The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

EQUIPPED with a specifically tailored fitness programme, the new Slender You Kids Fitness Centre Summer Weight Loss Camp For Teens allows children to improve their coordination, cardiovascular health, strength, endurance and reduce their body fat percentage through participation.

For three days a week, the ongoing five-week programme, which is hosted at the Slender You Fitness Centre in Centreville, is offering motivational and challenging activities to get youngsters moving and show them how to enjoy being active.

The programme’s activities include weight management, cardio, circuit training and aerobics.

Mary McCartney, nutrition, exercise and wellness consultant at the Slender You Fitness Centre, said while the centre is designed for women only, they decided to expand and focus on children as well.

“What I discovered was with dealing with women was that there are a lot of overweight kids in Nassau, and so what I decided to do this summer is try to see how I can incorporate a summer camp for the first time ever here at Slender You. Now we are actually seeing women and children at the centre. As long as the child is ten or more pounds overweight, we will take them,” said Ms McCartney.

She said the camp does not only focus on exercise, as they are also teaching students proper eating habits as well as an opportunity to talk about what is going on in their lives and the community at large.

“When the kids come in we have a nutritional consultation where we sit down and talk about food and nutrition. We talk about how did they get to this point and how can we prevent it in the future. Then we go on to our exercise programmes. The kids are here from 9am to 2pm, with intervals included. We have them doing different types of exercise. They exercise using the Slender You equipment. We have six motorised kinesthetic tables that we place the kids on and each table works with different parts of the body,” said Ms McCartney.

She said the first exercise table is called the sand bag table; this works on the hips, tummy and inner thighs. The second table is the stretch table which works on the upper arms. Ms McCartney said this helps to pull up and tighten the chest muscles, and it works on the tummy as well.

The third table is a mixture of exercises involving the waist, hip and tummy. She said each table is occupied by a student for a duration of 10 minutes.
“We have the leg machine where you are laying on your back as if you are riding a bicycle. This is actually doing 400 leg movements in 10 minutes. Then we have the sit up machine, which is self explanatory. After we would have done that, they have their water and snacks. We talk about the feeling and we go into another routine where we go into the regular gym equipment,” said Ms McCartney.

She said they are trying to get the kids to have their six small meals a day which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. By doing this, Ms McCartney said, they are helping with speeding up a child’s metabolism.

“We ask them questions like do you want to be here, why do you feel like you need to be here and then we elaborate on it. It is one thing for parents to drop them here, but if they do not want to be here we won’t be able to get them to do what needs to be done. This is our third week and we have persons who have already lost like 13 to 18 pounds. We weigh and measure them the day they start and then every week after,” said Ms McCartney.

She said this programme does not end with the summer season, as they are teaching the kids eating and exercise habits that will last a lifetime.

“We are not just putting them aside once summer is over, we plan to have them come back so that we can continue to teach them healthy eating habits. What they are learning here basically are lifestyle choices so they can take on for the rest of their lives,” said Ms McCartney.

For more information, contact 698-2034 or e-mail nutritionforlife4@gmail.com.