Athens, AL Health and Fitness

Dr. Mark Appel, a certified diagnostic and therapeutic eye doctor, is always onsite at Eye See Optical, providing expert ocular care on the floor or in the store’s in-house lab. He stocks his shop with an mélange of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and actual coke bottles from designer brands such as Oakley, Italee, and Kazuo Kawasaki. He and his staff can also conjure up custom frames for customers overwhelmed by the store’s selection of more than 400 styles.

Huntsville Adventure Boot Camp for Women exchanges dull runs on the treadmill for all-female fitness routines in the great outdoors. Ladies build new friendships along with lean layers of muscle during sessions, which shift through bodyweight exercises, calisthenics, and ab work that keeps the magma portion of human cores from fizzling out. As part of the Adventure Boot Camp program created by Dr. John Spencer Ellis, the classes encourage camaraderie between attendees of all backgrounds and builds, unlike high school, which encourages attendees to divide into cliques named after meals.

Sunset Landing Golf Course blankets the countryside with a 6,803-yard, par 72 course that incorporates the landscape's natural challenges into its design. Throughout the round, bentgrass greens await at the end of each hole, where golfers arrive after successfully steering their shots through Bermuda-grass fairways and avoid waking predatory sprinklers. With a course rating of 71.9 from the tips and 66.9 from the closest tees, the course caters to players across the handicap spectrum. Golfers can warm up for their round by hitting practice shots and dead lifting golf carts at Sunset Landing’s driving range.

Six water hazards supply the bulk of difficulty at Cedar Ridge Golf Course, where golfers hunt pars across a relatively flat, 18-hole layout. Golfers must evade the course’s waterways on 11 holes, giving advantage to those who trust their swings or designed tiny life vests for their golf balls. Dense trees lines loom on the edge of fairways on the back nine, and undulating greens challenge putters throughout the course. Cedar Ridge keeps its par-hunters energized for the round with an onsite snack bar.

Richland Golf Center summons clubbers of all stripes with its sprawling, multifaceted swing-honing facility and a staff of ace instructors. Revolving around a central pond, the nine-hole executive course helps players master their approaches with seven par 3s and two par 4s that ensure drivers won't start questioning their self-worth. Clients can groom their game in pressure-free sessions at the 40 all-grass hitting stalls of the driving range, at the 2-acre short-game area, or by enrolling in one many golf lesson options.

The center also encompasses an 18-hole mini-golf course, which eschews gimmicky clowns and windmills in favor of a calming layout with misting fountains and obstacles such as water hazards, bunkers, and out-of-bounds areas. Clients can pair renovated swings with brand-new clubs in the pro shop, which peddles gear from brands such as TaylorMade, Srixon, Cleveland, or enlist the center's experts to regrip their current clubs or replace driver shafts snapped during sand-trap pole-vaulting competitions.

Dr. Patrick Wilson has reconstructed the ears and cleft lips of residents in other countries, and he has also found a way to give back to the community in which he grew up––by helping its inhabitants feel confident. At Wilson Plastic Surgery, he lifts, reduces, and reconstructs body areas, enhances natural features, and removes stubborn areas of fat. Alongside a medical aesthetician, he helps rid skin of fine lines, acne, mild scarring, and lipstick marks with medical microdermabrasion, facials, and exfoliating peels using skincare products from PCA Skin, Therapon, and Colorescience.

After discovering a passion for pole dancing, friends and business partners Mia King and Ashley Nelson founded Black Diamond Studios so they could share the sensual fitness regimen with the women and telephone poles of Huntsville. Their candy-colored studio hosts a range of classes designed to boost both strength and self-confidence, including pole classes for all abilities, belly dancing, and tantalizing burlesque sessions. Instructors also lead occasional workshops to school students in a particular modality or subject, demonstrating the sultry moves required to get inside a fireman's heart without the use of chili.