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Mini Treadmills: Anti-Obesity Tool or Death of Playtime?

Ohanian Comment:
Ohmygod. . . for $99, you can buy a kid's
stationery bike to hook up to the television
set. God forbid that he'd ride a real bike
around the block. The subtitle of this aritle
is: Psychiatrists and Exercise Experts Debate
the Wisdom in Kids' Workout Equipment. I really
can't comprehend that this would be a debate.
It is an example of how sick some parents are
in the overweening need to be in control. As a
devoted bike rider, I am beside myself in grief
for Childhood.

By Lauren Cox

The country can't deny it; America's kids are
getting overweight at an alarming rate. The
latest numbers from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control estimate 16 percent of children
are obese and an additional 15 percent are
overweight.

In the last year, the toy industry has thought
up a way to help: treadmills for tots. In fact,
kids-sized gym equipment and kid gyms are
popping up in elementary and middle schools on
both coasts. Even some adult gyms now offer
child sections.

Parents and toy companies say the child-size
equipment can get kids moving and teach a
healthy habit. But exercise and child
psychiatry experts say at the wrong age, for
the wrong reasons, child exercise equipment may
do more harm than good.

Workouts for Tots

"That trend has really been stepped up in the
last two to three years," said Renye Rice, a
toy trend specialist with the Toy Industry
Association.

Rice said this year parents can now buy the
Fitness Fun MyTreadmill, the Glide a Stride
elliptical machine. Or, for $99, parents might
choose the Fisher Price Smart Cycle stationary
bike that hooks up to the television.

"The action on the TV is moved along only when
they're cycling," said Rice. "It gives them a
reward for actively moving."

Products like these fall into the new genre of
"exertainment," which tries to satisfy
children's tastes and the concerns of the
parents.

"The thought was really, that it was something
the parents are going to see as being really
beneficial," said Ticia Will, senior product
manager for International Playthings Inc.,
which makes the Fitness Fun treadmill.

"So at the same time while they're playing at
being grown up, they're moving," said Will.

But according to child psychiatrist Dr. Michael
Brody, running on a treadmill enough to get
exercise doesn't equal play.

A Sign of Our Own Problems?

"These are not toys -- toys are supposed to act
as catalyst for play," said Brody, who chairs
the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry TV and Media Committee.

"Play is supposed to be about what is bothering
the kid, what the kid needs to work out," said
Brody, who added that persuading young children
to exercise on fitness equipment satisfies
parental competition and anxiety over weight
more than the child's concerns.

Instead of workout equipment, Brody recommends
old-fashioned social games like tag, ballgames
or capture the flag.

"There's a lot of psychological merit of those
games," said Brody. "Kids need to play, they
need to have fun and they need relationships.
When I'm working out by myself with the
elliptical it's me and the TV and it's very
isolating, but I'm an adult."

If parents wanted kids on exercise equipment at
home, Brody recommends only buying for older
ages. "It has to be for an 8 or 9-year-old, or
an older child," said Brody.

While older kids may handle the social
isolation of workout equipment better, exercise
expert Cedric Bryant still wonders whether kids
will like it.

In Exercise, Age Matters

"They're going on the assumption that you can
treat kids as little adults, and they're not,"
said Bryant, who is a chief science officer for
the American Council on Exercise.

"Kids like to start stop interval activities
things that have an element of game and play to
them," said Bryant. With a single piece of
equipment, "you're probably not going to have
long term appeal."

Yet, some entrepreneurs in fitness have plenty
of success stories incorporating exercise
equipment in specific ways.

In Grass Valley, Calif., a group of former
physical education teachers formed a fitness
company for older children ages 6 and up called
Kick Start Fitness for Kids.

Phyllis Rogers, a partner at Kick Start Fitness
for Kids, said the exercise and "exertainment"
equipment fills a fitness void for children who
don't like traditional sports.

"I can tell you as a former P.E. teacher, out
in activity or a game you have 25 percent of
those kids engaged," said Rogers, who added the
rest of the kids are just not interested, not
in shape, or not socially comfortable
participating.

Fitness Can Be Non-Competitive

In a Kick Start Gym, "it's a non-competitive
environment. First and foremost," said Rogers.
Kim McMahon, a parent in Arizona, said her
sons, 8-year-old Sam and 11-year-old Sean, have
blossomed at the local kids' gym.

A child sits on fitness equipment designed for
an older age group of 6-15.

Three times a week, the McMahons visit the
Fitness Institute and Kids Fitness Institute of
Scottsdale, Ariz. which offers kids-size
equipment, games like Dance Dance Revolution,
bikes hooked up to video games and a staff to
direct and occupy the kids age 6-15.

"It's so hot here the kids can't go outside
they tend to stay inside more and tend to be
obese more," said McMahon.

McMahon said she was especially concerned for
her son Sean, who is autistic and not good at
social team sports.

"For years I have wished that I could find
someplace for him to work out for him it has
done a tremendous amount for his self esteem,"
said McMahon. "He told his friends he goes to
the gym. They're looking at him impressed and
say 'you work out?' He said 'yeah!'"





— Lauren Cox
ABC News
2008-09-22


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