Our Youth Activity Center provides a safe, fun nurturing environment for your children to play while you work out. We provide babysitting services for children age's 8 weeks to 8 years during flexible hours to accommodate your busy schedule. Our attendants are warm, patient and highly experienced.

Most Importantly, Kids Love BAC...

The Activity Center also gives children the opportunity to meet and play with other children their age. Our daily craft and coloring projects let your child explore their creativity. One visit, and your child will be begging you to go to the gym!

Youth Activity Center Hours

Daytime
Monday - Friday 8:30am -­ 12:00 Noon
Saturday 8:00am ­- 12:00 Noon

Evening
Monday - Thursday 4:00pm -­ 8:00pm
Friday 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Preadolescents and Exercise

It is essential to keep young people motivated in maintaining an active lifestyle as they approach adulthood. Although current long-term studies neither support nor reject the notion that physical activity during childhood and adolescence is beneficial to adult health, there is evidence of the benefits of enhanced physical activity among youth, especially among youth at high risk for chronic illness in later years.

Cross-sectional data suggests favorable health characteristics among active children and youth. Training study data, on the other hand, shows little or no beneficial effect of training among healthy children. The contrast may reflect a pre-selection of subjects who are active and healthier from the start versus subjects who live a sedentary lifestyle. Interventions more vigorous than those commonly used in research might yield greater effects. It has been proven, for example, that army recruits who undergo an intense eight hours per day training regiment for several months respond with an increase in bone mineral content (Marguiles et al., 1986) and an improved lipid profile (Rubinstein et al., 1995). Likewise, longer interventions than those used in most studies might yield more positive training-induced results.

The Facts About Youth Strength Training

Recent studies suggest that traditional views on strength training during preadolescence may need to be reconsidered. While additional research in the areas of loading parameters, long-terms effects and specific impact of resistance training on performance is needed, the following conclusions can be drawn:

• Strength gains are possible during preadolescence and are comparable to those made by adolescents and adults.
• Intensity appears to be the critical loading parameter determining strength gains during preadolescence.
  The optimal loading parameters (i.e., repetitions, sets and training sessions per week) remain to be determined.
• Strength gains during preadolescence can be attributed primarily to improvements in neuromuscular activation and motor coordination, not hypertrophy.
• Maintenance of strength gains during preadolescence cannot be achieved on the basis of one high-intensity training session per week.
• Short-term resistance training does not interfere with the normal development of cardio-respiratory fitness during preadolescence and may even provide a positive stimulus.
• A direct relationship between improved sport performance and strength gains made as a result of training during preadolescence remains to be demonstrated. Whether or not this is more a shortcoming of the limited literature currently available than proof of non-correlation between the two variable is unclear. However, motor fitness appears to be increased.
• Body composition of preadolescents (body fat and lean body mass) is unaltered by resistance training.
• The risk of musculoskeletal injury resulting from resistance training during preadolescence cannot be excluded but the risk is low in competently supervised training conditions where competition is prohibited.

Guidelines to consider

• Preadolescents should be declared fit by a physician before undertaking a resistance training program.
• Resistance training should be only one of a variety of normal recreational and sport activities.
• Children involved in a program must be mature enough to accept coaching.
• Resistance training using body weight should be encouraged.
• Using weights, machines or other devices requires supervision from a qualified adult.
• Thorough warm-up and cool-down periods should be included in any program.
• Loading should be based on each child's capacity and progress throughout the program.
• Generally, intensity should not exceed amounts reported in Table 1.
• Children must be capable of performing six to eight repetitions of an exercise.
• Proper technique must be demonstrated. Particular attention should be paid to proper body alignment.
• A child should cease an exercise when the quality of technical execution begins to break down.
• A variety of weights should be used (i.e., body weight, free weights, machines, springs).
• Competition should be discouraged. Emphasis should be placed on personal improvement.
• Eccentric, isolated training should be avoided. Emphasis should be placed on dynamic concentric contractions.
• Low- to moderate-resistance circuit training is a good means to introduce children to technique and to take advantage of possible cardio respiratory benefits.
• Balance should be achieved between upper- and lower-body development and between agonistic and antagonistic muscles when performing resistance training.
• Only weight training machines designed for children (or machines for which loads and levers can be easily adjusted for reduced strength capacity and size of child) should be used.