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# Fitness center at Samohi urges kids to be healthy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/fitness-center-at-samohi-urges-kids-to-be-healthy/
- Published: 2002-06-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:21:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By FABIANO SANTOS Special to the Daily Press*

Santa Monica High School has a new facility to make its physical education classes more healthy and less boring.

A new fitness center opened in February and it’s exclusively dedicated to girls.

The facility, called “Fit for Life,” is funded by the William Simon Foundation. Samohi is the seventh public school in Los Angeles to get such a fitness facility. Simon is the Republican gubernatorial candidate running against incumbant California Governor Gray Davis.

Samohi’s physical education teacher Carrie Rodinoff, who teaches 9th grade classes in the fitness center, said the idea came from Simon’s wife, Cynthia.

“She wishes to share her passion (for working out) with the students of Los Angeles,” Rodinoff said.

The fitness center has the same equipment of an average weight room, which mostly emphasizes equipment to address hips, legs and aerobics, a girl’s “main concern,” Rodinoff said.

The room also is equipped with a computer that monitors their exercise activities.

“The kids log on a Web site to see what their results, needs and goals are, based on a previous chart that relates what they eat with their workout sequence,” Rodinoff said. “Our goal is teaching the principles of good training and educating them to see what is physiologically good for themselves.”

Moreover, the facility may make the girls feel more confident about being in a better shape, which will promote their self-esteem, Rodinoff said.

> “It’s really fun. We were bored of always walking around the track, and now with the treadmills you can even control your pace.” — — HEWETT YOHANNI Samohi student

The fitness center seems to be a success so far.

“It’s really fun,” said 10th grade student Hewett Yohanni, 15\. “We were bored of always walking around the track, and now with the treadmills you can even control your pace.”

Yohanni’s classmate Stephanie Navarro, 15, agrees the facility is a great addition to the Samohi campus.

“It’s good when you leave the steps aerobics class and go straight to the fitness center to work out,” she said.

Samohi is working in conjunction with Santa Monica College so that students can get credits from the fitness classes and transfer them to the college.

The fitness center is currently used at restricted times and it’s not used as a gym.

Once working out becomes more popular with the students, Samohi’s physical education department plans to create memberships so students will continue to use the facility next fall. There also is a plan to expand the center area to a room adjacent the room where the center is currently located.

“We don’t know when (it will be expanded),” Rodinoff said. “We’re happy we had a good start though.”

Samohi still faces a hard reality — kid’s awful eating habits. The lack of regular consumption of fruit and vegetables by the students may restrict their development. Although teachers try to urge kids to quit eating junk food, they know it’s a difficult to battle against the American “fast-food culture.”

“What can we do when kids go back home and can’t find healthy food in the refrigerator?” asks Rodinoff. Considering what kids are having at lunch inside Sahomi such as hamburgers and sodas, the school may be the first place to start, she said.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/062402-03_01.jpg)

to the Daily Press The “Fit for Life” facility at Santa Monica High School is designed to balance muscle building with aerobic activities. (Photo: Seth Kotok/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 24, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)