The U.S. Navy will now keep all of its fitness centers open 24 hours a day at all bases worldwide.
Some Navy gyms have already made the move to being open all the time, and now the Navy Installations Command issued a March 8 memorandum authorizing bases to extend their fitness center hours.
According to Stars and Stripes, the Navy hopes to increase gym access for soldiers who work nights shifts or odd hours and have had to find other avenues for staying fit.
Expanding access allows sailors to “fulfill the Navy mission and deploy at a moment’s notice,” the head of the command, Vice Adm. Scott Gray, said in a March 8 news release. It’s also “the right thing to do” for base residents’ quality of life, he added.
“We all know that exercise benefits one’s physical health, but it also reinforces mental, emotional, and social health, which are important for our Sailors’ overall wellbeing,” Gray said, adding that all Navy installations are allowed to outfit their fitness centers to operate outside normal business hour with staff or without staff.
Patrons younger than 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian; off-base guests will not be allowed, and pools and other “aquatic spaces” will be off-limits.
The Fleet Recreation Center at Yokosuka Naval Base south of Tokyo became 24/7 on March 5.
“I think it’s great,” Ross Nakahara, a nuclear engineer for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash., said at the gym Wednesday. “It gives you more options in the morning, or if you work a different shift.”
