Suburban gyms lower membership age to attract young teens
After working out with a personal trainer at the Wellness Center in Arlington Heights, KC Jones often wished she could stay afterward and use the gym's elliptical or treadmill machines.
But since she was only in middle school, she had to leave after her session ended. Aside from one-on-one training, the gym was restricted to ages 16 and older.
Last October, the Wellness Center became the latest suburban gym to lower its membership and allow high school-aged students to join. Jones is among 70 14- and 15-year-olds who have signed up and become members in the past six months.
"Now, I can be there by myself, and go whenever I want, and I'm not limited to what I can do. I could go on the treadmill, use the equipment … and I'm eager to do yoga classes," said Jones, who is a sophomore at Rolling Meadows High School.
Gyms that once shunned teenagers - preferring to keep them as adults-only places to work out - are now welcoming them with open arms. Some suburban gyms have lowered their memberships to as young as 10, or any child over 100 pounds.
There have been legal liability reasons that prevented children from being in the gym, of course. To work around that, some gyms - like Fitness 19 (with locations in Algonquin, Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove) require a parent to accompany their kids and provide supervision for them up until a certain age (it varies by gym, but it could be 14 or 16).
Some gyms have other restrictions on younger members as well. The Wellness Center prohibits teens from being in the steam room, or swimming in the pool unsupervised.
Some older teens are fitting right in with the adults in classes.
"The kids and the young teens need to have their own class, but I've got juniors and seniors in high school working out alongside my adults, and they do just fine," said Sean Hastings, owner of CrossFit C2L in Naperville and Plainfield, where their teen enrollment is growing.
Gym owners attribute the change to a few things: a rise in childhood obesity; a slowing activity level in high school; and increasingly competitive youth sports, which have teens wanting to train to increase their speed and strength.
Children also see their parents working out in a gym, or have been working out or lifting weights in their school physical education class.
Even the popularity of the NBC obstacle course show, "American Ninja Warrior," may have had some influence. Several kid-friendly "ninja gyms" have sprouted up around the suburbs lately (see sidebar).
Even gyms which haven't lowered their membership ages are adding teen-friendly group classes and personal training sessions on the side.
Hastings said their CrossFit C2L classes, once populated by twentysomethings, now attract teenagers, too. He just hired a Certified Kids Cross Fit Coach to accommodate the demand for kid-appropriate Cross Fit classes.
"When the kids get exposed to it, they just think it's a blast, and they lose sight of the fact that it's actually fitness. Cross Fit is fun. Obstacle course training is fun," Hastings said, noting that kids are attracted to the hip-hop music, camaraderie, and enticing equipment.
The membership rates are kid-friendly too. Wellness Center members can add their teens to their memberships for an additional $40/month. Fitness 19 has a teen-friendly monthly rate of $15/month.
Giovanni Piediscalzi, the Wellness Center Sales Manager, said lowering the age from 16 to 14 wasn't that big of a difference, and it doesn't bother the older gym members. The Wellness Center's average age for a member is in the 50s.
"It's more the teens tolerating the adults more than the adults tolerating the teens," Hastings added with a laugh.