Floridian: Starting 'em young

Starting 'em young

More and more children in the bay area, some as young as 3 months, are going to fitness classes designed just for them.

By SUSAN ASCHOFF, Times Staff Writer

LARGO -- Caroline Kudelko, deep into her workout at My Gym, sets her jaw and prepares to sprint. She will dash under a billowing parachute cloth, drop and somersault before the chute drops on her head.

"I don't need help," she says to the waiting spotter.

"Go!"

She runs, flips and trots to the other side, a victorious grin lighting her face.

Time to hit the next station in the hourlong class. But first a "give me five" from the instructor. Caroline is, after all, only 4 years old. And in fitness classes designed for children as young as 3 months, the only burn participants are supposed to feel is a desire to slide headfirst into the ball pit at class' end.

America's zeal to get physically fit has filtered down to its tots. In less than 10 years, the California-based chain My Gym Children's Fitness Center has grown to more than 70 locations nationwide, including more than a dozen in Florida. The Largo gym opened two months ago, about a year after one in Palm Harbor and following the first in the area in Tampa. A Brandon location is slated to open next summer. Another national kid fitness chain, the Little Gym, reports doubling its enrollment over five years.

In classes starting with babies as young as 3 months who are "coached" by a parent, to tumbling sessions for 10-year-olds, the business is fitness as fun.

"We do group activities, but we're noncompetitive. Everybody wins," says Wade Smith, who operates the Largo and Palm Harbor My Gyms with his wife, Jan.

"They're building strength, coordination and self-esteem. We work on listening skills. They use their energy, all in a fun atmosphere," he said.

At the weekly class for 3 1/2- to 4 1/2-year-olds, a half-dozen barefoot children form a circle on the mat with Wade Smith and instructor Amanda Jankowski, who brightly and loudly chats the students through the hourlong workout. There are stretching exercises and the parachute run, flips on uneven bars, climbs up wooden rungs on a wall and headstands, all accompanied by praise and attentive assistance.

Sandy Anthony's two children both take classes at My Gym. Four-year-old Stefan is in this session of Mighty Mites. Sarah, 2, takes a Gymsters class.

"She was doing gymnastics. This seemed a little more contained than that. It lets them explore, it lets them do their own thing," says Anthony, of Pinellas Park.

Each week's activities are different. Equipment is swapped and reconfigured. "You go to the park 800 times and what more is there to do?" says Sue Entringer. "This is something for her. She feels like big stuff."

Entringer, of Seminole, brought daughter Katy for a first-time visit. Katy bounces through the door, then in place. She cannot wait to run across the cushioned room. She gamely performs each activity, skipping between stations. Afterward, her mother asks about enrollment.

Smith says My Gym's structured classes keep children moving. "It gets kids away from their computers, their Game Boys." For an older child who does not want to play team sports, the workouts provide exercise and the boost in self-confidence that comes from physical coordination and strength, says Smith, a pharmaceutical salesman who quit to work with his wife on her new business.

Physical inactivity in children, says Surgeon General David Satcher, is a major epidemic in the United States. "I think we made a serious error by not requiring physical education in grades K through 12. We are paying a tremendous price" in pain and lost productivity, Satcher said in a 1998 report.

Elementary and middle schools typically offer one to three physical education classes per week, surveys show. In high school, physical education enrollment drops from more than 80 percent of ninth-grade boys and girls to 45 percent and 39 percent, respectively, of 12th-graders, according to a Surgeon General's report.

During the past six years, teenagers' participation in physical education has dropped by almost half.

Meanwhile, the percentage of overweight children and adolescents has doubled in the past 30 years. More than 12 percent of young people ages 6 to 17 are seriously overweight, according to a report on the nutrition and health of young people. Being overweight as an adolescent has been found to be a predictor of adult obesity and its associated health risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other illnesses.

At the Largo and Palm Harbor locations of My Gym, Smith says, they've designed a new class for 6- to 10-year-olds emphasizing aerobics done to the strains of pop music stars such as Aaron Carter. Stations include step aerobics, push-ups against a wall and jumping back and forth on a pattern taped on the floor, Smith says.

"We wanted to give them more of a challenge," he says.

Classes at My Gym generally meet once a week, with a second session scheduled for free play, and average about $7 per visit.

Perhaps the most important lesson they teach, says Smith, is that moving is fun.

"I don't really look at it from the fitness standpoint; it's more the social," says Travis Whitten, whose 4-year-old son, Spencer Whitten, is oblivious to the fact that he's doing calisthenics. Spencer giggles with buddy Bradley Goldberg while both arc their arms overhead, stretch and wave.