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Getting Fit Gets Personal
Grunting, groaning, overzealous aerobics instructors and bad music: It's easy to see why going to the gym is an acquired taste. But if you've made a resolution to get in better shape this year?or...
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...Samba
At Dance Center Chicago, slow ballroom music fills the air as couples gracefully twirl each other. An instructor catches my confused gaze. "Edilson's class is in Studio Three, that way," she says,...
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Hard Core
photo: courtesy of Exhale Muffin tops, spare tires, love handles?whatever you call them, flabby abs don't look so sexy, even if you pretty them up with cute names, baggy tops or trendy belts. So get...
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So You Wanna Bat Like a Pro?
photo: Clifton Henri On a recent Sunday afternoon, I joined a horde of baseball fanatics at BASH Sports Academy, a 15,000-square-foot Mecca to all things baseball. I looked around at the little boys...
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Award-winning Workout Spots
photo: courtesy of Crunch; you can take a pole dancing class at our winner for best group classes Does the clientele get you to the gym? Or is it the yummy, post-workout meal you can't resist? How...
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So You Wanna Play in the Sand?
Playing in the sandbox used to be a great way to spend a relaxing day with your buddies?when you were about four years old. Just because you're an adult now, though, doesn't mean that you have to...
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Get Fit and Give Back
If you're like us, you indulged in a few extra brownies this spring, figuring you'd work them off by June. But since then, you've spent far more time drinking in your backyard than jogging down the...
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Child's Play
photo: Courtesy of Complete Pregnancy Fitness with Erin O'Brien When I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was nothing. As in get back into bed with a pint of ice-cream and give myself a...
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So You Wanna Makko-ho?
photo: Sharon Hoyer Life in the big city can be stressful?navigating through mobs in the Loop, squashing into overcrowded busses, shaking your fist (or parts thereof) at reckless taxis?and one of the...
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Train Like An Olympian
photo: STNG file photo We can't all be like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, winning a gazillion gold medals, making a fortune on endorsements and wrecking Stuart Scott's computer for a SportsCenter...
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So You Wanna Be a Trapeze Artist?
photo: Margot Dahl Everyone gets a turn on the trapeze at Aloft's class. Like the long lean muscles, body awareness and strong core that comes from pilates but get a little bored on the mat or...
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So You Wanna...Do AcroYoga?
photo: Ronald Leon Hale IV Do you remember that giddy childhood bliss you felt when your dad would lay on his back with his legs straight up in the air and you balanced atop them? Well area adults are...
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Chaturanga for Cheap
With yoga boasting various health benefits, like increased flexibility, stress relief, detoxifying the body, massaging the internal organs and creating long, lean muscles, you'd be wise to start...
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Winter Workouts
photo: courtesy of Core Power Yoga Work on your core in the South Loop. There are few better reasons to skip a workout than a bad Chicago winter day. The stress of the holiday season is enough to make...
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Pair Up to Work Out
photo: courtesy of Dance Center Working out solo gets old. It's hard to motivate yourself to get to the gym all on your lonesome, and you're bound to get fit faster when you have a buddy watching you...
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End-of-the-Year Workout Deals
A new year is nearly upon us, meaning it's time to make those annual resolutions of losing weight, hitting the gym and exercising a little more. After gaining a few pounds from those holiday dinners...
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Game On!
You should probably join a winter sports league because: a) you need to start exercising now to stave off the looming holiday weight-gain, but the idea of signing your life away to a gym gives you...
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So You Wanna Cross-country Ski?
If flying down a hill crowded with lots of zigzagging skiers doesn't sound like fun, but you'd still like to try some sort of Nordic skiing, go the cross-country-ski route. Aside from getting you out...
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So You Wanna Try Budokon?
Budokon instructor Joseph Ensign doing an extended crow. You won't find a workout like Budokon at many gyms in Chicago, because technically it doesn't belong at a gym. It's definitely not a group...
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So You Wanna Street Fight?
photo: courtesy of POW! I work out on a regular basis, but I know that if anyone ever attacked me, my muscles would go limp and I'd simply start to cry. Not the best reaction, I know. So on a recent...
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So You Wanna Breakdance?
If you think breakdancing died with the '80s, think again; it may have disappeared from mainstream culture, but it never died. The art of breakdancing, one of the four elements of hip-hop (alongside...
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Vinyasa Vacation
Sometimes, the difference between being completely frustrated and defeated by a yoga pose and finding your strength and inner calm while practicing can be something as simple as adjusting the hips,...
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Burning Down the House
photo: David-Anthony Gonzalez Czarina Mirani leads a house-music dance class. When disco fell victim to the guillotine, house music (an electronic dance style with Chicago origins) rose from its grave....
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Get Out and Play
We only have a finite number of days to enjoy in Chicago, so you better not waste them. And what better way to get out and enjoy the weather than by joining a sports team? Get out and get fit with...
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Couples That Play Together Stay Together
Minimum gravity, maximum workout. Is your sweetheart bored with your weekend Netflix night? Or maybe you finally mustered up enough courage to ask out that hottie from spin class, and you know she...
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