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Tired of the same old workout?

Susan Steinmetz carries a tire as extra weight to enhance a workout at the Hits & Mitts workout class at Drake’s Gym in Dayton.

Staff photo by Jim Witmer Susan Steinmetz carries a tire as extra weight to enhance a workout at the Hits & Mitts workout class at Drake’s Gym in Dayton.

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A Zumba toning class at Studio Zumba, a fitness center voted as Dayton’s favorite in a recent poll by ActiveDayton.com.

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By Terry Morris, Staff Writer 4:22 PM Thursday, December 31, 2009

DAYTON — Even a dedicated exerciser can fall prey to the indoor workout blues.

Brought on by too many reps, the symptoms include treadmill tedium, elliptical inertia and Stairmaster standoff.

They lurk in gyms throughout Ohio at this time of the year, when only the hardy venture outdoors the way they did in autumn.

One remedy is to change things up by taking a group class, starting a program you’ve never tried, or signing on with a personal trainer.

Settling on one of the ever-expanding choices from aerobics to Zumba can pose another challenge.

Should you try a class using TRX bands at Fitworks in Beavercreek? Sign up for some mat pilates with rings at LA Fitness in Centerville? Join a rigorous training group at the downtown branch of the Greater Dayton YMCA? Take up “urban iron” at Urban Active near The Greene? Saddle up with a spinning group at Five Seasons Sports Club near Bellbrook?

Time and, usually, money are required. Here are a few more options for shaking things up:

Adventure Boot Camp for Women

It’s 5:30 a.m. on a weekday at South Metro Sports 10561 Success Lane in Springboro. More than two dozen women are warming up for 60 minutes of intense exercise before heading on to work or back home to rouse their snoozing families. A new four-week session begins Jan. 4, just in time to act on your resolution.

Visit www.springborobootcamp.com for more information.

Drake’s Downtown Gym

“Hits & Mitts” puts civilians through the same training regimen used by boxers, without requiring participants to slug each other. They do get to smack the heavy bag, along with doing squats, lunges, pushups and activities including tire flipping. As owner and instructor John Drake says, “It feels good to hit something. It’s empowering.” See www.jabcityboxing.biz.

Femme Fatale Fitness

The center at 44 Westpark Road, Centerville, which unabashedly invites women to get fit and sexy, offers classes in pole dance and pole fitness “boot camp” several days a week, along with burlesque dance, yoga, Zumba and other classes. For more information, call (937) 902-4147 or go to daytonpolefitness.com.

Miles That Matter

If you’re hoping to run in the 2010 Air Force Marathon for the first time next Sept. 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, or want to complete your first 5K, pole dancing and wall climbing may not be sufficient. You’ll have to run outdoors. This group will provide encouragement and instruction during group workouts near the University of Dayton. Informational meetings for the next session will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 4 and 5, at the Runners Plus store in Miami Twp. and the Dorothy Lane Market store in Springboro, respectively. Cost is $150 for the six-month program, including a contribution of $50 to each participants’ favorite charity. For more, go to www.milesthatmatter.com.

Practice Yoga

Who says you won’t sweat doing yoga? You will do that and get loose during “Hot Vinyasa” in a room warmed between 80 and 85 degrees in this studio at 504 E. Fifth St. If you need to warm up to that more advanced level, free introduction-to-yoga classes is offered on the second Sunday of each month. Call (937) 321-7676 or go to www. practiceyogadayton.com.

Southview Hospital

The Firefighter and Tactical Workout programs offered in and around the gym at 7677 Yankee Road are used to getting firefighters, SWAT team members and other public protectors into shape, but they’re open to the general public as well. The first session is free, if you want to try the 12-station layout supervised by trainers. For more information, go to www.athletic workshop.com

Studio Zumba

Even on a frosty Saturday morning, a mix of men and women show up at Dayton’s favorite fitness studio (as chosen in a recent poll by ActiveDayton.com) for a “Pump You Up” class taught by co-director Doug Jones, followed by a medium-hard session in the vigorous all-body movement workout known as Zumba. A beginner class goes on in the second studio across the hall.

There will be a new wrinkle on Sunday afternoons starting Jan. 3 — Masala Bhangra, a Bollywood dance-style version of Zumba. More information is available at (937) 387-0660 or www.studiozumbaohio.com.

Urban Krag Climbing Center

On most afternoons and evenings, humans striving against gravity clamber up to 40 feet above the floor at 125 Clay St. in the Oregon District. They may not break the kind of sweat they would running sprint intervals, playing a set of tennis or three games of volleyball, but they are using minds and muscles. More information is available at (937) 224-5724 or www.urbankrag.com.

More from the experts

The Springboro Boot Camp for Women isn’t just different from what you might do on your own. Each of the 20 sessions in the four-week course is different. Tuesdays are devoted to one of the newest developments in fitness, Tabata, which consists of intense 20-second bursts of all-out exercise interspersed with 10-second rest periods. A complete cycle takes only three minutes and 50 seconds.

Wall climbing is far more deliberate, includes advance preparation for safety and specialized equipment. Shoes, harnesses, helmets and chalk bags can all be rented.

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