Game Plan Fitness, the small gym that sits on the corner of 8th Avenue and Market Street N.W. has been closed for three months. Now, a former boxer is taking over and re-opening the gym.

John Ganley assumed ownership on January 1st and plans to take a boxing fitness format to his new gym.

"We're offering something different from what I've seen in the area," Ganley said who will be running the gym with his son, Sean.

Ganley runs a gym in the Tri-Cities and has taught boxing fitness for years. He has coached several national champions and professional boxers but encourages everyone to try boxing.

"To me boxing has always been the hardest workout anyone can do," he said. "You start it off slow but it gets progressively harder. I take a boxer's workout and cut it to fit a person's needs."

Ganley uses ropes, shadow boxing, bags, and a person's own weight.

"Everyone can use that kind of workout," he said, sharing a story about a 65-year-old man who'd always wanted to be a boxer. "I just started him off slowly and we progressed. I trained him for two years."

Ganley said that hitting a bag is a great stress reliever and that the male-to-female ratio in his classes and clients is about fifty-fifty.

"You'd be surprised how many women love punches things," he said.

In addition to his boxing training, Ganley has a staff of personal trainers to work with individual needs and offers cardio classes and bootcamp.

Sean Ganley said they limit class sizes to six people for a more personal workout even in their spinning classes.

"We make it a lot of fun. To me, a workout isn't worth doing it if it isn't fun," John Ganley said.

Game Plan Fitness will have their official opening in the second week of February but in the meantime they are open for business.

For more information, visit their website at www.gpfitness.com

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