Daughter wants to go to gym w/me

[rekud300]

My daughter wants to start going to the gym. She is 14 and at 149lbs 5'4".
At 13 she weighed 170. I told her if she could get to 150 by dieting and running on our treadmill I would sign her up with me. Keeping my promise.

What direction should I move her in? At the gym she will have access to bikes, stairsteppers, treadmills, freeweights, pool, 1/8mile track, and actually have a kids machine area.

She will in no way ever be a 120lb person, but I think realistically she can hit 135lbs and tone up quite nicely and become an athletic looking women.

We have watched her diet in the last year and cut out a lot of calories and junk food. Started eating fruit for snacks and other healthy foods.

Would like to give her a little program to start on for 8 weeks getting to the gym 2-3 times per week.

Any thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

[rekud300]

Thanks big Kat for the input.

I had already signed her up to start June 1St. She will be out of school just after that.

I think I will show her what each machine does like you said.

Yet at this point I think I might sign her up with a female personal trainer for the first a few sessions to get her comfortable and on a regimen that they can come up with for her. I know they know a hell of a lot more than me.

They can probably do some beginning tests of what she is capable of and where to go from there.

Chris

[Damien]

Yeah I was going to add the personal trainer thing too. I reckon you should get the trainer to go through the gym induction with her, that's what they do at my gym anyways. There's plenty she can do. I'm sure there's plenty of classes (the girls love em) that she might enjoy too.

What machines are in the kids machine area?

[Saurus]

You said "She will in no way ever be a 120lb person." It's okay to have your own opinion of that, but do her and yourself a favor, and never let her hear you say that. That's setting limits, and with hard work, there are no limits bud

BK, this is probably the truest and most profound piece of advice ever posted on this forum.

rep +

[rekud300]

Damien, about six months ago they put in some Nautilus equipment. Must be abut 7-8 machines lined up in a row along the one wall, probably to do a circuit like training, start at one end finish at the other. The machines are all little smaller than the adult machines. Especially the seat adjustments. Also, they have numbered plates, but I was told that the plates are not as heavy as the adult machine plates.

Last night I inquired a little more about their usage. The age group for the machine are 14 to 17 and 50+. The exception is they may use them as a rehab for an adult for certain body parts.

The gym also runs a kids boot camp this summer from two of the trainers that includes different types of cardio, weights, stretches. I might try her in this class 8weeks twice a week. They hit all areas of the gym, the only free weights they use are the lighter dumbbells for some of the high rep excercises.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Chris

[Tripper]

Good post BigKat.
+Rep

[Doug]

Originally Posted by rekud300

My daughter wants to start going to the gym. She is 14 and at 149lbs 5'4".
At 13 she weighed 170. I told her if she could get to 150 by dieting and running on our treadmill I would sign her up with me. Keeping my promise.

What direction should I move her in? At the gym she will have access to bikes, stairsteppers, treadmills, freeweights, pool, 1/8mile track, and actually have a kids machine area.

She will in no way ever be a 120lb person, but I think realistically she can hit 135lbs and tone up quite nicely and become an athletic looking women.

We have watched her diet in the last year and cut out a lot of calories and junk food. Started eating fruit for snacks and other healthy foods.

Would like to give her a little program to start on for 8 weeks getting to the gym 2-3 times per week.

Any thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

Chris I agree with what the others have said....

Also you should "never" reward a young female with something that will make her to lose weight. Due to the possibility of emabrking on a eating disorder, A teenage female should achieve weight loss because "they" want to achive it.

Saying that I commend her commitment to achieve her goal.

Use the trainer in the gym to give her a program using the large muscle groups of the body, normally start out in a circuit training type routine, three times per week, very light, and with the reps in the 15 rep range...and include some cardio....