It makes sense that anyone who would major in physical education might just have a thing for fitness. For Travis Underwood, that interest has expanded beyond coaching into a business that approaches youth fitness in a whole new way.
After five years of teaching in local middle and high schools, Underwood and his wife, Michelle, opened Fitwize 4 Kids in the southwest valley. The emphasis is on strength, not bodybuilding. The gym offers a 45-minute circuit training system with equipment designed for children ages 6 to 15 — the same age group at which obesity can often become a factor. Exercise is key to prevention, but today's kids don't always have many opportunities to flex their muscles and build their lungs.
"There was nothing like this for teens and 'tweens," he says. "They can't work out with mom and dad at the big athletic clubs." And Las Vegas' heat sends them indoors.
Matters of the Heart
Underwood's own medical history influenced
his career in youth fitness. He
underwent open-heart surgeries at age 8
to repair a co-arctation that limited the
blood flow to his legs. Because of the coarctation,
he developed a mitral valve prolapse,
which prevented one of the valves
in his heart from opening and closing
correctly. The malfunctioning valve had to
be replaced with a mechanical one.
"After the first surgery, there was an understanding that I would eventually need another, but not for a long time," he says.
That eventuality became a reality almost three years ago when Underwood went in for a regular checkup with his cardiologist and was told he had "big issues."
Underwood's wife was then six months pregnant with the couple's daughter, Sage (he also has a 10-yearold son, Bailey, who lives with his mother in Washington). His doctor recommended postponing the procedure until after the baby was born.
"I said 'No, let's just do it now,'" he says. "Later, it turned out to be fortunate that I did. After getting in there and doing the surgery, the doctor said I would have been in big trouble three months down the road."
The second open-heart surgery at Stanford Medical Center left Underwood feeling grateful for his relative good health. "I was in the critical care unit in a room with three or four other people, and they'd all had heart transplants," he says. "It was tough, being there and knowing that someone lying three or four feet away may be dying. But I was thinking, 'My heart is beating, I can leave.'"
— Maria Phelan
