Nighttime’s the right time for working out
Young professionals trying to work in fitness routines around busy schedules hit the gym to get fit, socialize
Late-night hours traditionally have been a dead zone for gyms, but in recent years, busy Americans have shifted their schedules, finding pockets of time in the evening to squeeze in workouts.
IT’S 9 o’clock on a Tuesday night and the sound of sneakers pounding on whirring treadmills travels across the wide open space at 24 Hour Fitness-Galleria. Traditionally, late-night hours have been a dead zone for gyms. But in recent years, busy Americans have shifted their schedules, finding pockets of time in the evening to squeeze in workouts.
Between 2005 and 2015, the number of visits to fitness studios after 9 p.m. grew 47 times over, according to Mindbody, an app that helps users schedule workouts. And Houston is no exception to this national trend.
“We’re super busy at night,” says Mallory Miller, manager at the Galleria gym on Richmond.
“Usually, clubs get busy at around 6 or 7, but here, it’s about 8 or 9 at night that clubs get really busy,” she says as a stream of people pours out of a classroom at the end of a boot camp session. Some head to the staircase to go home for the night. Others scatter into the gym’s cavernous workout area for a little extra toning.
What’s behind the shift?
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association reports a steady increase in the number of people who belong to a fitness club, growing even as Americans log more hours at their desks. Changing tastes, that come with a younger generation’s increased presence in the market, also come into play.
“The members and guests who take advantage of the late hours are primarily younger — in their 20s to mid-30s, young professionals,” says Scott Elliott, general manager at Studio Fitness, a Houston gym that recently pushed its weeknight closing time from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. to accommodate demand.
Pew Research Center reports that millennials are much more likely to work out than their older peers; 56 percent of millennials said they’d gotten vigorous exercise in the past 24 hours, compared to 48 percent of Generation Xer and 42 percent of baby boomers. Add in the fact that classes and weightlifting sessions can double as a social hour, and the demand for later workouts comes into focus.
“We have a lot of people who come with their boyfriends and girlfriends, and their friends,” says Chris Caldwell, the trainer in charge of 24 Hour Fitness’ 8 p.m. boot camp class. “I would say maybe about 30 (percent) to 40 percent of the people who come to class come with at least someone they know, or a significant other. Maybe even more. It’s very social.”
For Jonathan Hernandez, a sophomore at Bellaire High School, his three-hour-a-night routine at 24 Hour Fitness is a healthy way to hang out with friends.
“When we get home from school, we’re pretty much tired, so we take a quick nap, eat and then when we rest up and come here, we’re full of energy,” Hernandez says, taking a pause from a set of partner push-ups he completed with his friend and classmate Erik Cuevas.
“We do this like five or six times a week,” says Cuevas, 16, whose weeklong schedule sets days aside for back, arm and chest exercises. “This is our hobby.”
While late-night workouts are increasing in popularity, they’re not for everybody.
“Working out or doing any kind of vigorous exercise in the evening, within a couple hours of bedtime, it gets all the wrong hormones excited,” says Richard Castriotta, medical director for the Sleep Disorders Center at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center and director of pulmonary and sleep medicine at UT Health’s McGovern Medical School. “The workout itself results in an increase in the secretion of adrenaline and a whole slew of chemical mediators that are geared to keeping you awake and alert — the fight-or-flight reaction.”
Castriotta recommends that people don’t schedule workouts within a couple of hours of bedtime, noting that in addition to adrenaline, exercise also triggers the release of norepinephrine and cortisol, chemicals that should be low at night and peak in the morning to accommo- date the body’s circadian rhythms.
“There are always exceptions to every generality,” he says. “Just like there are people who can drink a pot of coffee and sleep like a baby, there may be some who can exercise at night and sleep very well.”
Jasmine Quinerly counts herself as an exception.
For the past few years, she’s been heading to 24 Hour Fitness at odd hours that work with her schedule as a minister. She also stops by for personal training sessions beginning at 9 p.m. twice a week.
Quinerly’s trainer, Monet Young, works her so hard in the total-body sessions that Quinerly says she can’t wait to hit the pillow afterward.
“I have heard people who don’t work out late because they do have trouble winding down.
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