I’m not a morning person – never have been, probably never will be.

That being said, I don’t really sleep-in anymore, well, because there are two little nuggets in my house, 4-and-1-years-old who seem to rise with the first glimpse of sunlight.

So, it’s not early by military or carpe diem, grab-the-world-by-the-balls standards, but I was up just before 6:30 this morning to get the baby a bottle, start the coffee pot and throw together some breakfast.

By the time I got the kids to daycare and on my way to work, it was pushing 8:30.

I mention this because unless I was one of those uber-morning, perky-types, there’s no way that my morning routine could include a visit to the gym. Unless I wanted roll into my office each morning around 11 or so.

Despite my endomorphic appearance, I have had gym memberships in the past – and actually used them. In fact, I’ve joined the same gym company at least three times in the past decade, and utilized the facilities to varying degrees (and results).

Even when I was using my gym membership the most regularly, the hours never quite worked for me.

I don’t like to work out on an empty stomach – so going right after work wasn’t really my thing. And going during lunch hour would, well, make me miss lunch, for Christ sakes.

Therefore, my routine was to go home, get a little something to eat, relax a little, let my food settle, then hit the gym. But the gym closed at 9 p.m., which really meant the employees were wiping the equipment down, vacuuming the carpet and staring impatiently at the clock starting at about 8:30 – I always felt rushed.

I like to take my time when working out, to get the most out of it, and that usually means a couple of hours devoted to a variety of exercises, which was hard to do in the above mentioned scenario when they were shutting the lights off at 9 p.m. sharp.

What you can draw from all of this is A.) either I’m making a lot of excuses not to work out or; B.) I’m very particular about working out. I’m going to go with B.

With the advent of children in my life, my window of opportunity to get stuff done – i.e. “me time” – is generally after 9 p.m. And since I’m more of a night owl than a morning daisy, I feel like working out later at night would suit me.

Fortunately, the options for someone like me with a busy schedule and kids to juggle - or for folks outside of the 9-to-5 paradigm - have greatly expanded with a rash of 24-hour gyms cropping up along our shore. Where once there were none, there’s now close to a dozen local round-the-clock workout facilities at your disposal, so we dispatched correspondent Ian Anderson to find out what’s fueling this after-hours fitness craze at the beach, what local health clubs have done to satisfy this niche, and some more details about the facilities that provide 24-hour work-out opportunities, and you can read his report (aka this week’s cover story) by looking on our home page or News & Views section.

As Hans and Franz so famously said, “ve just vant to...(clap)...pump you up!”

Kent Kimes, Editor