new YORK, USA (Reuters) – nocturnal birds, insomniacs, night shift workers and other citizens of the night are finding increasingly unnecessary fit its time of sport in the world of work from nine to five.
gyms open more and more throughout the day, according to experts, animated by the advances in technology of surveillance and security, hours of work each time more variables of its clients and a generation of consumer multitasking.
“Many people work little traditional hours and take advantage of the clubs open at all hours, said Carl Liebert, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, an international chain of gyms open mostly 24 hours a day.
Liebert pointed out that its chain founded 30 years ago has seen an increase in night-time visits, between 5 and 15 percent of customers, depending on the place, makes sport between midnight and 5 a.m..
“Believe that people has changed,” said. “They are online: are connected day and night.” When I was small I was going to bed at night and I got up in the morning. “Between not was doing several things at the same time”.
Liebert said that among the nocturnal visitors there are people who do sport to relieve stress, sleepless and fans of the exercise that they cannot train and prefer the less crowded gym.
The number of gyms that open 24 hours has grown from just a few hundred five years ago to more than 2,000 today, according to the IHRSA (acronym in English of the International Association of health, tennis and sports clubs), a sectoral Association of sports facilities.
Meredith Poppler UNRWA spokesman noted that while the majority of customers continue to sport to normal hours, technology has allowed small, often rural clubs to operate during the night, sometimes without staff in place.
“Distinguished them Chambers in the doors, cameras in the clubs, buttons of security that takes each Member,” said Poppler. “Many of the employees are in clubs at certain times of the day, but at other times, the clubs are all unmanned”.
Clients come with a magnetic card or a key.
Poppler explained that the greater franchise gyms opening throughout the day is Anytime Fitness, based in Hastings, Minnesota.
The chain said this year that the visits recorded between midnight and 3 a.m. accounted for 1.2 million in 2011, with the 900,000 last year.
“Anytime Fitness is that access 24 hours a day 7 hours a week serving anybody, from the usual nocturnal birds to doctors and nurses, as well as other public servants who work unusual hours,” noted the spokesman Tara Dosh.
Liz Neporent, spokesperson for the American Council of exercise, belongs to a gym 24 hours in New York.
She explains that from the physiological point of view, no matter the hour at which you do sport, although some studies suggest that the following morning exercises are more likely to deliver its programme. Most important is to find a comfortable time.
Neporent, who has experience managing gyms, says that even though you prefer to view personal working at night, sometimes it is not feasible from an economic point of view.
“Many residential gyms in apartment buildings have little or no staff”, he said, adding that you for these businesses, cameras are somewhat forced.
Neporent said that when he goes to the gym at three in the morning, the crowd is different.
“To six in the morning, you have the professionals go to work.” Average tomorrow you see many mothers who are not working. “At night I tend to see more creative styles,” he said. “More earrings, more tattoos.” “I have met interesting people to three or four in the morning”.
