Gyms & Fitness Centers in Crestwood

CrossFit Valley Park's instructors combine lifting, gymnastics, and resistance training to achieve full-body fitness. They implement a variety of tools, such as rowing machines, kettlebells, and medicine balls, and mix up routines daily. Changing exercises keeps boredom away, and the array of motions used preps participants for all physical endeavors. It's a system that can easily be scaled to each member's fitness level, as well. Before starting courses, instructors conduct comprehensive introduction processes that include a beginners' class and an evaluation of clients' current condition and movement limitations. They also keep classes small to ensure everyone receives detailed instructions and personal attention.

It's fitting that the Central Institute for Human Performance is located inside a restored high-school building. Since the original lockers still line the hallways and the Karel Lewit Clinic for rehabilitation sits in what used to be the administrative offices, the glossy walls and floors often remind visitors of their athletic dreams when they once strolled through their own high schools. While the rehabilitation clinic treats injuries and physical trauma, the immaculate and spacious gym helps athletes improve or maintain their physical well-being. Fitness instructors challenge their students through innovative, small-group classes such as Strongman workouts. The center's consulting team, which earned a nod from Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak, offers nutritional guidance and lifestyle coaching to help members reach their goals. Professional jerseys hang above modern equipment to further inspire athletes to dream big and remember to pick up their dry cleaning.

The multitalented team of instructors, which includes trainers certified in Agatsu Kettlebell and Commando Krav Maga, helps to strengthen hearts, bodies, and minds during self-defense, fitness, and fight courses. Instructors lead beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of kettlebell fitness, a class that incorporates fundamental swings, cleans, snatches, and Turkish getups to simultaneously work several muscle groups at once.

The team also helps to build endurance by leading participants through Latin dance steps in Zumba and through a tapestry of kicks and punches in cardio kickboxing. Additionally, trainers helm courses in krav maga, a form of martial arts designed to increase confidence, protection, and Bruce Lee comparisons. Following a functional warm-up, instructors run through drills to teach students how to escape from chokes and disarm an opponent using lighting-quick pressure and weakness-point attacks.

Olympia Fencing Academy’s seasoned squad of coaches and trainers imbues swashbuckling pupils with the skills and support necessary to brandish their blades all the way from the classroom to competition. Head coach Sean Horan taught NCAA fencers at Stevens Institute of Technology and the Air Force fencing team, and coach Glenn MacDonald harnesses his training with five-time Olympian Michael Marx to improve his students' lunges and olive-skewering strategies. Staffers stay abreast of annual national tournaments and often teach a number of apprentices who go on to enter the U.S. National Fencing Competition each year. In addition to in-house training, Olympia Fencing Academy supports community outreach and education programs with school fencing lessons, field trips, and dueling-swordfish demonstrations.

Having played and coached at the professional and Major League levels, instructors are equipped with a wealth of knowledge, which they tote to the indoor training facility where baseball and softball players of all ages hone their skills. Athletes can rent space and purchase memberships to rehearse technique on their own, or they can enroll in clinics, camps, and group or private lessons. Ten batting cages, which lock up feral mascots who escape from their plush zoo, stripe the space, and 25-foot ceilings give players plenty of room to train. Two 75'x75' turf areas can combine into one jumbo-size field, and pitchers practice in one of four lanes.