It's Like Totally a Gym!
I didn’t realize it until I read this article, but gyms aren’t really setup for teenagers. Take my gym for example. It’s got lots of classes and amenities for adults, childcare, and seniors programs, but not much for teeny-boppers. What a great business opportunity. Make gyms “cool” for teenagers. Nora Isaacs of The New York Times reports:
Conceived for teenagers, Overtime Fitness has a rock-climbing tower, a lounge area with a flat-screen television and a study room with Internet access and books like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens,” where teenagers can get academic tutoring and attend seminars on health, stress management and relationships.Heck, some of that stuff sounds cool to me, well, not everything. That mid-workout hotdog’s got to go. Gag!
Harried parents head to the gym with a purpose: to get in a solid block of cardio, then get out. Quick.
Teenagers think differently. They want a place to chill after school with pals, where they can go online, watch reruns of “The Munsters” and maybe even break a sweat. After a snack.
“Sometimes in the middle of our workout, we head down to the 7-Eleven to buy a hot dog,” said Suliman, a sophomore at Los Altos High School.
Until recently, health clubs passed over the hard-to-please teenage set and even had policies to keep them out. After all, what club manager wants to herd cats? But in the last year, smaller gyms have started wooing the MySpace generation. Most of the effort so far involves adding a teenagers-only lounge and Internet access, and creating centers with workout equipment, foosball tables and juice bars.
