Des Moines Register
04-13-06
Exercise your nights
Fitness centers open 24 hours a day are popping up across the Des Moines
area.
By MARY CHALLENDER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
As a personal trainer, Angela Ward kept getting the same excuse over and over:
I don’t have TIME to work out.
She’s not hearing it as much anymore.
That’s because 24-hour fitness centers, long a staple in major cities and on the
coasts, are springing up at neighborhood strip malls all over the Des Moines
area.
Ward manages a brand-new Snap Fitness franchise in Clive, the first of 10
facilities the Twin Cities-based chain plans to open in Iowa.
Anytime Fitness, a St. Paul-based chain, is also making huge inroads in the
state. Five fitness centers are already open in Iowa — including clubs in Norwalk
and Johnston — and another nine are in the works.
“It’s very convenient to where I live, and it’s open 24 hours a day — there’s no
excuse not to show up,” said Cuong Le, 32, a Des Moines restaurant owner who
belongs to the Anytime Fitness in Johnston.
“Everybody’s schedule is so hectic, people want to work out and get home. It’s all
about convenience and time.”
In addition to owning Azteca, a restaurant on the downtown skywalk, and serving
as part-owner of a restaurant in Ankeny, Le is married with a toddler. Some days
he can fit in a 90-minute cardio and weightlifting routine at 3 p.m., he said; other
days it’s after 10 p.m.
Or even later.
“Sometimes I can’t sleep because of stress, so I’ll go in at 3 in the morning,” he
admitted. “It gets my stress off pretty easy.”
The concept of around-the-clock fitness dates back to 1983, when Mark Mastrov,
co-owner of a small fitness club in San Leandro, Calif., noticed members were
waiting when he opened the club early in the morning and didn’t want to leave
when he closed.
He decided to accommodate them by staying open all night, starting a chain of
24 Hour Fitness facilities that has since grown to more than 340 clubs and 3
million members — none in Iowa.
Many 24 Hour Fitness clubs are full-service fitness centers with numerous
amenities, including high-tech gyms and pools.
The 24-hour chains spreading into the Des Moines area are more bare-boned
“storefront” facilities, with treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, weight
machines and free weights.
Although they offer personal training, there are no fitness classes. During off
hours, the clubs aren’t even staffed. Members swipe key cards to get in.
Jim Spring, president of Leisure Trends Group in Boulder, Colo., said both the
explosion in the number of facilities in Des Moines and the fact that they are
open all night follow national trends.
“Fitness is one of the fastest growing leisure time activities in the United States
right now,” he said. “I think as a society we’ve begun to adapt to the fact that
everything is 24/7 these days.
“Maybe it has to do with technology, but we operate more impulsively, we don’t
plan our days out so much. People are beginning to manage their fitness
schedules the way they manage their business lives.
They’re very busy. The difference between night and day seems to be
disappearing.”
Although the 24-hour fitness centers in Clive and Johnston have only been open
a few months, they’ve already received an enthusiastic reception from those
whose work schedules have kept them from working out in the past.
Brandon Rutledge, a wellness specialist who had his own personal training
studio in Grinnell before opening Anytime Fitness in Johnston, said on any given
night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., visitors to his facility can find groups of
telecommunication call-center employees, nurses and postal workers.
Jason Young, 34, a store manager for American TV, said he stumbled upon the
Johnston fitness center after searching six months for a gym. Most nights he
doesn’t get off work until 9 or 9:30, he said, which forced him to choose between
a rushed workout at the gym or spending time with his 4-year-old daughter.
With Anytime Fitness, he can have both.
“Now I get to come home, hang out with Sophie a little bit, get her to bed, then
I’m off to the gym,” he said.
Young said he works out about four days a week, usually doing a half hour of
aerobic exercise and a half hour of weight training.
“I’ve slimmed down a little bit and I definitely have a lot more energy,” he said. “It
helps me sleep. I come home from a workout, take a shower, have a little winddown period and after that, I’m out like a light.”
Dean Anderson, a professor in the Department of Health and Human
Performance at Iowa State University, said he’s unfamiliar with the 24-hour
clubs coming into the Des Moines area. It concerns him, though, that there may
be times when members are working out alone with no staff members around.
Both clubs have taken measures, such as security monitors and emergency
phones and buttons, to make members feel safe while they are exercising. But
Anderson says sometimes the exercise equipment can pose a danger.
“If they’re not supervised and somebody gets hurt, does that pose a liability
issue?” he wondered. “Especially if there’s no screening beforehand as to
whether or not they should be using a particular piece of equipment.”
Anderson also has some doubts as to whether fitness center hours are really the
reason some people don’t exercise.
He knows that studies have repeatedly shown that the No. 1 reason people give
for not exercising is a lack of time.
He’s just not quite sure he buys it.
“Whether that’s their perception, or reality, becomes the issue,” he said.
“It’s an easy excuse. But if you look at their weekly schedule, there’s probably
time in there when they’re watching TV or doing other things where they could
substitute exercise. You set your priorities.”
It’s hard to conclude that Nicole Birkett, 28, of Clive, doesn’t consider exercise
important. She works out five days a week at Snap Fitness in Clive, going in as
early as 4:30 a.m. so she still has time to shower and make it to work at 6:30.
“One other gentleman is usually there, but sometimes I’m turning on the lights
when I get there in the morning,” she said.
A nurse at Iowa Heart Center, Birkett says she never exercised before the Clive
fitness center opened. Although she’s off work by 5 p.m. , she didn’t want to take
time away from her daughters, ages 4 and 2.
There’s just one downside.
“I don’t know if my husband likes the alarm clock going off at 4:15,” she admitted.