Kaizen Chaos

I’m one of those people who loves the idea of working out and being fit…IF I can get my lazy ass out the door. I’ve belonged to several gyms around town over the years and the most success I’ve had is when Mr. Wonderful and I went regularly for about 2 months to a gym WAY across town. But, that depends on how you measure success…I gained about 5-7lbs and I’m fairly certain it wasn’t all muscle.

With the wedding approaching and the New Year started we decided to check out the Anytime Fitness that just opened a couple blocks away, despite the fact there is another gym literally across the street. We decided against the closer gym because their hours weren’t all that convenient for us (sometimes we like to work out late at night), there are a lot of musclebound guys there, there is no women’s only area, and they don’t offer classes.

Anytime Fitness is not only great for members, it’s a fascinating business model. The facilities are open 24/7 and is staffed limited hours, which cuts down their overhead tremendously. Members are given a passkey that opens the doors during unstaffed hours and you are free to come in and workout whenever. You can even get into any other Anytime Fitness across the country. The downside is they have a super sensitive security system in place on the doors that can be triggered by a gym-bag if you’re not careful (so you don’t sneak in visitors) and  you’ve got cameras on you at all times. I try not to think about that, since I hate the thought of being on camera.

The gym itself is not very big and it’s pretty quiet. There are only about 4 treadmills, 4 elliptical machines and a couple bikes in addition to the weight machines and free weights. I’m always worried I won’t be able to get a treadmill, but the nice thing is that the couple times we’ve been there there isn’t too many people and if there are there’s something else for me to do in the meantime.

The very best part is the equipment so high tech - you can plug in your headphones and iPod and listen to your music or watch digital cable! We breeze through an hour today flipping through channels. I love it! Perfect exercise for the couch potato! Plus, Mr. W said we can put movies on his iPod and I can watch them at the gym! Fabulous!

We signed up fo a year so let’s see how this works out for us.

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