. If we were next to a shopping center, it might be easier.”
Ah, the parents. Almost forgot about them…almost. Whether by chance or by design, Fitwise4Kids is conveniently located in a neighborhood shopping center that features both a grocery store and a Starbucks. That’ll kill an hour, easy. Fitniks, also in a grocery-anchored center, additionally provides a small, adult fitness facility next door (though only at its flagship Santa Rosa branch).
“We’ve learned that, in this town, we need to be more convenient,” says Robles. “We’re shutting this location down while we look for a better location.” Despite the setback, Robles insists she and her husband are dedicated to finding another place and keeping the business going.
“We’ve had so many parents come to us, concerned about our shutting down and offering help,” says Robles. “I don’t view this as a failure. We’ve learned a lot. I’m excited about getting to a place that’s a better fit so this can survive. But I’m also realistic enough to step back and say, ‘OK, this isn’t working. We need to try something else.’ And that’s where we are right now.”
Join the team
Created in 1983 and first franchised in 1995, My Gym has opened more than 160 sites in the United States and is expanding internationally as well. According to Steve Jolton, vice president of operations for My Gym Enterprises, the company is opening 20 to 30 new outlets each year. Asked about the boom, Jolton offers his take on a now familiar refrain: “You can look at health problems and the epidemic of obesity around the world,” he says. “Many people are looking for opportunities to provide an outlet for their community.”
Jolton, who’s soon to open a My Gym franchise in San Rafael himself, says My Gym uses a variety of methods to match potential franchisees with desirable locations. “We sometimes target a community and then go looking for a client,” he admits, “but more often, we’re contacted by people interested in joining us.
“We look for a match on all levels,” he continues. “It’s not necessarily about the money; it’s more a personality match. We want someone who agrees with our philosophies—is outgoing and great with kids—but who also has enough business sense to run a small business successfully. It’s almost like going on a date, really. You have to evaluate whether you’re willing to enter a long-term relationship with the other person.”
From signing a franchise agreement to opening day, Jolton estimates the process takes between six months and a year and says delays are most often about finding a suitable location and arranging financing. Entrepreneur magazine rated My Gym the number one children’s fitness program in 2005 and 2006; for 2007, The Little Gym took top honors.
When the Krivenkos signed on with The Little Gym, says Sabina, they were provided “a pretty good checklist” of what to expect when establishing a facility, so “there were no great surprises.” In all, it took about a year from signing the franchise agreement to opening day.
Establishing a franchise
Buying into an existing franchise model is a way to ensure a certain level of name recognition and success from the very beginning. Franchises are appealing, Jolton adds, in large part because they have established systems and procedures that, if followed, will yield positive results. Consumers gravitate toward the familiar—especially when it comes to their children.
Rolling out a wholly new concept, however, is an entirely different proposition.
Though not interviewed for this story, Mill Valley’s Strawberry Center is home to a Gymboree Play & Music facility. The first exercise franchise to target preschoolers, Gymboree was founded in Marin County in the late 1970s when Joan Barnes, searching for an outlet to connect with other young mothers, began hosting classes for preschoolers at a local community center. By the time Barnes left the company for personal reasons in 1990, Gymboree had grown to a franchise giant with more than 400 outlets.
Today, Gymboree is still an industry leader, with outlets in more than 30 countries and a retail arm that, according to retailnet.com, netted $56.2 million for the five-week period ending July 1, 2006 (an increase of 15 percent over net sales from the same five-week period the previous year). It’s an inspiring business model, one that Fitniks founder and CEO Donna Moore hopes to emulate. “We plan to someday be the premier, non-sport-specific merchandiser of kids activity products,” she says.
Moore’s strong retail background—she’s a former Senior VP of Stores for
Williams-Sonoma (including both Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn) and Walt Disney Company (where she was responsible for rolling out many of the early Disney stores), a former CEO of Discovery Zone and Motherhood Maternity and former president of Laura Ashley—may well help the company achieve that goal. Inspired by her grandson, who was unable to use the equipment at the “family health club” his parents belonged to without adult supervision, Moore designed the Fitniks model and started the company in 2004. The pilot facility opened in Santa Rosa in early 2006.
From there, it’s been full steam ahead. “We feel very confident that we have the bugs out now and are ready,” says Moore. “We were approved for franchising as of the end of September [2006], we just hired a senior vice president of franchise sales and marketing who has a very strong background in both and now we’re going to roll them out.”
Sound simple? Think again. Just ask Warren Gendel, who opened his first Fitwize4Kids outlet three years ago, began franchising less than a year later and now counts 35 locations in 14 states and Australia (additionally, a group is currently in negotiations to buy the franchise rights for all of India).
“This program is an idea I’d had for a very long time, and I finally decided to roll with it,” he says. “Before I started this I had fitness equipment stores. When I sold that company, I really wanted to build a lifestyle for kids that combined nutrition and exercise. I put this together not really thinking about franchising, but the community gravitated toward it. I began watching the Curves model, and how it was so effective in getting out there.
“Usually, you’ll have a concept, develop it and be owner-operated for two to three years to work out the bugs, then slowly get it out,” he continues. “For me, the timing dictated a faster move. I got involved with some attorneys almost right away, and the process for me, from getting started to franchising, was only about six months.”
In addition to the business and legal issues involved in starting a franchise, there’s an emotional element as well. After all, every successfully franchised business was originally someone’s baby—an idea that was conceived, established and nurtured until it was ready to go out into the world on its own. And it’s up to the founders to decide who’s best to take it from there.
“We feel this is a perfect franchise for a mom,” says Moore. “The hours are such that they can still spend time with their children, it’s fun and they can be involved with kids. Plus, it’s a nice clean business. And as far as the whole program going forward, we obviously have experts here. So, as our franchise package says, you don’t have to be an expert, because we’ll have the programs established. The training will come from us. It will be a ‘business in a box’ package.”
Gendel, who himself has a degree in exercise physiology and is currently building his corporate infrastructure in anticipation of rapid growth (the five-year plan calls for 500 new outlets), seems to feel more comfortable going a slightly different route. “We like to find PE teachers, doctors and nurses,” he says, “but also moms who understand what the kids and their community needs. They need to understand that this is a business; they can’t just open their doors and expect the kids to come in.
“We’re such a new concept,” he says. “When we open new locations, we want people to understand we’re not just an ‘activity center.’ We’re about lifestyle. The reason I’m doing this as a franchise is to get the youth of today out and exercising. The only way for me to effectively do what I want to do is to really educate them.”
