PCC#21 "Hit the Gym"

Answer explanation: there are five gyms in the grid: Equinox, Crunch, Blink, Curves, and Gold's (18A, 22A, 35A, 52A, 59A)... there are five clues that start with "Hit" (15D, 13D, 38D, 49D, 54D)... take the five entries with the clues that start with "Hit" and find where it "hits" the gym... LIBEL crosses EQUINOX at the "I"... POUND crosses CRUNCH at the "N"... BOP crosses BLINK at the "B"... BELUGA crosses CURVES at the "E"... and NUDGE crosses "GOLDS" at the D... this spells out the meta answer of "IN BED"... which is where you can usually find me despite having the same New Year's resolution for the past however many years of exercising more

Constructor notes: I tried to include gyms that are more well-known but I figured you can always rely on Google for the more obscure ones. This puzzle went through several iterations - my first intent was to have all the gym crossing words be a synonym of "Hit" and not use the word "Hit" in the clue at all... I had SMITE, POUND, BOP, BEATUP, NUDGE.. but I wasn't really happy with the ugly surrounding fill with that constraint, so eased the constraint with words that were easier to work with and reworked the cluing... I think repeating "Hit" in the clues brings the difficulty down

Thank you for solving my puzzles and may you all have a Happy New Year!

Nice one, Phil! I did have to use a couple of 54D s, but nicely constructed and clued. Looking forward to more in 2024!

Thank you for a fun puzzle.

Clever idea and execution!! but what a twinge of guilt as I read your intro, as I skipped the gym this morning myself LOL. Oh well there's always next year! Thanks and a very happy New Year to you. I saw the health clubs on my own but I peeked through to the second hint to find out what to do with them.

Nicely done. I'm not a gym-goer myself, so I would never have gotten the meta without your hints. The clue for 19A should be plural (Scoundrels)

I did find all the Hits clues in the Downs, but in the over complicating department, I tried to match them up with the "hits" in the Acrosses. I found out that the lyrics of Bare Necessities contain the word "clue" and of course that goes with NUDGE! :-) Was only familiar with Curves and Golds and so needed several nudges and googling. Thanks, Phil!

Only with the nudges. I don't think we have any of those gyms Down Under!

Great puzzle! Happy New Year!

Hadn't heard of Blink, but the others rang the bell sufficiently. Nice one!

Our city has URBAN Fitness Gyms, so I briefly thought it odd that you were “BnB’ed” (holed up in a BnB??) instead of at the gym! Had to look up the Equinox chain. Great idea for a meta, and clever title too!

Nice one, Phil! No nudges needed, although I had a little bit of a hiccup because LIBEL crosses TIME in CRUNCHTIME, but I soon sorted that out. Happy New Year's!

Nicely done!

Just got to it today, New Year’s Day, the day everyone resolves to join a gym and start working out and overflows my gym and all my favorite equipment:) Fortunately, by the end of the month, everything’s back to normal.

First clue immediately reminded me that I entered MARIGOLDS - DUH!!! I did not know all of them but it was not hard to figure out which part of the word was a gym (hardest was EQUINOX) but then the HIT pretty much told me where I had to be since there did not appear to be any consistent lead or trailing character. As for going to the gym, well I used to make it a practice to pay not to use gyms. I have a free membership now (Boomer with Silver Sneakers on his Medicare) so now I do not have to pay to not go. For me it is easier to go out for a few mile morning walk and some pushups than actually drive to the gym and be put to shame by people who are actually in shape. Thanks for another interesting and fun puzzle Phil.

Nice one! (Sorry I missed your puz last week, so doing catch up this morning.) ;)

late to the gym...enjoyed your meta...thanks Phil!

I needed just the first nudge.

Gyms have name? And people know them? Okay, I had heard of GOLDS and CURVES but not CRUNCH, EQUINOX, or BLINK.

Definitely saw all the clues with HIT though.

Fun meta.