Thanksgiving is in two weeks. Then Christmas. Then New Year's Eve, and a week later, the holiday season is over and January is here with a whole gym full of resolutions. You know this story — you've probably lived it on both sides.
What I've seen from three years of running this gym in Ahwatukee: the members who maintain their training through the holidays don't just hold their fitness — they actually gain an advantage. While the rest of the population takes six weeks off and then scrambles to restart in January, they keep the habit alive and arrive in the new year already ahead.
Our gym is open 24/7, 365 days a year. Thanksgiving morning, 5am. Christmas Day, whenever you want. New Year's Day, before the game kicks off. The key fob doesn't take holidays. And if you've been building a habit, taking six weeks off is genuinely one of the more damaging things you can do to it.
The biology is worth understanding. You don't lose fitness uniformly — some things go faster than others. Cardiovascular fitness starts declining noticeably after about two weeks of inactivity. Strength holds a bit longer, but after four to six weeks you're dealing with real detraining. And the habit — the automatic response that gets you to the gym without needing to think about it — is probably the most fragile of all. Habits break faster than fitness does.
Most people who "take the holidays off" with good intentions find that restarting in January is harder than they expected. Not because they got dramatically out of shape, but because the mental ease of going — the automatic quality of the habit — is gone and has to be rebuilt from scratch. That's what makes January feel so hard for so many people.
Justin has a practical philosophy for the holiday season: don't try to make progress in November and December. Just maintain. The goal isn't a PR, it's preserving what you've built so January feels like a continuation rather than a restart.
Two full-body sessions per week, about 45 minutes each. Each session covers a push movement, a pull movement, a leg movement, and some cardio. That's it. No complicated programming, no heroics. Just enough stimulus to tell your body that fitness is still a priority.
Thanksgiving morning, before anyone's awake. Christmas Eve, while the kids are at grandma's. New Year's Eve afternoon. Thirty minutes is enough to maintain your aerobic baseline and do some basic resistance work. It also does something important for your mental state during a season that can be stressful: it gives you an hour that's entirely yours.
Justin's take on holiday eating: don't war against it. One to two big holiday meals in a week don't undo your fitness. The cumulative effect of weeks of overeating does. Maintaining your training through the holidays actually helps your body handle holiday food better — you're giving those extra calories somewhere to go.
Our staffed hours run Monday through Thursday 9am–7pm, Friday 9am–5pm, and Saturday 9am–1pm. During major holidays, the staffed desk may not be open. But with a key fob — which every member gets — you're in at any hour on any day of the year. The lights are on. The equipment is there. The AC is running.
Several of our regulars have a holiday workout tradition they look forward to. Thanksgiving morning at 7am before the turkey goes in the oven — it's genuinely quiet, the gym is theirs, and they feel better about the meal afterward. Christmas morning before the kids wake up — 45 minutes of pure silence before the chaos of the day begins. These aren't sacrifices. They're the best part of the holiday for some people.
If you're not a member yet and want to give this a try before January, we offer a free 7-day trial — no contract, no credit card upfront. Come in during staffed hours and we'll get you set up. Memberships start at $19.99 bi-weekly after the trial.
No credit card required. No long-term contract. Try Anytime Fitness Ahwatukee free for a full week.
Or call (480) 900-1616 · 4855 E Warner Rd Suite 24-28, Phoenix, AZ 85044