Fort Myers, FL Health and Fitness

Before earning his dental degree, Dr. Mauricio Martinez completed a master's degree in nutritional science. His studies, which emphasized the interconnectedness of bodily systems, help him to illuminate the link between oral health and ailments such as diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Martinez and the team at Gulf Coast Smiles perform a range of cutting-edge services, such as designing, fabricating, and installing crowns in one day using the E4D tooth-scanning system. He has completed hundreds of hours of postgraduate training on implants, root-canal therapy, and orthodontics. He's currently enrolled in the renowned Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies to study neuromuscular dentistry, which addresses conditions such as chronic headaches and TMJ caused by excessive ventriloquism practice.

Skilled cosmetic dentist Dr. Ron Drachenberg has presided over The Smile Studio for more than 20 years, where he transforms teeth with the help of a talented team and the philosophy that everyone’s smile is a work of art. Dr. Drachenberg works his magic by employing technology such as custom teeth whitening and instant orthodontics, changing the color, shape, size, and proportion of chompers until they’re elegant enough to chew through cement. When he's not tackling teeth, Dr. Drachenberg can be found at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, brushing up on the latest advances in cosmetic dentistry with advanced continuing-education classes.

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.

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.

Boasting a staff of medical professionals with more than 30 years of experience, Medical Dimensions Weight Loss pilots patrons through weight-loss programs that slim physiques by improving dietary habits and choices. After an initial consultation evaluates each client’s goals, target areas, and medical history, an EKG monitors heart health by studying its reaction to increasingly saccharine greeting cards. Personalized nutrition plans prescribe healthy and delectable meals and nutritious shakes, which can be optionally supplemented with diet foods from Medical Dimensions Weight Loss. A lifestyle training class helps clients remain health conscious beyond the program with tips such as how to hire reliable cookie-jar guards. In addition to receiving weekly B12 injections, dieters report to Medical Dimensions Weight Loss for weigh-ins to chart their progress over the course of the program.

For more than 10 years, Germain Arena's certified hockey and figure-skating coaches have nurtured athletes on the ice of the facility's 200'x85' twin rinks. During eight-week programs, the coaching staff helps groups of up to 10 students grow comfortable standing, falling, and gliding on skates before tackling fundamentals in U.S. figure skating, synchronized skating, or ice dancing. For hockey hopefuls, they teach passing, stick handling, and backhand sweep passes, and each student receives a jersey and a pass that may be redeemed for public skate admission.

Inside the 7,100-seat main arena, advanced skaters and players face off in figure-skating competitions, hockey tournaments, and Florida Everblades matches. Leisurely skating commences at weekly open skates––where a disco ball and laser show cast the rink aglow against the thumping beats of Top 20 songs––and at birthday parties, not in the main arena, which include admission, skate rental, pizza, popcorn, private-room rental, and a free skate admission for every child.