Anytime Fitness opens

A new fitness center in Fremont is ready for workouts.

Anytime Fitness, located in a new strip mall in the Deer Pointe commercial development just off East 23rd Street, is open and already boasts just more than 200 members, said owner Ryan Zink. A grand opening is set for Wednesday with a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m.

Zink, a former baseball player at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said he’s had a long-standing interest in fitness, and for the past five years has worked at NDS Nutrition in Omaha. The manufacturer makes multi-vitamins, health packs, weight-loss products, protein powders among other products that can be found at GNC and other nutrition supplement stores.

Zink, 27, said his dream was to open a fitness center.

“I knew the large box (that often requires a lot more space, a lot more starting capital and higher membership costs) was out of my means,” he said. “I started looking at Anytime

Fitness. I liked the small gym atmosphere. It’s not intimidating, regardless what fitness level someone is at.

“I looked at Omaha, Bellevue and Fremont to begin with and decided to go with Fremont. It was the only one of those without a 24-hour fitness center. With 26,000 people and growing, there’s a need for one.”

The all-in-one club provides cardiovascular and strength equipment, aerobics classes, personal training, 24-hour tanning and nutritional supplement products, he said, adding all of the cardiovascular machines include flat screen TVs.

“If you come in when you’re favorite show is on, you can spend 30 minutes without thinking about it,” Zink said. “You’re zoned into your show, and you don’t have to share a TV with anyone.”

The cardiovascular equipment at Anytime Fitness includes treadmills, stationary bikes, ellipticals and tread climbers.

For strength building, the center provides weight machines and free weights, he said. The free weights can be used with Pro-Spot, developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“That automatically spots you. So you never have to worry about coming to workout with a partner in the late hours of the night.”

While Zink lives in Omaha, he said two of the three center employees are from Fremont: Club director Brian Kieborz and personal trainer Jason Richter. Aerobic kickboxing instructor Dave Talburt commutes from Gretna.

“In beginning, we will offer four aerobic kickboxing classes a week,” Zink said, “and based on demand, we’ll look at adding other classes.”

Membership at Anytime Fitness is $29 per month, he said, but there are discounts available for families and for military personnel, students, police officers, fire fighters, teachers and senior citizens. There is also a corporate discount.

Unlimited tanning is an additional $9 per month.

“We consider the nutrition products and tanning more of an amenity rather than a money maker. We just want to have them there for the members.”

Members have access any time, and the center is staffed during all daytime hours between the three employees, Zink continued.

“For the unstaffed hours, we have a state-of-the-art security system. Members receive a keycard for their keychains that can be scanned to allow the members into the club, but only one person can come in on the card. If two try to come in, an alarm will sound that will alert us and take a picture so we can see who came in.”

The security system can also be used if someone gets hurt during the unstaffed hours, he said. There are several security buttons throughout the facility and on necklaces provided that can be hit to alert staff, a private security firm and police that there is an injury.

“One of the nice things about Anytime Fitness is that there’s several in Nebraska and across the country. If someone is a member of one, they can use any Anytime Fitness facility.”

Anyone wanting more information, can call 727-7919 or visit the company’s Web site, http://www.anytimefremont.com.