There are Anytime Fitness Health Clubs all over the country. I had never heard of them until they came to Massachusetts. As I was traveling this summer I saw many Anytime Fitness Clubs. I decided to give it a try after getting a free pass for three day. The location I used is at 138 Industrial Park Road, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Facilities are going to vary. In fact the manager who took me on a tour the first day said that this location was more state-of-the-art than others. I’ll get to that later.
Anytime Fitness is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. However they are staffed from 8:00a.m. to 9:00p.m. from Monday through Friday and 9:00a.m. to 1:00a.m. on Saturdays.
The way the gym works is that you’ll get a card with a security pin number which will enable entry into the building when there is no staff. There are security cameras everywhere. When I commented on not thinking the area was a high crime area the manager said that it was necessary for insurance reasons. When I thought about it later I realized that this is a desolate area during non-business hours and I wouldn’t want to work out here at 2:00a.m. no matter how many cameras there are or how fast the police can get there.
1. The weight training equipment: I always worked out around 9:00a.m. The first day I came to tour I went early afternoon knowing that was the quietest times for gyms. There was only one other person there and the owner who was training him.
There wasn’t a huge amount of equipment. This was not a large gym nor was it handicapped accessible since there were stairs going from the main floor to the gym floor.
The weight training equipment was in pristine condition and 100% of the items were made by Nautilus. There was an area of machine in which I did circuit training and an area of free weights, benches and barbells. There were two sets of dumbbells going up to 90 pounds.
What I found very nice and something I had never seen was their setting system. As a new member (potential) I was taken around the machines and my settings were put into the computer. So for example on the pec dec machine (for your chest) the seat was on number 3 and the arms were on number 6. This was done for each machine. When I came into the gym I went over to this computer and scanned my card. On each piece of equipment was a console. I entered my code and my settings were there. This is really a nice perk though writing your settings down isn’t all that difficult to do. In other words I wouldn’t pay for this feature.
2. The cardiovascular equipment: Since Anytime Fitness in Plymouth is small there were just a handful of treadmills, one step mill, a few bikes and a Tread Climber. It was certainly adequate for my needs. I never had to wait since it was never crowded.
3. Other amenities:
There is a day care room which was nicely decorated. You’ll pay $3.00 an hour.
There was a cooler with drinks. Since this is geared perhaps to non-staffed times this took money which is something I rarely take into a gym with me.
There was a massage room which is run by an independent person and not Anytime Fitness.
There was a tanning bed.
There were no locker rooms. There were a couple of bathrooms and some lockers outside of them. The reason again is security. They can’t put cameras in a locker room so there isn’t one. The rest room is for one person so you can lock yourself in not needing a security camera.
4. Other rooms:
There are no classes offered. What they had was a large room with stability balls and mats. What the manager meant by state-of-the art was the large screen television which gave me a choice of a variety of workouts. For example one day I did Tae-Bo. In my opinion this doesn’t even come close to replacing an instructor. If I had the discipline to Tae-Bo there I could buy a DVD at home and work out at home eliminating the gym fee.
There was a spinning room with five spin bikes. However there was no instructor. You will be spinning on your own. This was silly in my opinion. The nature of spinning is to have an instructor!
5. The price:
There was a special with no initiation fee. The manager told me that it was for one week but the following week there would be another special. Normally the enrollment fee is $149 and $39 a month for dues. The price goes down for a couple and down a bit more for a family or student. I think that’s a lot given this is really just a room with machines.
My final thoughts:
This location was very pretty and spotlessly clean. The manager and owner seemed nice but I wouldn’t work out at Anytime Fitness. If all you need is equipment you can join Planet Fitness for $10 a month! (Perhaps a current promotion.)
