And that’s not the only change.

In less than five years, Nicholasville went from having zero 24-hour gyms to having three.

All of the locations are spread out, which Anytime Fitness owner James Adamitis partially attributes to the coexistence of numerous gyms in a city the size of Nicholasville.

“And each gym kind of has a different part of town,” he said.

The same principle applies when it comes to Nicholasville’s proximity to Lexington, where there are a lot of gyms.

“Convenience is key,” said Josh Sato, who co-owns Strong Shop Fitness with his wife, Kasi.

Frustration or difficulty in the past can create hesitation, among other road blocks, Sato said, so choosing a gym closer to home eliminates one of the road blocks a client might face to accomplish their fitness goals. So, it really doesn’t matter how many gyms there are in Lexington — locating a gym in Nicholasville makes sense for the people who live there.

“Cutting the drive time from 30 minutes down to 10 minutes … they’re going to be more likely to use (the gym) more often,” he said.

… In order for the client experience to be a successful one, it has to be something they’re going to use.”

Anytime Fitness, Elite Fitness and Snap Fitness all offer 24-hour facilities, and amenities like fitness classes and personal trainers.

Adamitis said he got started in the process of opening his Anytime Fitness — a global franchise — location in 2011, and it wasn’t long after that that Snap Fitness opened and Elite Fitness bought out and transformed the Orchard Drive location.

“When we came in, we were the first 24-hour gym in town,” he said.

France-Fitch said Elite Fitness — a company based in Lexington, which owns two locations including the Nicholasville location — took over, did a lot of renovating and re-opened in 2014 as a 24-hour gym.

In her years working in the industry, she said 24-hour fitness is the biggest change she has seen. And it means more than just change in accessibility for clients.

“It changes the way you can staff and the things you can offer because liability changes,” France-Fitch said.

She said the change to 24-hour accessibility has been “wonderful and huge” for her gym.

Other gyms located in Nicholasville focus on different client needs, that don’t include 24-hour accessibility. Curves and Jazzercize, martial arts gyms, and Crossfit 859 offer specialized workouts and training.

Sato said his gym, Strong Shop Fitness on Bellerive Boulevard, focuses on personal training, group classes and personal attention. He founded the gym in 2011 under a license agreement with a gym in Lexington, before rebranding and becoming Strong Shop Fitness in 2013.

“What I’ve noticed in the last five to 10 years, is that fitness has shifted toward those boutique gyms,” said Sato, who has been working in the industry since 2005.

Sato said gyms like LA Fitness and Gold’s Gym “really dominated the industry” until a few years ago. His experience working for a gym in Lexington that was “not a big box gym” like that gave him the opportunity to learn how that model worked: Training is tailored to the needs of the client and they workout on appointments, not a membership.

Because personal training and classes are their “bread and butter,” Sato said the higher appointment cost also gets clients higher quality training and more personal attention.

“You can almost feel like it’s your own private gym while you’re there,” he said.

Adamitis said the population in Nicholasville and the need for fitness centers resulting from the obesity rates statewide are enough to support all of the gyms that have grown up in the last few years — and to create healthy competition.

“There’s plenty of business for people to get out there for sure,” he said.