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Gyms sprout up as resolutions do, too

Working out has gotten easier in the county, with more places open and for longer hours.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published January 1, 2007

There are now a whole bunch of places in Hernando County to go sweat and get fit. Just in time for New Year's resolutions.

The new PowerHouse gym on U.S. 19 is open.

The new Anytime Fitness in Silverthorn Square is open.

The new Gold's in Brooksville near State Road 50 and U.S. 41 is about to open.

"Now we have more choice, more selection, which is a good thing for everybody," Anytime manager Peter McNamara said last week. "I think Hernando was lacking in gyms for a number of years and that we've just gotten up to a more normal level."

Used to be, if you wanted to work out at a gym around here, it was going to be at the Gold's on U.S. 19, the YMCA on Mariner Boulevard, the Candlelite Fitness Center in Brooksville by the Wendy's, or at any of the handful of storefront, quick-circuit facilities for women like Curves or Contours Express.

Not anymore.

PowerHouse has smoothies, protein shakes, and two stories and 18,000 square feet of workout space.

Anytime is what it says it is - open any time, all the time. The bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines all have their own personal TVs.

Gold's in Brooksville, 20126 Cortez Blvd., should be open by late February or March and has a preview and sales center set up. It's going to have 15,000 square feet, with saunas and a separate room with workout machines. It will also have surround sound and a wall-size movie screen for Cardio Cinema.

"It's clear that Brooksville is a growth area," owner Marc Leslie said. "We think the facility will really be a terrific asset for not only Brooksville but anywhere within the driving area."

There generally are two absolute truths in the gym industry:

Monday is the busiest day of the week.

January is the busiest month of the year.

"January's always the big one," Spring Hill's PowerHouse boss Steve Dillenbeck said. "Resolutions are going to kick in."

The reason: fat-faced guilt.

"It's something we all feel," Anytime's McNamara said. "It starts with Halloween and continues through Thanksgiving, when everybody's baking good things, and it's basically three months of feasting, and it ends with New Year's."

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association says 12.4 percent of new gym memberships come in January - by far the highest percentage of any month - and estimates that 1-million Americans will join a gym in the next 31 days.

Anytime is ready. McNamara put up on the cardio machines and in the areas with the weights laminated cards with inspirational slogans.

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat," one of them says.

"If you think you can or can't," says another, "you are right!"

And he was working on a new one last week at his desk:

NEW YEAR

NEW GYM

NEW YOU!

Michael Kruse can be reached at 352 848-1434 or mkruse@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 21:52:15]