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24-hour workout concept growing in Lowcountry
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
No more excuses for not making it to the gym. Four Charleston area health clubs are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the trend is growing.
East Shore Athletic Club opened its first 24-hour location a year ago on Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. In November, the company opened a second 24-hour club on Long Point Road. East Shore also operates 24-hour clubs downtown and in West Ashley, and plans to open its next 24-hour club in Moncks Corner.
“When we first opened our location in West Ashley, it opened as a regular East Shore Athletic Club and not the 24-hour concept. However, we quickly got the 24-hour operation up and running,” said Mandy Harrsison, the company’s general manager.
Kim Lung, manager of the West Ashley club, said she tracks the number of people checking in after regular business hours and has noticed that much of the after-hours use occurs on weekends.
“During the week, we also see more early morning check-ins,” Lung said. “We’ve got quite a lot of people who check in at 4 (a.m.). I think those people are crazy, but they do.”
Shift work in some professions forces many people to work out at odd times of the day. Lung said she knows two police officers who are midnight check-ins.
“They’re on rotating shifts, and they’ll get done at midnight and then come over to work out,” Lung said.
East Shore doesn’t have the problem of finding employees willing to work a graveyard shift at the gym. Harrison said the clubs are not staffed after regular business hours, which end at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 p.m. on Fridays and 5:30 p.m. on weekends. Members who check in after hours access the clubs with barcode cards and use all gym equipment without supervision. They have the option of wearing a device with a panic button that would signal emergency response teams if there were an emergency.
So far, the company hasn’t had any problems with crime or emergencies after hours, Harrison said.
“Each location is under surveillance,” she said. “We have cameras and we do monitor them.”
Harrison said the only reason all of East Shore’s clubs are not open 24 hours is because of liabilities associated with some amenities, such as the pool at the Johnnie Dodds Boulevard location and the upper-level indoor track at the Park West location.
“What we find today is that, in order to get people motivated to work out and participate in fitness, you have to make it as convenient as possible,” Harrison said. “You’d be surprised at how many people really do want to work out Thanksgiving Day and how many people want to work out Christmas Day after all the presents are opened.”
Amy Jordan of Mount Pleasant said she and her husband often work out after hours on Sunday, although the latest either of them has ever visited the gym is about 10 p.m.
“We’ve never gone in the middle of the night or anything,” Jordan said.
Donna Webb of the Isle of Palms said the latest she has worked out has been about 10 p.m.
“I have two little kids and a crazy life, so sometimes after they’re all in bed is the only time I have to squeeze in a workout,” Webb said.
Rosemary Lavery, spokeswoman for the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, said an estimated 1,000 24-hour health clubs have opened in the United States since the trend began about seven years ago.
Two 24-hour athletic club chains, 24-Hour Fitness and Anytime Fitness, are growing rapidly, she said.
Anytime Fitness added more than 400 locations to its 58-chain company in 2004, growing the company by more than 400%, Lavery said, while 24-Hour Fitness has reported 25% growth in the number of facilities since 2001.
Gyms open 24 hours and other niche concepts such as Curves, a women-only fitness chain, are boosting the growth of athletic clubs around the country in general, Lavery said.
IHRSA tallied 29,357 U.S. health clubs as of January and 41.3 million health club members as of January 2006. Industry revenues for 2006 totaled $17.6 billion.
In South Carolina, the number of health clubs grew 147% between 1996 and 2006, from 167 clubs in 1996 to 413 clubs last year.
“All health clubs are very much customer-service driven,” Lavery said. “Twenty-four-hour clubs fall into the category of niche marketing, and that is the wave of health clubs now. It really is about analyzing the demographics of your members.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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