Creative Programs That Inspire

The St. Paul Jewish Community Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, offers its members B.L.A.S.T. (body locomotion and strength training). According to the online schedule, the intermediate-to-advanced workout is a combination of low-impact cardio and strength training. The facility challenges its members and guests to “have fun exploring some nontraditional exercises that challenge your strength, balance and dexterity.” The St. Paul JCC also offers Logrolling throughout the year. People are invited to the pool to try out their balance, concentration and agility on a wet, constantly turning log.

Buff, Bike & Balance is one of many simple but effective classes offered at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle. This express workout combines 4-minute intervals of cycling, weights and core balance practice.

The RiverWinds Community Center in West Deptford, New Jersey, sends double trouble to teach Tag Team Abs. This class challenges participants with a “blast of core conditioning” taught by two teachers at once.

Members at Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans get fit in a jiffy with Lunch Crunch. All fitness levels are welcome in this 30-minute class, which works the upper body on Tuesdays, the lower body on Thursdays and features a boot camp-style class that incorporates upper- and lower-body exercises on Mondays.

The Beaumont Centre Family YMCA in Lexington, Kentucky, provides a variety of offerings to its membership. The Mixx includes “all fitness components wrapped into one class” and incorporates kickboxing, athletic drills and more. Power Hour is a choreography-free class that utilizes medicine balls, tubes, weights, rings and steps. All levels are welcome.

Equinox is offering a new collection
of mind-body-themed classes tagged “Conscious Movement.” The classes are being offered nationwide and include Circular Strength Training, a combination of moves derived from Prasara yoga, for enhanced flexibility, and “gentle rehabilitation-inspired techniques to increase joint rotation and overall strengthening.” PowerNAP+ is billed as a “head-to-toe tune-up” and includes a 15-minute nap as the finale to 45 minutes of meditation, yoga and teachings from the “Eight Pillars of Wellness.”

20/40/20 includes 20 minutes of strength training, 40 minutes of cycling and 20 minutes of core work. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s department of athletics, physical education and recreation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, markets the class as a “heart-pounding, calorie-burning and core-intensive workout.”