Classes in Comstock Park

The Club Fitness & Tanning is a full-service fitness center fostering a healthier lifestyle for its members through a host of sweat-inducing services. Members gain access to a plethora of strength-building circuit-training equipment, free weights, and cardio machines, which, unlike racing thoughts and running jokes, actively work to combust calories. Keep muscles motivated and limbs limber with a wide array of group fitness classes, including aerobics, kickboxing, toning, and yoga, and build tone and group-mind under the watchful eye of a skilled instructor.

Snap Fitness's around-the-clock gyms enable visitors to fortify their physical well-being with a cornucopia of advanced fitness equipment and certified personal trainers. With 24-hour access, members don't have to let The Man or one of his many secretaries tell them when to help themselves to Snap's strength-training gear or top-of-the-line cardio machines, which feature televisions and other media diversions. A friendly, unintimidating atmosphere provides a refreshing change of pace from aloof gym employees and ear-splitting pump-up jams. Members also enjoy nationwide access to all Snap Fitness locations, ideal for working out while traveling.

With machines set up in rows to encourage competition, many ordinary gyms cater to men's bodies and psychology, right down to the urinals that were "accidentally" installed in the women's locker room. At Curves, you'll move around a circuit of hydraulic resistance machines that have been designed to work with women's bodies and promote weight loss, protect against osteoporosis, and deal with arthritis. An experienced trainer is always nearby to help manage your machine maneuvering and your muscle making. Instead of fiddling with weight stacks and losing your momentum, the hydraulic machines use your body weight and fitness level to create resistance that matches your abilities, decreasing the risk of soreness or injury. Because traditional lift-and-lower motions create bulky muscles, each machine uses push-and-pull motions to create toned, lean muscles perfect for crushing a grapefruit without looking like you can.

Seva Yoga's teachers host daily classes that vary in style and difficulty to accommodate students of all abilities inside the studio’s serene, high-ceilinged sanctuary. Certified yoga instructors move about the practice space during sessions, including moderate and gentle classes, offering verbal cues and hands-on adjustments to help beginners sink into stretches. Vinyasa sweat sessions encourage more seasoned yogis to hone their meditation skills while moving from one pose to the next with balance-challenging movements designed to bolster muscles without adding bulk or its attendant purple shorts. In total, six different types of classes are available, with some sessions taught on donation basis. The studio also teaches a 200-hour program designed to pass along knowledge to budding yoga instructors.

When the Douglas J Aveda Institute opened in Knoxville in 2011, it joined a family of institutes and salons that Douglas Weaver started in the 1960s. Here, Aveda students pursue certification in cosmetology and esthiology while practicing their craft on real clients under the supervision of licensed educators. And because students perform the services, the rates are lower than at traditional salons. The Knoxville treatment menu includes hair design—cuts, color, retexturizing—as well as Aveda’s Elemental Nature facials, pedicures, and manicures.

The Institute is inside the historic S&W Grand building, a handsome art-deco landmark that, like a compassionate fairy-tale prince, is equally handsome on the inside. The spa rooms have a rustic balance of exposed brick and wood paneling, and the salon’s geometric light fixtures gleam upon checkerboard tile floors and industrial shelving lined with Aveda’s signature products.

Internationally trained and Pilates Method Alliance–certified instructor Ahmé Bovée channels more than 15 years of experience as a fitness instructor into her core-strengthening workouts. After ending her five-year career as the host of Canada's popular Pilates in Guelph television series in 2007, she founded her open, sun-kissed studio. At Pilates in East, she helps students of all ages and abilities boost flexibility and endurance with resistance bands, weights, and reformer machines during group Pilates classes and private training sessions. This busy instructor deftly divides her time between these Pilates classes. She hosts teacher training certification programs and—like that dollar bill with the online tracking URL—travels the country to present at Pilates on Tour conferences.