
Children as a fitness group are different from their gym-going elders. Theyāre not there to burn calories or get in their steps, and theyāre not going to be active for activityās sake. For kids, the fitness has to be fun.
āKids are concrete thinkers and adults are abstract thinkers,ā says Railyard Fitness Inc. founder Lee Spieker. āAdults, we exercise for our health, which is an abstract. Kids exercise for two reasons: Itās got to be fun, or theyāre making an adult happy. They donāt choose to do abstract things.ā
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Children as a fitness group are different from their gym-going elders. Theyāre not there to burn calories or get in their steps, and theyāre not going to be active for activityās sake. For kids, the fitness has to be fun.
āKids are concrete thinkers and adults are abstract thinkers,ā says Railyard Fitness Inc. founder Lee Spieker. āAdults, we exercise for our health, which is an abstract. Kids exercise for two reasons: Itās got to be fun, or theyāre making an adult happy. They donāt choose to do abstract things.ā
In order to make fitness more conceptually concrete for kids āĀ but flexible and safe for parents and instructors ā Spieker created a portable, indoor obstacle course in 2007 thatās made out of plastic modular pieces that can be configured and reconfigured to create multiple climbing, crawling, balancing and jumping obstacles.
Youth fitness director Tasha Buchanen has been using a Railyard system at Clarksville (Tenn.) Athletic Club for years. She says it was an item she had to have when she took on the job in 2012 because of the fun āĀ and program flexibility ā it offers.
āItās so versatile, thereās so many things you can do with it. Itās not just like you set one course and leave it. There are so many different options for this,ā she says. āAnd so many different age groups. Before COVID, we had a 2- to 3-year-old program. I had those 2- to 3-year-olds on the unit and we had 15 kids in the class. It was amazing for them. They loved it.ā
The Railyard system includes four parts: a 9-inch platform, an 18-inch platform, a 7-foot rail thatās reversible (flat on one side and round on the other), and the rubber latching platform tops that lock the whole thing together.Ā
Hidden gem
In a fitness facility setting, the Railyard system offers three clear benefits: variety for programming, encouragement for returning members, and appeal as an athletics alternative. Spieker explains: āItās not a sport. You can suck at sports, but you cannot suck at exercise. Even in schools today, and I do workshops for physical education all over the country, thatās one of the things they bring up: not all kids are interested in sports.ā
Buchanen calls the system at her facility the athletic clubās āhidden gem,ā because while itās in the youth room for classes four days a week, she also gets to bring it out for special events, where it attracts a lot of attention.
āWhen we have birthday parties, and Iām doing an obstacle course for that, we use half of our basketball court and I set the entire unit up on there,ā Buchanen says. āAnd Iāll get parents coming over and looking who arenāt part of the birthday party, and theyāre like, āWhatās this?ā Iāve had people come up, ask questions, and theyāre like, āWow, thatās really cool.ā ā
At many clubs, the 5-15 age group is not always offered functional exercise programs of interest to them. Theyāre a type of member that often ages out of childcare but canāt participate in adult group X or the weight room for several intervening years. Spieker says offering youth programming like obstacle courses āĀ similar to ninja-type climbing and popular parkour training ā can draw a loyal crowd to a facility.
At the Clarksville Athletic Club, Buchanen says the class offered there not only brings the kids back, but their parents, too.
āA lot of kids in our program kind of help their parents come to the facility because they want to come to class,ā Buchanen says. āThatās a huge plus. We do get feedback from the parents that sometimes when theyāre not feeling it, their kids are, and their kids kind of help them come because they say, āI want to go to Kids in Motion.ā ā
The system isnāt designed exclusively for children.Ā Spieker says current adult users include the San Francisco 49ers, the Chicago Bears, the Penn State football team and Wisconsinās volleyball team. He says itās also in use at nine police athletic academies. āPolice and firefighters, this is how they perform their jobs. They run at something, they duck, they climb, they crawl and train for an active profession.ā
Mental health movement
Making the Railyard all the more relevant for todayās generation of kids are the mental health benefits that having fun and building functional movement skills bring. āIf youāre a young child, you have confidence in the way you move, and self-esteem because you accomplish a certain thing,ā Spieker says.
In Clarksville, Buchanen says sheās seen the system pay off similarly. āNot every child wants to run. Not every child wants to move,ā she says. āA lot of the kids look forward to using the unit and they like the way they feel afterwards. And they see themselves getting stronger.ā