By Christina Young
Contributing Writer
Located on Buckley Road in Liverpool, Anytime Fitness opened its doors earlier this year.
However, the co-owners, father and son Fadi and Michael Abdallah, did not always plan on opening a gym.
“This was never the plan from the start,” Michael said. “I graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in television radio and media production and immediately went to Los Angeles for three years.”
Fitness wasn’t something that Michael really concerned himself with until after college.
“I gained the freshman 15 just like everyone else, and I wanted to get back into shape,” he said.
After he began to get involved with working out and fitness, he partnered up with his father and the opening of Anytime Fitness followed soon after.
Having spent so much time in L.A., Michael learned that it is difficult to go to the gym regularly in a big city. “L.A. is dirty and crowded,” he said. “Half the battle is showing up just because of the amount of traffic and the fact that there is almost never any parking.”
Because of this, he wanted to ensure that his own gym was clean and convenient for people to use.
Michael said he hates the feel of locker rooms so Anytime Fitness comes fully equipped with private restrooms and showers.
“I wanted to create an environment where people can feel good,” he said. “Anytime Fitness makes it easy for people who have never worked out before to begin to do so.”
The gym is fully renovated with all new equipment and training areas.
“Each member gets their own fitness consultation,” Michael said. “The gym is mostly go-at-your-own-pace, but we do have group classes and trainings available for people as well.”
Michael emphasizes that he only got into fitness rather recently.
“I was 21 when I really got into fitness and tried working with personal trainers,” he said. “It was then that I realized that resistance training was just as, if not more important than the cardio and nutrition side of it.”
Michael is about to turn 26 and has had a lot happen in his five-year journey focused on fitness.
In that time, he has been certified as a personal trainer and fitness nutrition specialist for two years now.
The timeline for opening the gym took less than a year, coming together quickly.
Michael pitched the idea to his father in March of 2018, and by January of 2019 the facility was ready to open.
Michael said several locaitons were considered and the field was narrowed down.
Among the criteria the Abdallahs considered was the style of the facility. Michael said they wanted to have a standalone unit as opposed to one that was in a plaza.
Unlike most other gyms, Anytime Fitness is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The gym also prides itself on being a secure location.
Each member of the gym receives their own necklace with an emergency button on it that dispatches 911 when pressed.
Anytime Fitness is also unique because it accepts most health insurances as payment.
“It’s very worth it to just check and see,” Michael said. “More often than not, the health insurance will cover most, if not all of the membership cost.”
There may be future expansion, with a locaiton in Camillus being discussed, but Michael said this is in the preliminary stages and he and his father are focused on the Liverpool location.
