Things To Do In Calabasas

As a massage therapist working in a physical therapy office, Maricar Pratt noticed how safely and effectively Pilates helped postsurgical patients rehabilitate their bodies. She enrolled in New York's Physicalmind Institute to earn her certification then came to West Hollywood to study Pilates Cadillac use more in-depth. After working as a Pilates instructor and personal trainer at various locales, she decided to open Better Body Fitness. She gathered a professional staff able to customize a variety of fitness routines to help people with various needs and goals—whether they're recovering from an injury, supplementing dance training, or striving to whip into shape. Instructors train students of all fitness level, and celebrities have been known to stop by, including Denise Richards, Rick Fox, and Howie Mandel, according to USA Today's CelebWatch.

The instructors offer a diverse range of classes so that their members can mix up their workouts whenever they'd like. During mat-based classes, instructors help students gain strength, flexibility, and balance as they learn how to align their bodies without the use of the studio's equipment or a magical genie. Barre classes shape and tone muscles with ballet's elongating and conditioning movements, and high-energy Dance with Me classes fuse styles including hip-hop, Bollywood, and hula to motivate fancy footwork into action. The studio also offers TRX suspension-training classes, which leverage the students' body weight in exercises that help sculpt lean muscle, and yoga classes harness Vinyasa flows to build strength and self-awareness.

You could run 150,000 miles on one of Group Interval Training's Woodway treadmills and never need to change its belt. But despite their equipment's shock-absorbing capabilities, the fitness instructors focus on short running sessions, which they call Sprint Intervals, in their signature Tread/TRX group fitness classes. They combine these treadmill workouts with an ever-changing lineup of strength and endurance exercises, which incorporate equipment such as resistance bands and medicine balls, or as giants call them, aspirin. The classes span 60 minutes, but according to Group Interval Training, the routines help students continue to burn calories long after they step out of the fitness studio.

Other fitness classes expand on the Tread/TRX program. Total Body Conditioning, for example, adds speed
 ropes, stability
 balls,
 and body‐weight-training 
exercises to the regimen
. Though the details may vary from class to class, one thing remains constant: the support of fellow exercisers and trainers, who happily supply complimentary towels and water.

By age 5, Richie Gaona had already learned trapeze and performed with his family, The Flying Gaonas. Over the next 45 years, his art would take him across the globe. During that time he soared with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, and as a stunt man his acrobatic skills were featured in films such as Back to the Future II and Van Helsing. Today he hopes to use those experiences, as well as his experience as trainer to Circus of the Stars, to help others defy gravity through trapeze, high wire, trampoline, and other three-ring activities. As he displayed on The Ellen Show, Richie prepares beginners with on-ground instruction before swinging them into maneuvers such as the knee-hang catch. During his flying trapeze classes, students swing on the trapeze while harnessed to safety lines, letting go to perform knee hang catches before trying to get back to the trapeze. Just as he has taught everyone from beginners to A-list celebrities, Richie helps students of all skill levels learn to fly majestically regardless of their previous experience.

Rouhi Savoji emigrated to the U.S. in 1995 for more than just a change of scenery. She wanted to share her passion for belly dancing and Persian dance, which she first discovered in a dance club in her native Tehran at age 16 and would continue to refine through a heralded dance career that included performing for the Shah of Iran and acting in plays, movies, and television shows. Her globe-spanning experience is on full display at Rouhi Dance Studio, where she and her talented troupe of dance instructors teach classes that unlock styles including salsa, hip-hop, Zumba, country-western, Argentinean tango, belly dancing, and Persian dance for kids and adults. Her studio also houses a clothing boutique, where dancers can outfit themselves with shimmery costumes and sashes that can help them stand out on the dance floor or earn a boy-scout badge for improvised semaphore.

The Dailey Method builds strength and flexibility through movements that engage entire physiques and focus on proper alignment, earning praise by publications such as InStyle magazine. Helmed by owners who trained under the eponymous founder of the method, Jill Dailey, certified instructors at the Calabasas studio lead 60-minute classes where students tighten up for bikini season or tone muscles to prep for the flexing portion of a job interview. A melding of yoga poses, core conditioning, and orthopedic exercises, the method tones muscles as instructors offer modifications to accommodate all skill levels. Moves on a ballet barre enhance balance and coordination, and floor work summons sweat with torso-tightening repetitions. Parents can drop their whippersnappers off in childcare, stash their jackets and inflatable muscle suits in lockers, and shower before heading home.

A full-service bike shop embracing road, mountain, and casual riders alike, Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery suits every whim and riding style, from its mechanics performing basic repairs or complete system overhauls to its supply of custom-built frames and wheels. Two-wheeled mounts from brands such as Trek, Jamis, and Knolly wag their handlebars from racks along the wall, and the shop rewards new adopters with a slew of perks, from free tune-ups for a year to unlimited cups of coffee for owners and hot WD-40 for bikes. In addition, 5% of all pre-tax profits help benefit organizations dedicated to preserving California’s natural gems and cycling havens, such as the Santa Monica Mountains Fund and the Mountains Restoration Trust.