How to Promote Your Gym for Children

Last Updated on 26 September, 2025

With our busy lives and cuts to school exercise programs, getting kids active is becoming more challenging. Enter the rising popularity of child-friendly gyms!

Are you looking for ways to promote your kids’ gym? According to kidshealth.org, school-age children and teens should get a minimum of 60 minutes of exercise per day. Now’s the perfect time to get ahead of the curve and establish yourself as the go-to gym for children and youth.

So how do you get more kids into your gym? We’ve put together a list of ways that’ll help grow your gym for children:

1. Tailor your classes to kids

This might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds! Choose classes that involve group activities, games, and music to maximize on fun. Focusing on family will make you popular with kids and parents alike!

Offer your classes at the best times for parents’ and children’s schedules. Pre-school and kindergartens let out earlier than other grades, so ask your clients what might work best for them. A class from 3-4 pm might be the perfect after-school activity that gets them home in time for dinner.

Keep your age groups within a few years: you don’t want kids getting bored or finding a class too challenging. Segment your age ranks with fun names that motivate kids to keep coming back year after year.

Try to offer a variety of classes. Kids are all different, so your gym will really take off if you offer something for everyone. Ask your current teaching staff if they have any additional training areas that you could offer classes in.

2. Design a gym that kids will love

You need to make your space look inviting for children, so keep them in mind when you’re designing your space. If you’ve never designed for kids before, here are some quick tips:

• Bright, engaging color palette: Use cheerful theme and bold colors — think primary hues or pastel accents — to spark excitement and energy.
• Clearly zoned areas: Define spaces for tumbling, climbing, strength play, and quiet rest zones so kids intuitively know where to go.
• Visual cues and wayfinding: Use fun signage, floor patterns, arrows, or footprints to guide movement between zones — kids love following a trail.
• Kid-sized equipment & scale: Choose scaled-down apparatus, soft play elements, and accessible heights so children feel confident and safe.
• Soft surfaces and padding: Incorporate cushioned flooring, wall pads, and crash mats in key zones to help reduce injury risk and build confidence.
• Safety-first finishes and materials: Use rounded edges, non-slip surfaces, and durable, wipeable materials to maintain both safety and cleanliness.

Once the children see that there’s a kid-friendly area, they’ll be eager to get the fun started!

Don’t just cater to kids? No problem! You can dedicate part of the gym for them, while keeping the rest of it an inviting space for adults to exercise — with or without children.

• Separate zones for kids and adults: Use gates, short walls, or child-safe fencing to keep kids away from adult exercise machinery. It’s also helpful to use different color schemes to help visually separate the kid area vs. adult areas.
• Natural light and visibility: Maximize windows or skylights so spaces feel open. Keep lines of sight clear so staff and parents can supervise easily.
• Multi-use walls and murals: Add wall games, chalkboard panels, or themed murals that double as play and branding elements.
• Flexible, modular elements: Use movable walls, stackable blocks, and modular gear so you can reconfigure the space to match class formats and changing needs.
• Storage integrated design: Build hidden cubbies, benches with bins, and clipped storage so gear is easy to reach and the floor stays clutter-free.

3. Design for parents as well as kids

Unless you’re licensed for full childcare services, parents will need to attend your gym as well as their kids. So don’t leave them out of your vision for the space. Provide amenities that they’ll care about as well, such as:

• Accessible bathrooms with changing stations: Parents appreciate clean, spacious restrooms equipped with changing tables, wet wipes, step stools, and diaper-disposal bins—making visits stress-free for families with younger kids.
• Coffee and snack corner: A small café area or self-serve station with coffee, tea, and healthy snacks helps parents relax while they wait, and encourages them to spend more time there. This can also be a small additional revenue stream for your studio.
• Device charging stations: Simple charging docks or outlets with USB ports let parents keep their phones, tablets, or laptops powered — perfect for those who need to work while their kids are in class.
• Adult workout options: Including a few pieces of adult fitness equipment or offering parent-friendly classes creates a win-win — kids stay active while parents invest in their own wellness.
• Comfortable waiting and viewing areas: Provide cozy seating with good visibility into the gym. A comfortable environment makes parents feel welcome and more likely to return regularly.

4. Host family events

What better way to get families interested in a gym for children than showing them how much fun a class can be? Hosting a fun class for families to try together is a great way to promote your classes, grow your business, and reach new potential clients.

