Bootcamp in Elmwood Park

At first sight, David Barton Gym might appear to be an art gallery or swank pad complete with pounded steel plating and leather-wrapped door handles, but a second glance reveals a 30,000-square-foot fitness haven overlooking the Chicago River. The designer gym is loaded with free weights, cardio machines, a spin studio, steam rooms, a Russian bath, and a space for yoga class. Meet up with an experienced hardbody personal trainer and melt fat like a George Foreman grill with a barrage of pushups, sit-ups, or 20 minutes on the TV-topped elliptical machine. Renew your will with a massage from one of Barton's three full-time therapists and let them unkink the knots that prevent you from having the strength needed to throw a dictionary through a thicker dictionary.

Five Star's expert squad of instructors uses a five-part system to boost metabolisms and challenge minds and muscles over the course of each one-hour camp. A dynamic warm-up heats muscles before they're strengthened and toned with diverse core-firming exercises. Next, boot campers will improve endurance, boost agility, and zap calories in an intense power circuit. In the heat of your workout you'll sweat out weakness, fear, and monosodium glutamate and begin to gain the functional, unsurpassed strength of a body in fluid, powerful motion. Each session ends with tag, a relay, or other calorie-burning drills, followed by an ice-cube-juggling cool down to prepare the body for a sinew-strengthening recovery. All levels of fitness are welcome—just be sure to bring grit, determination, workout clothes, water, and your best squat face. With four locations and a full, flexible schedule, flab's numbered days will earn it a 24-hour endangered-species telethon. Though Five Star conducts classes in six-week blocks, Groupon holders can sample the sweet sessions for three weeks or go all in for a body-transforming 16 weeks.

After years of research and exercise, Dr. John Spencer Ellis felt he'd hit upon a premium fitness formula for producing athletes. Inviting Kelli Calabrese, a master trainer, to help him develop a curriculum, the two pooled their exercise knowledge—which amounted to 45 years of industry experience and 35 fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle certifications. From this wealth of training and education, they created Intense Mixed Performance Accelerated Cross Training, or IMPACT Fitness Boot Camp.

Their formula requires that each workout begin with a sports-conditioning-style dynamic warm-up, before proceeding into speed, agility, and quickness training, which allows patrons to more effectively chase cars down the highway. They then challenge students with full-body-strength conditioning, which focuses on all the muscles versus only the muscle group you want to train, and a high-intensity session of cardio training. Though the formula always remains the same, the exercises vary from session to session. One day, patrons might heave medicine balls and sprints, the next, they might jump rope and stretch TRX bands.

Getting in shape wasn't just a good idea for Tami Haukedahl; it was the law. The state required the now-retired trooper captain to pass regular fitness exams during her 27 years of service. Today, she brings the techniques that kept her hale for three decades to her students, helping them to achieve their health and fitness goals through her boot camps and one-on-one personal training.

Patrons of all fitness levels and ages gather at her camps, where she cultivates an uplifting atmosphere of camaraderie built on positive reinforcement and respect. Using free weights and body-weight resistance exercises, Tami motivates students to increase their strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance. Her boot camps take place outdoors during the summer months, leading her students in dodging nature's obstacles while laughing in the face of minor precipitation. During the winter, boot camps move to an indoor facility, mostly to avoid all the leering snowmen, where campers work up a sweat while completing similarly varied routines.

Shelton Matsey knows how to whip people into shape. As a former Air Defense officer for the U.S. Army, he motivated his soldiers to reach their peak levels of fitness, resulting in some of the highest physical training scores in his unit. He now helms a squad of AFAA- and ACE-certified personal trainers to share their ample fitness expertise across the studio’s Chicago, McCook, and Tinley Park locations. The studio’s signature indoor boot-camp classes set muscle groups alight with cardio drills, leap-inducing plyometrics and strength-building exercises, such as heaving free weights in the form of balls, oversize tires, and lethargic moose. Cardio Core classes utilize high-intensity interval training to push patrons to burn fat, increase endurance, and strengthen cores during short workout sessions, and the non-contact kickboxing classes work multiple muscle groups as students strike, jab, and jump rope. Fit Code’s staff nutritionist also hosts cooking classes, which elucidate tips on healthier eating and nutritious food demonstrations.

Insisting that "if you can blink you can do yoga," Ganesha Yoga and Adventures in Fitness describes itself as "real yoga for real people." The studio stands against the notion that yoga is only for fit people and Twister champions. Twelve classes a week are designed specifically for parents and kids of all ages. As a complement to yoga, professional dance instructors guide you through energizing classes like BollyGroove Cardio, Nia, Hoop Fit, Zumba/yoga fusion and the Charleston. Since “yoga butts” come in all shapes and sizes, they can outfit you in sizes from XXS to 3X and beyond.