Get in shape — on your schedule

By Catherine Amos

Published: July 16, 2008

It’s 3 a.m. and you are regretting eating that entire pizza. But you don’t own a treadmill, and the gyms are closed, right?

Not all gyms.

Anytime Fitness, a national franchise fitness facility with a location in Culpeper, is open to members 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, just a few doors down from Kohl’s and Buffalo Wild Wings. Anytime Fitness members can exercise whenever their schedules permit.

“I work almost in Gainesville, and to find a convenient time for my husband and I to go to the gym together is almost impossible,” said Anytime member Jessica Walters, 20. “I just love that it’s family operated. They work as a team to be able to give back to us.”

Veronica McBride, 27, manages the local branch, which her father, Bob McBride, owns. They opened in April after a visit to another Anytime Fitness piqued Bob’s interest.

A former bodybuilder and retired Army sergeant, Bob saw the need for a 24-hour gym in Culpeper after he and his wife moved to town from northern Virginia.

“Coming from the city, Culpeper has been a different experience but it’s been interesting to come in during a time when the town is straddling the old and the new,” Veronica said. “We’re small. We’re not a big box gym.”

In a tour around the cozy 4,200-square-foot facility packed with equipment, Veronica explained the security system that allows members to work out whenever they want. Keychain devices scanned at the members’ only entrance — which is always locked — open the door.

A chime sounds throughout the building, alerting anyone inside that another person has entered.

On either side of the door are sensors, which detect how many people enter at a time. Should more than one person pass per key scan, an alarm sounds. Within the facility, nine cameras record the days, which Veronica can monitor live from home.

Should something happen during the non-staffed hours, members can punch a number of red emergency buttons scattered throughout the gym, including in the individual bathrooms. When exercising in the late night hours, members can also wear safety buttons around their necks should they have an accident.

“Anytime Fitness has been operating around the country since 2002 and there has never been a single security breach,” Veronica said.

The facility offers an array of weightlifting and cardio equipment — including treadmills with USB and iPod ports to download videos and customized workouts. There is also a small aerobics room with video screen, where Veronica has organized a schedule of group classes led by videos.

“Every time I walk in and there’s staff there, they all know my name,” Walters said. “To me that means a lot. It’s rewarding; it makes you want to go to the gym. I just love it.”

Veronica said she never saw herself as going into the “family business,” but was drawn to the franchise through her father.

“As I saw (my dad) developing this and seeing how passionate he was about it,” Veronica said, “I got really intrigued by the concepts about it as well. I’ve always been somebody who wants to help people and never really had the time to do that in my previous job or previous lifestyle. I decided this was something that I definitely wanted to do.”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

Anytime Fitness
767 Nalles Mill Road
(near Buffalo Wild Wings)

Staffed hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Open to members 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Phone: 317-1142
E-mail: CulpeperVA@
anytimefitness.com