Health & Fitness in Fort Myers

Whether your goal is to lose weight, tone up, or work around an injury, Tina Johnson can develop a routine, and help you stick to it. Johnson––a marathon runner and Ironman competitor––has worked as a personal trainer since 1989, and has experience training everyone from teens to seniors to those suffering from knee problems, back problems, injured rotator cuffs, and disco fever. But whatever your particular needs, she offers private, semi-private, and group sessions that will help you set and reach achievable goals.

Krissy Blizzard has been teaching Pilates classes since the late 90s. Over the years, she's learned firsthand which exercises are most effective. At Pilates with Krissy, she helps students build toned physiques with the most effective tried-and-true routines and innovative exercises she's developed herself. She leads group classes, personal-training sessions, and Reformer classes, which are geared to flatten bellies through exercises with resistance cords.

AFAA-certified fitness instructor Kari Fundingsland did three decades' worth of research before opening Kari Kardio. Beginning with her first Jazzercise center in 1983, she amassed group- and personal-training knowledge at gyms stationed from the United States to Australia. She took note of club fads and their effects, and experimented with different exercise styles to create the Kardio Flex System—a malleable workout template that allows instructors to pair her proven exercises with their own music playing over speakers or inside their heads. Today, more than 30 group classes per week at Kari Kardio attest to the breadth of her industry savvy.

With backgrounds in competitive athletics, personal training, and other high-level fitness activities, Kari Kardio’s teachers pair time-tested training methods with the latest workout trends. Their classes—which run the gamut from spin to kickboxing to strength training—accommodate all experience levels with safe exercise modifications. Treadmills and stationary bikes line the 9,000-square-foot studio, helping students chase their fitness goals and complete stationary paper routes when not attending classes.

At Fort Myers Adventure Boot Camp, NESTA- and WITS-certified personal trainer, Sue Meredith, sculpts strong, confident athletes with an outdoor exercise regime designed exclusively for women. In the cool hours before dawn snatches the baton from night, campers gather for 60 minutes of cardio and strength training that vary with each class to keep bodies and minds thoroughly engaged. Meredith rallies students of all abilities with encouragement and technique tips, cheering as students negotiate obstacle courses, twist torsos during sport yoga and Pilates, pound hearts to the rhythm of ropes being jumped, and pummel the air with kickboxing moves or pretend-signal pretend-runway airplanes. Participants can push themselves to the precipices of their comfort zones fueled by the camaraderie of their sweaty crew and the anticipation of a healthy, statuesque figure, svelte enough to make narrow willows weep with envy.

Before finding her calling as a yoga instructor, Sylvia taught biology, Earth science, and general science for more than 25 years. Throughout her years in the classroom, she practiced yoga as a way to calm her mind and balance her body. In 2005, she switched gears—she trained for more than 1,000 hours and earned her E-RYT 500 certification. She specializes in Kripalu-style mindfulness yoga, which emphasizes self-acceptance and consciousness of the interplay between life and yoga. Although she primarily teaches multi-level classes, some sessions, such as chair or adaptive yoga, are intentionally geared toward those with limited mobility. At the beginning of class, she occasionally reads inspirational passages or practices levitation.

At Puh-la-teez, certified instructor Bridget Kolshak helps students fortify their cores with an arrangement of specialized Pilates equipment. Begin the pursuit of fitness with a one-hour private Reformer, Tower, or Mat session (up to a $50 value), then move on to group classes for additional power-ups and the chance to stare down fellow exercisers. Physique sculptors can carve themselves a sexier shell and solidify gooey cores with the purposeful movements of a Pilates Mat class, a 55-minute fusion of mat exercises and modern Pilates props (a $10 value). Finish off the body-trimming adventure with a 55-minute Pilates equipment class (a $20 value)—the Reformer class refines balance, core strength, and flexibility on the Stott Pilates Reformer, and the Tower class relies on the Balanced Body Pilates Springboard to challenge muscle groups with resistance training.