Health & Fitness in Calgary

Though its store is filled with helmets, bike parts, and riding accessories, Rebound Cycle aspires to be a classroom. Its bike-savvy staff members "strive to be educators, not suppliers"—according to the store's mission statement—as they set riders up with ideal wheels and rental gear for day trips down Legacy Trail. They place special emphasis on comfort through customized services; for example, they adjust cycle components to suit a customer's body type, range of motion, and prior injuries during two-hour bike fittings in their studio. In line with its educational mission and community spirit, the staff maintains a schedule of upcoming group rides and races, and composes online tutorials that cover common questions, such as how to select a safe seat.

Rebound Cycle sees its "students" off on fully assembled and test-ridden bikes from Giant, Trek, Niner, and other brands, often decked out with accessories including cup-holders and tire pumps. Staff members attend recurring training sessions with experts from various factories, ensuring that they can tune up or completely overhaul almost any cycle, even the types that they don't sell. An environmental-consciousness policy dictates that they recycle the cardboard, oil, and packing materials that pass through the locally owned shop.

Bow River and its adjacent aquatic arteries join ponds and marshland at Golf Canada Calgary Centre, creating aquatic layouts for the Les Furber–designed, 9-hole, par-3 course and the 18-hole, par-72 all-grass putting course. Hole 9 on the putting course even challenges players with an island green, and those who make it there without getting wet can pretend to be castaways even after the sun has set, thanks to stadium-style lighting.

To gear up for the courses’ myriad challenges, golfers can buckle down at a heated, lighted driving range that ranked in Golf Range Magazine’s 2010 Top 100 Golf Ranges in America. The swingers practice their long game from 52 enclosed tee boxes, aiming at target greens or clouds shaped like flag pins. Nearby, putters take the stage at a short-game practice area with a 4,000-square-foot putting green, a 3,500-square-foot pitching and chipping green, and greenside and fairway practice bunkers. Golfers can also hone their game in high-definition golf simulators, which unlock the fairways of legendary courses such as Pebble Beach and Pinehurst, or enroll in lessons with PGA of Canada pros led by award-winning instructor Jay Myren.

Intent on helping others attain their fitness goals in the shortest and safest possible amount of time, Dave MacDonald employed his experiences as a certified personal trainer and his know-how garnered as a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University’s Human Kinetics program to found Vitality Fitness Group. Dave’s staff of affable instructors shares his vision and strives to foster a nonjudgmental workout space that differs from a generic gym in its conscious eschewal of intimidation, overcrowding, and life-sized Schwarzenegger cut-outs. Opting instead for small classes, Dave seeks to develop a personalized approach to wellness. In order to keep each 45-minute boot camp entertaining and to prevent boredom, instructors cover an ever-changing variety of exercises, combining traditional training methods such as light running and sprinting from the clutches of minotaurs with fun activities including obstacle courses. Aware that getting bodies in motion remains only half of the svelting equation, Dave's team also proffers nutritional and motivational advice to interested participants.

Bikram Yoga Northwest’s certified team of women instructors cultivates healthy lifestyles through the Hatha-style yoga practice and shares their passion with students of all ages and fitness levels within their eco-friendly, heated studio. As students bend and stretch through the series of 26 postures, they draw in deep breaths of purified air passing through the room’s air exchange system. This custom system ensures that the studio's warm and humid environment remains as fresh and pure as the morning dew on Mr. Clean's forehead. Further keeping the studio sanitary, it is floored with anti-microbial Mondo Yoga flooring, which serves double duty in preventing bacteria and cushioning yogis with a softer and slip-resistant workout surface. Eco-friendly practices extend throughout the on-site changing rooms and showers, which sprinkle guests with drops from low-flow showerheads and thermal-efficient hot-water tanks.

Medical Director Dr. Parminder Sandhu of Yuva Aesthetics & Wellness helms a team of holistic health coaches, laser techs, smoking-cessation therapists, and skin specialists. Her office’s customized HCG weight-loss programs cater to any body type and gender as they create slimming game plans with prescriptions and nutraceutical products from brands including Metagenics. Yuva’s skin specialists, armed with Environ and Latisse products, concentrate on restoring youthful complexions as they fight fine lines with dermal filler injections and steam rolls cellulite until fat deposits scamper away from the Accent RF’s dermal heating powers like a ant running away from a stale pile of honey. Yuva is also fully equipped to clear troublesome body brush with Cutera Coolglide and LightSheer laser hair-removal systems.

The course at Boulder Creek demands both strength and control as players knock dimpled orbs about the 6,963-yard Ron Ehlert design. Each challenger must remain wary of the terrain’s most prominent feature: the 30 acres of water that confront play on 14 of the 18 holes. Despite the daunting watery depths, the course caters to all levels of golfer with five sets of tee boxes that render the course as short as 5,272 yards or as long as 6,963 yards. Additionally, an on-site practice facility comprised of a 300-yard driving range and a putting green offers an ideal spot to limber up before a round or practice for the professional mini-golf circuit.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Five sets of tees per hole
• Total length of 6,963 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 72.2 from the back tees
• Course slope of 125 from the back tees
• Designed by Ron Ehlert