Anytime Fitness

I am always happy to see new Anytime Fitness locations opening up in our area. It is such a luxury to be able to go anywhere in the Tampa Bay area and almost always have easy access to a gym that is always open. This newest one is located in Wesley Chapel on the corner of a Winn-​Dixie shopping center. All of the equipment is obviously brand-​new and top of the line. This location has a mixture of LifeFitness and Hammer Strength (my favorite) equipment.
There are only five treadmills, which might be a problem during peak times. The five have the biggest screens I’ve ever seen on a treadmill. They are so much better then the beat up old ones I regularly have to use. There is a small area for aerobic exercises but it can only accommodate a few people. There is one the smith machine and one squat rack. The squat rack has an interesting attachment to it that lets you insert a barbell for T-​bar rows. I wish more places had that. At my regular gym I have to wedge a barbell against a bench or whatever else is free at the moment. All of the barbells have lockjaw clamps instead of the lame regular clamps you see all the time. I was thrilled to see that they had not one, but two different plate loaded chest press machine for hitting the chest at different angles. It’s not common to see one at Anytime Fitness locations, much less two. That is one thing I really miss from my old «big box» gym. I can’t wait to come back here for chest day.
The dumbbells go up to a standard 100 pounds. One thing that I thought was strange is that the rack that holds the fixed weight barbells was half empty, meaning that the heaviest one was only 60 pounds. I’m not sure if heavier ones are on order or this is all there are going to be. There are kettle bells that go up to 50 pounds, but there is only a single kettle bell for each weight. I would have preferred to have two for each weight so that I could use them for walking lunges.
One big omission is that there’s not a machine for doing seated calf raises (Lord knows I need help with that). There is plenty of room where they could add this in the future. I hope that they do. It would be nice if they also added a hex bar.
I hate the method they have in place for cleaning equipment. I have been to over 20 Anytime Fitness locations and this is only the second one I’ve seen where you’re given spray bottles and some dirty rags instead of paper towels or individual use wipes. The last thing I want to touch is a rag that has soaked up the funk of multiple people already.
Overall this is a very nice addition to the Wesley Chapel community and I’m glad that they’re here!