Fit kids: Helping them learn to love exercise makes habits that can last a lifetime

Though it's situated in a quiet, beige strip mall in Draper, there is nothing quiet or beige about what's going on inside My Gym Children's Fitness Center.

Instructors bounding with energy lead groups of excited children through rainbow-colored mats and swinging ropes. Owner Easter Brock beams at the group as she sits cross-legged on a bench running alongside the gym.

"It's really about making (fitness) a positive experience," Brock said. "If they find it to be fun, it'll be something they want to do. That's one of our company mottos — fitness made fun for kids."

Brock said the parents of her little clients have myriad motivations for coming to My Gym, ranging from getting the kids out of the house in the cold weather to encouraging socialization. But some parents have bigger concerns than snowstorms and social skills.

With obesity rates reaching new heights across the country, kids have not been immune to the trend. Yet many parents and medical professionals say the sedentary lifestyle that can lead to obesity usually has to be taught to children who are active by nature.

Chris Reilly, who was a parent-client at Gymboree Play and Learn in Salt Lake City before he become a part-owner with fellow parent Vasyl Green, was one who made that point.

"Little kids are active," Reilly said. "They have to learn to be inactive. That is a taught activity."

Both Gymboree Play and Learn and My Gym Children's Fitness Center offer classes for kids as young as six weeks old. Reilly said the infant and toddler demographic makes up the largest percentage of their clientele.

"Our target ages are 0 to 5, but I would say 80 percent of our customers are 3 and younger, so they obviously really haven't learned to be sedentary yet," Reilly said. "Most of our kids come in looking in-shape. They haven't learned to be couch potatoes yet, and we hope they never learn to be couch potatoes."

Medical professionals also stress the point of fostering habits at a young age. Dr. Tamara Lewis, Intermountain Healthcare's medical director of community health and prevention, said parents hoping to keep their children active should avoid using television, computers and video games as a baby sitter.

"Pediatricians recommend that children watch less than two hours of TV a day, toddlers less than one hour, and with infants, there's really no reason," Lewis said. "Having them entertain themselves is a learning process."

Lewis said parents can encourage healthy lifestyles by cultivating good habits in their children early on, while also modeling fitness as part of their own daily lives.