Davis Gyms and Fitness

When sharing his fitness expertise with Village Life, Anthony Adedipe lauded the effects of exercise, maintaining that physical activity "releases endorphins" and "keeps you energized." The certified trainer is distinctively knowledgeable on matters of fitness and health due to his lifetime of athletic experience, his years playing college football, and a decade working in the fitness industry. Anthony brings this wealth of knowledge and experience to his branch of the nationally accredited Adventure Boot Camp, where he and his staff of certified trainers lead women through imaginative, high-intensity workouts. The coaches conduct classes outdoors at Washington Park and occasionally take class field trips to special locations, mixing things up by jogging through a forest or confusing security guards by crab walking through the airport. In addition to fitness instruction, trainers provide members with nutritional advice and pre- and post-measurements.

The next time you're on the roof of a five-story building, look down at the ground, and you'll get a rough idea of just how high people climb at Touchstone Climbing. The gym's seven locations feature lead walls that rise as high as 50 feet off the ground, though height isn't the only dimension that makes the space feel immense. Each spot has at least 11,000 square feet of climbing terrain, not to mention as much as 3,000 square feet of bouldering.

To prevent newcomers from feeling intimidated by the magnitude of the environment, the gym holds introductory classes. During these sessions, participants learn the basic techniques they'll need if they want to conquer the gym's crack systems and boulder problems. The classes are also an opportunity for students to scope out the terrain features at each location, such as Diablo Rock Gym's steep prow, which juts out crookedly like a thumbs up from a dizzy ballerina. While they're at it, the visitors might notice something else: the social nature of the gym. As the San Francisco Chronicle recounts, the fact that lead climbs require two people means that climbers are constantly asking around for new partners and chatting back and forth as they ascend.

Each location also boasts a weight room, cardio machines, and a studio space for everything from yoga to spinning to core classes.

Having struggled with weight problems when she was younger, Healthy Habits Studio owner Rose Zahnn knows the importance of exercise and eating right firsthand. She opened the studio almost 20 years ago, and in that time has seen it grow to hosting more than 25 fitness classes each week.

The Healthy Habits schedule catalogs a diverse selection of group workouts. Fit Body Boot Camp classes each feature a unique workout that helps tone and strengthen muscles, burn fat, and boost metabolisms to burn more calories for hours after the workout, not just during it. In addition to group classes, the staff is available for one-on-one sessions that can focus on weight training, Pilates, and yoga. Rose also offers a weight-loss program in which she emails clients once a day with nutrition and exercise suggestions for 10 days, or the time it takes a team of NASA scientists to reengineer your body into its healthiest, most aerodynamic version.

In 1947, John B. “Bing” Maloney saw that the city of Sacramento had a golfing problem, and that he, as the superintendent of the city’s recreation department, could fix it. The problem lay not with men shirking their familial responsibilities to squeeze in a round, nor with pastors cutting their sermons short in order to join their congregations on the range. Rather, the city’s “principal problem,” as he called it, stemmed from the fact that the only existing course was a measly, overcrowded 9-hole layout—a disservice to the golfers of the community, who wanted a bona fide 18-hole loop. He took the matter up with city officials, presenting such a watertight case that they unanimously voted to not only build a new course, but name it after him. Thanks to Mr. Maloney’s political strategizing and the design input of M.J. McDonaugh, former associate of the legendary course architect Alister MacKenzie, Bing Maloney Golf Course opened in 1952.

Today, the 125-acre site welcomes golfers with wide fairways lined with stately oak trees and the placid ambiance of mid-century golf-course design. Golfers encounter water just once, on the third tee box, where they must make a choice between flying the pond to reach the green 140 yards away or inventing a golf-ball-sized rocket pack. After a round, players can address newfound kinks in their game at the lighted practice area, which includes a putting green and a 40-station driving range with real grass tee boxes.

Championship Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Total length of 6,569 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 70.8 from the back tees
• Course slope of 121 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard

The press certainly likes California Family Fitness, granting the exercise venue such awards as a top spot on KCRA-3's 2012 A-List and Sacramento News and Review's Best of Sacramento 2012 Award. The press, however, isn't the top priority for the gym's staff; they believe that, to quote their about CFF page, “awards don't greet you at the door.” Instead, they depend upon their dedicated staffers at the front desk, chaperones at the Kidz Club play zone, and personal trainers to make families of clients feel at home. Certified personal trainers take aspiring exercisers of all ages through regimens that make use of the 16 available locations' ample workout machinery. Seasoned instructors, meanwhile, hold group fitness classes, free with a membership, fostering community as they incinerate calories during high-energy Zumba, step aerobics, Turbo Kick, and Hip Hop Hustle. Nine of the locations boast pools that host swim lessons taught by certified water-safety instructors.

While hitting the gym, parents can drop wee ones at childcare havens lined with playgrounds and age-appropriate investment manuals. After breaking a sweat on the exercise floor, clients can also shed excess body moisture in saunas and tanning beds.