Health club kids

Here's an interesting AP article about a new movement towards enrolling kids in adult-style health clubs to keep them in shape and help stave off obesity.

Initial reactions:

I barely have the attention span to work out on a treadmill at age 29; at 10 it would have been impossible. Kids on the stairmaster? The whole point of gyms is that being an adult is kind of sucky. You work in an office all day and there's no recess. Unlike kids, who theoretically get plenty of exercise going about their daily play, adults often have to make extra time and sometimes do very boring things to stay fit.

I also agree with a couple of experts quoted in this article about the importance of play, not just exercise, to kids' health and development.

Children should be outside interacting with other children, not playing video games in a musty basement, said Tony Sparber, who runs New Image Weight Loss Camps....And considering children's short attention spans, they may not find any of these expensive toys fun enough, said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. He recommends simple games like Duck Duck Goose and Capture the Flag. "In the '50s and '60s, kids were playing and they were playing outside," he said. "We didn't have all these concerns about overweight, out-of-shape kids."

Hey, whatever works--but this whole notion strikes me as yet another example of the overall decline of American society. I mean, what happened to just making your kid go out for the basketball team, or something?