New York City runs on efficient logistics (or we wish it did!), so it only makes sense that parents are optimizing their workouts to include their kids. The CrossFit community in particular has embraced kid-friendly box gyms, designating areas of the gym as kids’ play areas, and offering strength training and programming for kids and youth. It’s worth investigating how much impact this concept will have on lifelong fitness habits and the health of those kids. If you grow up watching your parents work out while you play, are you more likely to adopt those habits? Common sense and scientific research say yes.

Cities like Austin, Denver, and Portland have also leaned into providing kid-friendly fitness spaces for adults, where kids have dedicated programs, age-scaled workouts, and supervised play areas running alongside adult classes. In New York City, kid-friendly gyms can be found across the boroughs, and apartment buildings are getting in on it too, providing play spaces within earshot of fitness facilities. Kid-friendly spaces leave parents with no room for excuses for not getting their workout in.