However, the more alarming fact is that this is typical.

America is experiencing an expanding health crisis: The nation’s population is more than 60 percent overweight and nearly half of those are obese. Tragically, this epidemic is most obvious among children and teenagers, whose obesity levels have increased two- to threefold in the past 20 years, according to the American Obesity Association in Washington, D.C.

Arkansas, which has completed the most comprehensive obesity survey in the nation, found that nearly 50 percent of the students are overweight or at risk, based on data collected in the school district of Arkadelphia. Obesity-related problems, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers, soon may become the leading causes of premature death in our country, exceeding smoking, according to a recent report from the U.S. surgeon general.

The rising health-care costs associated with this crisis — $78.5 billion in 1998 — will dwarf any epidemic to date and already have contributed to hastening the insolvency of Medicare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The search for causes and remedies of obesity is widespread. But the bottom line is that obesity results from an imbalance between excess caloric intake and insufficient activity.

To help overcome this health crisis, Americans, especially children, need to find activities they will do on a regular basis — in fact, that they love to do.

That’s where waterpark resorts come in.

Right now, the typical health spas and clubs are designed primarily for adults. Activities for children between the ages of 7 and 15 tend to be very limited, yet that’s the critical age range for the establishment of lifelong healthy habits. Those are also the ages when kids will spend hours in front of video games, eating high-caloric snacks, unwittingly developing
unhealthy sedentary habits.

In general, children in this age range exhibit rapid development of mental and motor skills, crave new challenges and competitive activities, and will readily engage in rigorous physical exercise that’s diverse and fun. Ironically, adult-organized sports for kids typically provide only a few hours per week of practice and games, with tight schedules to be on and off the fields. In addition, the highly competitive nature of organized sports is geared toward children with exceptional talent, so many do not participate.

In contrast, most youngsters love the diverse free-play activities associated with waterparks and willingly burn calories for hours when given the opportunity. In fact, the affinity that people of all ages have for vigorous aquatic activity is easily observed with a visit to the indoor waterpark resorts in Niagara Falls; Ontario, Canada; or in Wisconsin Dells in central Wisconsin — people are moving and laughing continuously!

What if waterpark resorts could be modified to combine their inherent entertainment aspects with fitness activities and nutritional education?

It might not be as difficult as it sounds.

Many components found in waterparks already provide sufficient challenge and excitement to encourage nonstop physical activity, such as swimming with and against currents, climbing through mazes or up walls, manually pumping water spouts, and negotiating rope courses. In fact, the best way to get kids to climb numerous flights of stairs, one of the best overall cardiovascular workouts, is to put a slide at the top — kids of all ages will climb these stairs over and over again.

Because people like to compete against themselves, keep their own statistics and take every opportunity to beat their last best score, these components could easily be part of a series of repeatable, score-keeping, fun exercise circuits designed to provide whole-body, rigorous exercise bouts for most ages, physical conditions, abilities and confidence levels.

Some manufacturers already use devices such as illuminated hand/footholds on climbing walls to define user-selected, computer-controlled routes that have different physical demands. These devices could easily be incorporated into other components for extended circuits. Combining the technology of smart chips in wristbands to track completed circuits with heart-rate monitors to continuously record caloric output would provide a wealth of personal as well as population data.

To accurately assess physical achievements and evaluate goals, an on-site clinic/exercise physiology laboratory could be operated in collaboration with programs at universities and children’s hospitals. These collaborations could help garner clinical and research funding from numerous sources, including federal and private institutions, health insurance companies, and athletic equipment and food industries.

Prescreening evaluations performed by medical professionals at the clinic could establish baseline conditions for evaluating program effectiveness, using measurements such as body mass index, blood glucose levels, body-fat levels and other physiological parameters that provide motivational feedback.

Databases could maintain historical activity levels and accomplishments, as well as records of developing health conditions. Performance statistics could be reported to participants at the end of each visit to document accomplishments and provide motivation for future visits. Educational guidance could be provided regarding dietary choices in terms of caloric and nutritional content. In addition, by instructing participants in how to tally their caloric intake with online nutritional databases and to compare these data to their measured caloric output, the relationship between caloric intake and output could become obvious and straightforward.

These activities would be presented in an environment designed to bring the entire family together to exercise, play and learn nutritional habits over the course of a weekend.

By adding dry workout components such as cycles, treadmills, elliptical trainers and weight machines, adults and kids could routinely get whatever workout they chose — all in a single location.

It’s quite easy to burn up calories for 20 to 30 minutes on a trainer while watching your kids enjoying water slides and climbing walls, or doing other forms of nonstop activity.

There’s a huge need to combine fun physical activity with the educational messages of how to manage weight and stay healthy over a lifetime.

Waterpark resorts should be considered vehicles to establish those healthy lifestyle habits at an early age.

About the authors
David W. Kraus and Jeannette E. Doeller are part
of the biology department faculty at the
University of Birmingham, Ala.
They have co-authored numerous publications,
and promote healthy lifestyles in local school
and community programs.