London — If you’ve been struggling to stay active, there’s a trend that one gym chain is hoping will make working out feel a lot more like playtime.
“Welcome to kidulting! Come in, come in!” trainer Rachel Dennis said recently as she greeted people bounding through the door at the David Lloyd gym in Enfield, North London.
“We’re gonna play ‘stuck in the mud,'” she announced. Screams and laughter quickly filled the room as tagged players froze like statues until others crawled through their legs to “free” them to run around again.
The kidulting fitness class is all about channeling your inner child, and the atmosphere is fun, even silly.
“How’s that heart rate? We feelin’ a little warmer?” Dennis asked as the pace picked up.
At David Lloyd Clubs in the U.K., members can relive their younger years with the classes built around playground and PE class games — an effort to take the “work” out of the workouts.
Pran Varatharajan cheered as he held up another classmate’s legs, pushing her in a wheelbarrow race.
The pace is fast, and the kidulters quickly moved onto the next game.
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“Who remembers the parachute?” Dennis asked, holding up the massive piece of colorful fabric. “If you’re yellow, you’re gonna be … shall we be a banana?” she said, assigning teams.
The classes bring back a range of childhood favorites — games most people haven’t played since elementary school.
After racing back and forth across the fabric, it was time for a quick round of “popcorn,” with the grownups huffing and puffing to keep colorful balls bouncing around on the parachute.
During a quick break, class member Sophie Doe told CBS News her heart was pounding. She particularly enjoyed the parachute, and said she hadn’t played some of the games since she was seven or eight.
“It’s the joy of being a kid, as an adult,” Kielan Edwards, a personal trainer at David Lloyd Enfield, explained of the kidulting trend, as he let CBS News’ correspondent try out the “Joyride,” an exercise bike transformed to look like an iconic Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.
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“A lot of people find it very laborious getting used to the exercise before they turn it into a habit. But that’s because they’re forgetting the fun element of it,” he said. “We’re trying to replicate those memories that you might have had while you were younger here, in a more, sort of, gym-based environment.”
“What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?” Dennis called out to her class.
“Dinner time!” they yelled back, sprinting across the floor.
“I think it just kind of gives you a chance to reminisce, it also gives you a chance to revisit that period of your life that you thought was gone and you’re not gonna get back,” said Varatharajan.
Trainers say kidulting works because being a kid never gets old, and scientists seem to agree, with research showing that when exercise is fun, people are far more likely to make a habit out of it.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health says adults who engage in playful, childlike activities report better cognitive function and memory as they age.
