Business Q&A: Fit 4 Fun USA

With childhood obesity at a national all-time high, instilling a healthy attitude about exercise and nutrition in kids from an early age is more important than ever.

That’s where Fit 4 Fun USA comes in. A children’s exercise studio that recently opened in April 2011 at 1430 Jerusalem Avenue, Fit 4 Fun USA was started by two moms that saw what inactivity was doing to their own children and decided to do something about it.

Fit 4 Fun USA co-owner Michelle Condello recently spoke to Patch about how to get kids up off the couch while building their confidence and constitution as the same time.

Tell us about what you do at Fit 4 Fun USA.

Fit 4 Fun USA was started by two moms from Merrick – myself and my friend Kathleen, who’s in the medical field. We came together and decided that, knowing how obesity has taken over so many of our children – the two of us both had children that were overweight, and not eating healthy – we developed this business.

We wanted to bring this problem to the attention of parents. Studies have shown that exercise improves a child’s fitness by increasing muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance and those improvements actually enhance academic performance. So that’s why physical fitness is so important overall for kids.

Do you have a background in physical fitness or was this something you had to research first before getting into?

There was a lot of research and I went and became a certified American Fitness Association of America (AFAA) trainer. I also reached out to Michelle Obama and got some information from her.

We have a nutritionist who comes in and touches base with the children on eating healthy. We feel that if you change the way that a child feels, especially growing up and going to school and interacting with their peers and if we give them that exercise and make them feel better about themselves, it really makes a difference.

What age range to you deal with and what exercise programs do you put them through?

We serve ages six through 14. We start with a variety of different cardiovascular exercises. We try to focus on having fun, nothing that they don’t enjoy doing. We do a lot of back-to-basic exercises, such as jumping rope, hula-hooping, kickboxing and Zumba.

We also work on balance techniques, agility and core training, plus upper and lower strength, like push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts. For resistance we use stretchy bands, because they’re too young for weights.

And you’re trying to expand the scope of your classes in order to touch more kids out there?

Yes! I’m doing a three-week program at the Merrick Library starting May 5 to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood. I’m also doing a program at the Wantagh Library for six weeks in October. I’ve reached out to other libraries and hopefully I’ll be extending my program at the Merrick Library, so I should be able to get out my message to children of how important exercise is.

What do you like the best about owning and operating a business in the Merrick area?

I just love helping my community and helping our children become healthier and happier.