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.
Urban Krag owner Karl Williamson said climbing does work “parts of the body you didn’t know you had,” but also strengthens the mind.
“Most people are leery of heights and that’s a good thing. You do have to be careful. But you can’t let that control you. Everybody who ties in and climbs has to go through that,” he said.
Hours are 1 to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays. One-day passes are $12 for adults, $10 for children 10 and younger. Ten-day cards are $100. There are also monthly, three-month, annual and family memberships.
Drake, who has trained many professional fighters at his “old-school gym,” said Hits & Mitts tends to attract more women than men. There’s also a youth version called Kids & Mitts.
“It’s a full-body, 60-minute workout for boxers without the contact. It works the heart, legs and upper body. Some people say they feel like they need to get in shape before they come here, but you can come and jump right in, no matter what level you are,” he said.
There is no membership fee. Cost is $10 per class, $54 for a “six-pack,” $96 for a “12-pack” and $65 for an inclusive monthly membership.
“We always get a surge at this time of the year. That’s starting. The phone is ringing,” he said.
Nina Wharton, who’s been taking Zumba for two years, hasn’t convinced her husband, Dan, to join her there yet. He claims to have “two left feet.” She does have him alongside her in Pump You Up, a movement and weights class that has drawn many men to Studio Zumba on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
The Whartons are both family doctors in Brookville.
He promised her several weeks ago that “I’ll go dance if you let me buy a Harley.” He has the motorcycle and is now at least “thinking about taking beginner Zumba after pump. Nina has lost 40 pounds and looks like she did when we started dating. It was time for me to do this. I’ve been telling patients for years how important it is to exercise,” he said.
Drop-in classes are $10 there. Multi-class punch cards are available.
Owner Jacqueline Allen said the “Pole Boot Camp” at Femme Fatale Fitness costs $10 per class and “has really exploded.” First half of class consists of learning and building a pole routine to a fast-paced pop song. “I get your booty shakin’,” she said. “The second half is a boot camp with the pole.”
Her students “always give me dirty looks during the boot camp portion, but they come back every week and bring their friends. We also have classes in burlesque, which gets them shaking off the pounds.”
For battling cabin fever, Faith Tuss of Vandalia advocates community recreation centers like the one she goes to in Vandalia.
“It’s an addictive place with an extremely friendly and professional staff. There’s no such thing as the winter workout doldrums here,” she said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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