Fitness Classes in Chicago

At Blockhead Fitness, ACE-certified personal trainer Sean Block and his experienced fitness staff whip bodies into shape with custom full-body workouts in a spacious personal-training studio illuminated with natural light. Exercisers of all abilities can pair up with a trainer and take advantage of a wealth of fitness accouterments, such as free weights, medicine balls, and resistance-training apparatus, to slim down bodies so they can fit comfortably in kangaroo pouches.

Developed by Jill Dailey McIntosh, The Dailey Method is a challenging one-hour program that combines ballet barre work, stretching, core-conditioning, and orthopedic exercises to tone and lengthen bodies. Improve posture, endurance, and strength as muscles grow supple, soft edges firm up, and your sense of physical well-being grows like a Grinch's heart at Christmas. The Dailey Method takes a mindful approach to wellness—its workouts are safe and effective for people of any fitness level, including pregnant women and those recovering from an injury. Check out the Chicago or La Grange schedules for beginning and intermediate class times offered every day, and call ahead to schedule. Participants can use their Groupon for single classes ($20 each), toward any class package, or toward a one-month unlimited pass ($100+). Students should wear comfortable clothing that doesn't restrict movement, alignment, or celebratory robot dancing at the conclusion of class. Locker rooms with showers are available to freshen up after your ultra-workout, so you can scrub off the old you.

Buy here to buy a three-class Stroller Strides pass at UIC's Physical Education Building. Classes meet outdoors beginning May 1 at University Village (Roosevelt & Halsted), West Loop (Adams & Racine), or downtown (Roosevelt & Michigan).

Featured in TimeOut Chicago, Solão Fitness distinguishes itself by hosting nearly 25 different dance-workout classes seven days a week. In naturally lit rooms with glossy maple floors, clients swivel hips to Cardio Samba one day and groove to Hip Hop Body Rock the next. A lounge area and refreshment bar allows Solão's terpsichorean community to hang out before and after class to socialize, decompress, and draw hearts on textbooks.

While teaching jazz dance in the 1960s, Judi Sheppard Missett decided to step away from tradition by offering an experimental class that allowed her students to simply dance without the judgment of mirrors or the constraints of rigid technique. In these sessions, she began infusing popular dance moves with specific fitness workouts to forge a distinctive blend of cardio exercise, strength training, and dance instruction. Little did she know that this “just for fun” class was the prototype for what would become the national fitness sensation known as Jazzercise.

Today, Jazzercise takes its aerobic techniques from a variety of sources that include jazz dance, hip-hop, resistance training, Pilates, yoga, and kickboxing. The class formats, which vary according to different toning goals, are just as diverse as the program's move set. Two-time Dancing with the Stars champion Cheryl Burke is a big fan of the improvisational routines, although her advanced skills aren't needed to get the most out of classes. Instructors cultivate a noncompetitive atmosphere where all exercisers—with the exception of those marked as cursed by jazz-hand palm readers—are welcome regardless of age, build, or fitness background.

At Pure Vibes Fitness, Power Plate vibration equipment stimulates 30–50 reflexive muscle contractions per second to augment a schedule of cardio, sculpting, and strengthening classes. Trainees can hone their physiques in independent workouts or don tweed tracksuits for seminar-style sweat sessions capped at five participants, including kickboxing, barre, and Pilates. The vibrations of tremor technology help build bone density while stimulating up to 97% of the body’s muscle fibers.