Ames, IA Health and Fitness

Brenton Skating Plaza's outdoor ice-skating rink is comprised of a 120'x60' sheet of ice that can hold up to 220 skaters. There, skaters—equipped with one of 450 pairs of skates available for rent—can cut lines through the ice in the open air, surrounded by all-glass boards. Throughout the season, which stretches from November to March, the rink hosts skating lessons, broomball games, and public skating.

Dr. Joe Solinger doesn’t like to see his patients suffer. That’s why, as head of Jordan Creek Family Dentistry, PC, he focuses on setting them at ease with relaxation dentistry techniques. Using a combination of aromatherapy, nitrous oxide, and attention-diverting CDs and DVDs, he strives to make visits to the dentist as relaxing as tea time with one’s favorite stuffed animals. As patients relax in comfort, Dr. Solinger performs restorative and cosmetic procedures that range from filling cavities to whitening teeth stained by trying to eat still-life paintings of apples. Dr. Solinger also offers orthodontics and aligner orthodontics, including the orthodontic system Clear Correct.

When not tending to mouths at his practice, Dr. Solinger contributes to the community through organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Smile Squad Mobile Dental Clinic.

Owner Kimberly Lowman ensures that the Body Detox Center lives up to its name by offering natural, detoxifying treatments that promote optimal well-being. To purge toxins from the skin, clients dip their feet into an electrically stimulated salt-infused footbath. During three cycles of vibrations, Kimberly watches as the water transforms colors and textures, "reading [the] water, like one reads tea leaves…" wrote Jen Mulson for The Gazette. Kimberly’s also helps clients detox on the go with a personal line of North Pole Magnets that come in a variety of easy-to-wear accessories including bracelets, ankle wraps, and alloy-woven footie pajamas. The center also carries Phoenix Nutritional supplements available for purchase.

After an eye exam, knowledgeable sales staffers guide patients through the boutique's collection of frames from Coach, Ray-Ban, Prada, and Gucci, searching for lens pairings that make driving, computer work, and games of Operation easier. Technicians can then have prescriptions ready in as little as one hour.

Kris Larrison has been teaching fitness classes for more than 20 years, in addition to being an avid runner. "After years of running, and running competitively, your body starts breaking down a little bit," she says. "Yoga was good for me to get into."

And though there were only a few yoga studios in the area, there wasn't a single hot-yoga studio around—so she opened the first. Classes started out in the basement of a building, and often there were only one or two people. Kris didn't mind; she was doing it for fun. But, as she says, "word got out" and the business grew. As classes swelled to 30 people packed into the small space, she decided to open a larger storefront studio.

Today, she has a crew of certified instructors who lead classes in the hot-yoga studio, which runs from 95 to 104 degrees. Why the heat? In addition to increasing flexibility, helping detoxify the body through sweat, and helping home-brought dragon eggs to hatch, heat increases yoga's cardiovascular benefits. "You get that oxygen into the blood a lot better with the heat," Kris says. In addition to hot yoga, Kris has a studio dedicated to hot barre classes. Using a ballet barre to help everyone go higher and lower, classes do motions such as lunges and squats. The heat, she says, "kicks it up a little bit."

For Kris, the most rewarding thing has been seeing her studio foster relationships; because it's more of a boutique studio, rather than a large health club, people get to know one another. "It's very rewarding to see people come in after a year or so of practicing, and see how much they've accomplished, and how much stronger they are," she says.

We are an 18-hole public golf course located in the heart of Iowa. We showcase bentgrass tees, fairways, and greens and over 40 undulating bunkers. Our course pays tribute to the links traditions of golf by relying on the prairie winds and fescue grasses as the primary defenses.