Macon Bodybuilder Offers Free Fitness Camp for Overweight Kids
A fundraiser was held on January 3rd for the fitness camp Toole hopes to start in the summer of 2009.
Bodybuilder Mary Toole hopes to raise enough money to make the camp, and the training and attention from nutritionists that would come with it, free to 40 obese kids.
December 30, 2008
Mary Toole was a drum majorette in college who used to light both ends of her baton on fire for the halftime shows during Kansas State football games.
Now, the 29-year-old is this year’s female Georgia Heavyweight NPC (National Physique Committee) Bodybuilding Champion as well as the state’s USPF (United States Powerlifting Federation) female powerlifting champ.
The personal trainer and owner of the Body Evolution gym on Macon’s Riverside Drive can lift 457 pounds.
She has a new goal, but it has nothing to do with her own accomplishments. She wants to help overweight children get fit.
These days, it’s a challenge for many children to stay trim and sustain healthy lifestyles. Many schools are cutting back on recess and physical education classes, and time and cost constraints can make it difficult for families to eat healthy foods at home.
“I think kids that are obese are because of inactivity,” Toole said. “A lot of kids now have high blood pressure and high blood-sugar levels, and I want to decrease that.
“I want to see how many kids stay active and maintain healthy eating” after the fitness camp, she said.
As part of her dissertation to earn a doctorate in public health education, Toole will offer a free 10-week fitness camp starting in May for 40 children who are overweight and ages 8 to 12.
Toole is scheduled to have a fundraiser Saturday to help defray some of the costs for a nutritionist and pediatrician.
The camp will work like this:
Twenty children will be in a control group and get fitness classes and some nutrition education, while 20 children will be in a treatment group, getting fitness classes, nutrition coaching and keep a food journal.
All children will be monitored by a pediatrician.
There will be three classes a week, or 30 classes total, and parents must attend with their child. The application deadline is April 1.
“They’ll have to weigh in weekly,” Toole said.
Toole, who has lived in Macon for five years, has helped clients get in shape and lose substantial weight before.
One of her clients, Jill Cole, 44, said she’s lost 42 pounds since February just by working with Toole.
“She’s a very motivating person and great teacher, and (the kids) will feel like she’s there for them,” Cole said. “I give her credit for getting my health back on track.”
In her gym, by the Good to Go restaurant on Riverside Drive, is an 8,000-square-foot basement where students will be able to climb on monkey bars, exercise with hula hoops and do weight training, among other fun activities.
“It will kind of be like bringing back P.E.,” Toole said.
Source: Macon (GA) Sun News
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