Brownsville Gyms and Fitness

The passionate mastermind behind Kitty Kat Pole Dancing instructs small groups in the sensual arts of pole dancing and body sculpting. Within the red-walled studio lined with billowing white curtains, she helps women to chisel profiles in a variety of pole-dancing classes, during which students tone upper arms by hoisting themselves up to the ceiling and activate abs by slowly twirling back to the ground. Groups can also host sexy parties at the studio, strutting to energetic music and dancing with more grace than a swan quoting Shakespeare.

Athlete Ego Crossfit's team of instructors could mount a convincing mission to colonize a hostile planet. The staff comes from backgrounds that include the military, organized sports, martial arts, exercise science, nutrition, and firefighting. Together, they blend their varied experience into a hard-hitting Marine Corps–style boot camp and freestyle cross-training program designed to kick-start the performance of amateur, high-school, or professional athletes. Lessons take place in a no nonsense 14,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor facility stocked with Olympic weights, kettlebells, climbing ropes, sandbags, rings, and weight sleds. To fine-tune athletes, the crew supplements sports performance training with nutritional advice.

Start 2010 with a kick in your pants from yourself using the foot of someone else with today's side deal: for $65, you get a four-week boot camp session at South Florida Fitness Boot Camp. You'll also get 20% off your next session should you choose to return. Each session meets three days a week, with each class lasting about 45 minutes. That's more than two hours of dedicated team fitness per week for a month, about the same amount of time as the average person spends reading cereal boxes.

Rafael Moret helps his clients to see dramatic changes in their bodies through furious 45-minute workouts that challenge their strength, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. Classes capped at 20 students incorporate TRX rowing motions, fierce mountain-climber kicks, and plank positions designed to build rock-hard cores. Students stay motivated thanks to the support of their peers, squeezing out sets of pushups and squats in unison. Rafael helps to streamline success with detailed nutritional counseling and access to products such as protein bread, made from natural yeast and lumberjack tears.

CrossFit 4U declares itself a CrossFit boutique, in which students of all fitness levels can explore functional movements with personalized attention in an upscale training space. Within the brightly lit studio flecked by vibrant fitness equipment, the passionate instructors push clients through exercises that draw from actions relevant to real life.

The strenuous workouts prime bodies for everyday activities such as climbing stairs, yard work, and lifting heavy objects, such as newborn rhinos. Patrons hoist brightly colored weights and toss medicine balls, and they stimulate major muscle groups with pushups and squats. Each class introduces a new Workout of the Day, which burns calories and swells strength levels at an intense but scalable pace. To supplement CrossFit choreography, staff members also dispense nutrition tips for more wholesome eating plans to enhance workout results.