"I was really worried about my daughter Ashley," your fitness center client tells you. "She's 14 years old and about 20 pounds overweight, but never takes my advice. Things are better now with your new fitness classes for teens. She and her friends take water aerobics and strength-training classes here three days a week after school. Ashley loves the classes! She has so much more energy these days, and just seems like a happier person. Thank you so much for giving teens a chance to discover exercise!"

Teens in the fitness center

Working parents, single parents, crowded schools. More than ever, teens need places to go and fun things to do. The statistics speak to this problem: Record numbers of teens are inactive and overweight, not to mention bored, depressed and getting into trouble with sex, violence, drugs and crime. Adolescents need opportunities for physical activities that promote health and a healthy self-esteem.

Some fitness centers are teaming up with schools and community organizations to offer teen programming, especially during school and right after school when the facility is underutilized. Many teens love strength training and recreational activities such as racquet sports, swimming and aerobics.

Maybe the fitness industry should learn from the cigarette advertisers: Market to teenagers and create a lifelong habit. Today's teens will support our industry by becoming fitness center members in the future. Besides, teens can be a rewarding group to work with, and their parents are often tremendously grateful.

Reaching adolescents

The key to successful teen programming is designing activities that appeal to adolescents and finding instructors who respect and understand them. How can you get in touch with adolescent tastes? Begin by getting in touch with your own teenage years. If you try long and hard enough, I'm sure you can remember something about your adolescence. When you work with teens, you'll find these memories coming back with greater clarity. While times have changed a great deal since some of us were in our teens, we can still remember the sense of emerging identity, the energy, and the concern with fitting in.

While adolescents often appear to be very mature and self-controlled, they differ in many ways from full-fledged adults.

A diverse group. If you are working with teen groups, you may want to survey or meet with them to get their feedback. What kinds of activities would they like? What other things are they already involved in? When are they free? You may also want to survey parents on these points.

Focus on fun, not health. For many adolescents, personal mortality is a hazy or irrelevant concept. Many teens have difficulty even imagining themselves as adults. While some teens might be a little worried about the health consequences of behaviors such as a poor diet or sedentary lifestyle, their concerns about peer pressure often overwhelm their rational decision-making abilities. For many teens, worry about future health consequences is not enough to motivate them to change health behaviors.

Peer pressure. Peer influence can be harmful, as when teens are urged by their peers to drive while intoxicated or to diet themselves to starvation. But peer influence can also encourage participation in beneficial activities such as sports, youth groups, 4-H and so forth. Teens are more likely to attend your programs if their friends are coming as well. Encourage parents to sign their teen up with a friend.

The media. Adolescents are strongly influenced by the media, especially television and magazines. Sometimes media influence can be good. The fitness industry is lucky that being fit is often promoted by the media these days. But the negative effects of too much media exposure are many. Teens compare themselves to famous people and find themselves lacking: not handsome enough, not pretty or thin enough, not sexy enough. Media critic Jean Kilbourne has noted that media images are "persuasive and pervasive."

Mary Pipher, author of the bestseller Reviving Ophelia, points out that parents and teachers must fight the junk values of popular culture that surround us in the media, especially programming and magazines that target adolescent audiences. It's a big job. Fitness leaders can at least model well-balanced, healthful lifestyles that focus on subjective involvement and getting into the flow of life, rather than observation and judging oneself as an object.

Physical appearance. Adolescents place a high value on the way they look. This is a corollary of media influence and the culture we live in, which places enormous value on first impressions. Some educators have successfully promoted participation in physical activity by emphasizing how exercise can help you look and feel good. Taking advantage of adolescent focus on appearance can be a double-edged sword, however. While wanting to look good may motivate teens to follow healthy lifestyle recommendations, it can also feed into an obsession with looks. This obsession can lead to preoccupations with eating and exercising that are often difficult to overcome.

Role models. Adolescents can be strongly influenced by role models. They may be media figures such as entertainment and sports personalities, but many teens also look at real people as role models: other teens, teachers, coaches, older friends and even parents. Some teens respect authority, so be sure to emphasize your education and experience when you introduce yourself. They want to see you as an expert.

Stress. Many adolescents feel powerless in the face of overwhelming difficulties. While teens may not worry too much about their individual health, teens as a group are very concerned about the future of their world. North American teens are especially worried about the environment. They are also concerned about many political and social issues, such as crime, poverty and discrimination. They worry about being able to find jobs and support themselves. Physical activity can be a great way for teens (and everyone) to reduce feelings of stress.

Idealists. Adolescents have tremendous energy and drive when inspired. This is why many people love working with teens. Adolescence is a time of idealism. This idealism must be encouraged, or depression and self-absorption may take its place. Can you blame teens for getting depressed? Just read the newspaper!

Many teens love to put their energy into service activities. Maybe your center can link exercise to a worthy cause. Let teens organize and participate in a walkathon or danceathon. These activities improve self-esteem and help combat feelings of powerlessness. FM

REFERENCES

Holmes, J., & E.L. Silverman. We're Here, Listen to Us! A Survey of Young Women in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1992.

Louis Harris and Associates. In Their Own Words: Adolescent Girls Discuss Health and Health Care Issues. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1996.

Pipher, M. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.

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Two A Days, By Anthony Maule. Playing football and going through two a days has helped me to mature from an young and undisciplined freshman into a motivated senior who is driven to succeed.

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