If you want to start on a smaller scale, consider a ‘bring a friend’ promo, where each family can ask a friend to join the class for a day. It’s a great way to encourage social skills in kids and expand your network of future clients.

By hosting these types of events, you’ll get kids into your facility to see what you have to offer, meet your staff, and mingle with other new students. Once you get them in the doors, it’s up to you do what you do best: provide excellent service and super fun classes!

5. Offer rewards

Building your business starts with customer loyalty! To develop loyalty, increase revenue, and build your brand — a rewards program is the way to go.

You might adopt a points system where clients work their way up to rewards, or maybe a tiered membership system would work best for them. There are several approaches you can take, so you may want to survey your clients to see what’s most valuable for them.

Here are a few other ways you can use a rewards program to increase awareness and up the traffic in your gym for children:

Adding family

Rewarding your adult clients for bringing in their family is a great way to leverage your existing customers. Why spend the bulk of your time and money on attracting new clients if you could fill your classes with the families of your current clients? They just might need a little incentive to get them there.

Consider offering a discount for an adult membership or classes with the purchase of a children’s program. You could also go about it in the reverse: offer a reduced rate for kids’ programs to existing members. Another option might be to offer a discounted membership rate for families.

Without lowering the value of your offerings, a small promotion might be just the thing to get your existing clients excited to bring a family member to a class!

Word of mouth

From mommy groups to co-workers, if you make your gym for children engaging and fun, families are sure to tell their friends! Not only is an endorsement from an existing client your most precious reference, but you’re also reaching a brand new audience without even trying.

Want to make it even more appealing to spread the love? Offer a referral program in the form of perks, incentives, or free merch for a positive review or a referral. People love to tell their friends about a great new find, so this is a no-brainer.

Added bonus? Giving away free, branded merchandise is a definite winner: having your clients wear your merch around town is building your brand without you even lifting a finger!

6. Become the expert

You want to develop trust and loyalty from your families, and establishing yourself as an expert will solidify your place in the market.

So, how do you build up your street cred? You earn it!

Post educational material on your website and social media channels, offer advice in your classes, keep info at your reception — think of ways you can show your clients that you are a trusted specialist in gyms for children.

Family health is such a diverse area that you could educate your students for years to come. Some topics you might consider covering include:

• How exercise increases self-esteem
• Health standards for children
• Youth activity and the benefits
• The advantages of family bonding at the gym
• And so much more!

Focus on educating your families with interesting and informative material, and they will come to trust you as the expert in your field.

7. Use social media

While traditional marketing is still around, social media is where you get the most bang for your buck! Want to reach a large audience with little or no investment? Develop relationships with other experts in your field? Engage and grow a community of like-minded families? It’s time to get social!

Here are a few tips to help you get started on a winning path to promoting your gym for children on social media:

• Vary your content: Keep your audience’s attention by mixing up length, style, and subject matter. Share videos, photos, infographics, collages, and other creative content across all channels.
• Build relationships: Follow and engage with families, industry professionals, and local businesses. Commenting and sharing their posts sparks conversation and encourages reciprocation, boosting your brand visibility.
• Stay flexible: Pay attention to what’s working. If a certain post type drives engagement, do more of it! Use built-in analytics to guide and adjust your content strategy.
• Take it in stride: Social media is always evolving. Treat it as a learning process, experiment with new ideas, and remember that consistency matters more than perfection.

Don’t sweat it if you’re not an expert, just give it a try and learn along the way — you’ll be a pro in no time.

8. Make it easy

Families are so busy that the easier and more convenient you make the experience, the faster your kids’ gym will take off! How can you make the experience simple and accessible to everyone? Automation is the key!

More than almost everything else, time has become something families value most. If you can offer excellent service combined with easy access and convenient processes, your gym will become a fan favorite in no time!

To offer a simplified experience, look into software that can help you set up online and Google booking, staff and client apps, a rewards program, and automated marketing. WellnessLiving offers all these features, and more!

Why Choose WellnessLiving

At WellnessLiving, promotion is our middle name! We can increase your web presence, manage your loyalty rewards program, get your positive reviews noticed, and automate your business.

Our tools, trusted by wellness experts worldwide, will have your gym for children reaching a whole new level! Book a free, no-commitment demo with WellnessLiving today and find out how we can help you grow your business.