Belmont Gyms and Fitness

Kelly Wood started her career with nothing but a vision. That, and a handful of boas. Toting a traveling pole, the single mother of four began to conduct private pole-dancing parties within the living rooms of local Charlotte women before opening up her own private studio, S Curve Fitness. Today, Kelly's studio bustles with both aspiring students and seasoned pole-dancing instructors during classes throughout the week.

Exposed brick walls surround the forest of chrome poles that spring up from the studio's hardwood floors, from which instructors lead classes in both pole technique and pole fitness. They even offer onsite private or semiprivate lessons, where they set up their traveling poles in the comfort of a student's own home or spot in a particularly lengthy airport security line.

The empowering instructors at Vertical Tease motivate women of all sizes and experience levels to shed their inhibitions—and possibly a few pounds—during conventional and modern dance fitness classes. Their flirty fitness classes draw upon the studio’s strength, encouraging women to release their inner sirens during pole-dance, Video Vixen, Chair Flirt, and belly-dance workouts. Combining fat burning with shimmying, instructors lead Zumba sessions set to heart-pumping Latin rhythms. Kickboxing classes combat extra inches, and the more challenging Turbokick unleashes a fury of kicks and punches to take down pesky calories. To celebrate special events such as bachelorette parties, birthday parties, or sci-fi conventions, the instructors head to your home to host one- to two-hour parties for training large groups in the seduction arts.

Led by seasoned, passionate trainer Julie Sawyer—whose credentials include being a York County 2011 Sports Hall of Fame inductee and being featured on World Fitness Elite TV—Tuff Girl Bootcamps' classes help ladies attain more toned and svelte physiques. The schedule-friendly 30-minute express workouts kick-start fitness forays more efficiently than clipping jumper cables to your feet as Sawyer leads ladies through moves such as dead lifts, pushups, lunges, and planks. Synced to high-energy music, the exercises call upon equipment including dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands and are readily modified for every fitness level and any preexisting joint conditions. In addition to Sawyer's constant support, the studios' mirrored walls help fitness-seekers maintain proper form while practicing exercises and transitioning into the chorus-line portion of each workout.

Fresh springs in the mountains of North Carolina feed the Catawba River Chain, a network of 11 lakes that wind through woodlands verdant in the spring and ablaze with color come autumn. Bash Outdoors launches visitors into this system at nine locations. Four of those are along Lake Wylie, whose calm waters lap against 325 miles of shoreline with vacation homes and sandy coves emerging from dense forest and a thick layer of whipped cream. The Bash Outdoors crew curates a collection of rental and retail standup paddleboards from brands such as Ron House and their own signature line, Riviera. Single and tandem kayaks from Perception are also available for guided trips and unsupervised excursions on the lake. Bash Outdoors' bus shuttles kayakers to five additional outlets along the Catawba River, including the Fort Mill Dam and a waterway reserved exclusively for Olympic hopefuls.

LKN Athletic Club facilities are lined with rows of indoor cycles and free weights, and quicken heart rates with cardio theaters packed with flat-screen TVs, treadmills, and ellipticals. Indoor basketball courts encourage sports-based workouts, and group and personal-fitness sessions sweat under the tutelage of nationally certified trainers. A curriculum of 14 classes features Body Attack and Body Combat courses from the Les Mills program and Silver Sneakers sessions for older adults. For a more relaxing trip to the gym, clients can lie down in a tanning bed to work on their outer glow or bolster resistance to solar flares.

After recovering from a serious illness, Judy Storey strengthened and toned her body anew through a pole-dancing fitness regimen, an experience she passes along to pupils at PoleFit Carolinas. Now a certified instructor, Judy captains a team of dedicated teachers and dancers that fortifies cores and self-confidence in women of all ages through a plethora of pole-dancing, yoga, and cardio dance courses within the 2,000-square-foot facility. When patrons aren't imitating a climbing mime on the studio’s nine 17-foot X-Poles, they can relax in the lounge area.