This isn't the typical scenario found at a gym: A 13-year-old boy and his mother pass a medicine ball back and forth while doing squats and leg lifts. "This is hard," says 50-year-old Donna Wolff as her son Sam, slightly out of breath, nods in agreement as he pats his now-sore glutes.
The two continue their exercise routine, often laughing and occasionally exchanging sympathetic glances when their coach asks them to do another five crunches.
Although the concept of family fitness has been around for some time, the practice of it seems rare. Some gyms allow older children if they're supervised by a parent, and many communities offer exercise classes for parents and babies or toddlers. But more often, the scenario is that parents schlep to a gym while their kids play sports or take lessons, the two meeting up for the occasional bike ride or game of catch.
That's not the case at Family Fitness Express, which has circuit training gyms in La Canada Flintridge and Burbank where parents and children 11 and older are encouraged to work out together, even if their exercise goals are poles apart.
The concept came to owner Zachary Kidd when he decided to take over the business soon after his mother opened a circuit training gym about a year and a half ago. The 28-year-old was well aware of climbing obesity rates for adults and children, and knew that parents could be powerful role models when it came to their kids' interest in fitness. "I also believe that there are fewer and fewer social connections and experiences exchanged between people, families, neighbors," he says. "Across the board you're finding that people are spending more time with themselves or strangers."
Wolff joined with her son more than a year ago "because he's always been interested in working out and I didn't know how to help him," she says. "We wanted a place where we could do something together and someone who knew what he was doing could tell us what to do."
"It's pretty cool that a kid my age can work out here," says Sam, adding that the workouts have helped his stamina in baseball and lessened the severity of his asthma.
Research studies have shown that parents can have enormous influence on their children's interest in athletics. A four-year study that followed 180 girls from ages 5 to 9 found that 30% were involved in high levels of physical activity when neither parent provided a great deal of encouragement, but that number rose to 56% when one parent expressed interest, and to 70% when both parents showed support.
