Fitness advocate changes attitudes about exercise, one child at a time

Mike Heppert encourages kids to keep their muscles busy.

Combating childhood obesity drives Mike Heppert (B.S. '75/E; M.Ed. '80/E).

With 32 percent of U.S. children overweight or obese, "and more on the way," says the energetic former physical-education teacher, finding an answer to this national epidemic constantly motivates him.

"There's plenty out there for me to do," he says.

As the president of Life for Kids, founded in 1990, Heppert owns two school buses specially outfitted with a rotating setup of gymnastics equipment. Five days a week, Heppert, wife Judy and three other teachers drive to 31 child-care facilities in the Richmond, Va., area to guide 750 kids, ages 2-6, through a variety of activities related to tumbling, vaulting, the balance beam, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse and other uniquely designed equipment.

Life for Kids, an acronym for Lifetime Instilled Fitness Education, strives to develop effective long-term fitness attitudes, habits, skills, self-confidence and self-esteem in children, as well as a love for physical activity.

"Life for Kids recognizes that we have an increasing sedentary lifestyle and junk-food availability," Heppert says.

His motto: Exercise is fun!

At the same time, he realizes that getting people to exercise has its challenges. So, Heppert's philosophy tries to change attitudes toward physical activity to make it enjoyable and lead to a lifetime of healthy habits.

"With the Life for Kids concept, you don't have to exercise," he says. "You have to get out and get your muscles busy and have fun at it."

The Glen Allen, Va.-based company also devotes a portion of each lesson to proper nutrition, personal health and child safety. Yet even with the success of the "gym bus," as children call the colorful red vehicle, Heppert felt he could do more to help kids become healthy.

In 2002, Heppert conceived the Physical Activity Rewards System, an innovative teaching tool that helps parents motivate children to develop healthy, active lifestyles. He actually came up with the idea in 1992, but "the technology wasn't there yet," Heppert says.

He obtained a patent for the product in 2005 and the next year, received assistance from the Virginia Biosciences Development Center in the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, "which has been very helpful," Heppert says. The product is set to launch in August 2008.

Using a heart-rate monitor, a child performs some sort of physical activity. The monitor collects the amount of time spent in the child's target heart rate zone. By holding the device to a computer microphone, the information is sonically downloaded into customized PARS software. The time spent exercising is converted into PARS points — one point for every minute of physical activity — which acts as an incentive.

When children reach a certain number of points, they can decide, with their parents, on a reward, such as a movie pass or a trip to an amusement park, Heppert says. If the child does not respond positively to the reward system, PARS also can control the flow of electricity to a TV or video-game console, so a child could opt to allocate his PARS points for viewing or playing time.

The ultimate goal, Heppert says, is that there will be no need for PARS.

"We hope," he says, "that the family will remove the PARS system and the physical activity continues as part of their lifestyle."

Encouraged by VCU instructor

Heppert credits his Virginia Commonwealth University experience for steering him toward teaching and entrepreneurship. He remembers one class in which he and fellow students taught different gymnastics skills to elementary-school children. Heppert worked with kids on the pommel horse.

"I remember as soon as the teaching session started, it just went on auto control and I had a ball," he says.

Afterward, Heppert remembers the professor singling out his technique as an example of excellent teaching.

"It really boosted my confidence," he says, "and helped guide me into teaching, which has been something I've enjoyed ever since."

As Heppert continues to educate kids and parents about fitness and its benefits, he knows that reducing obesity rates among children will not be easy.

"It's not something you turn around overnight," he says.

So he'll happily continue to drive the bus while driving home his message that physical activity is an important part of healthy living.

"It really feels good to wake up every morning and try to do something good," he says.