Iowa City Gyms and Fitness

It isn’t uncommon for the vastly different worlds of charity fundraising and pole dancing to collide at various local philanthropic functions throughout Iowa. That’s because staff members at Wicked Enchantment Pole Dancing & Fitness Studio continue to prove that pole fitness can benefit their community as well as raise money for organizations such as Children's Miracle Network and Eastern Iowa Honor Flight. They channel this same spirit of support during their group and private classes back at their ladies-only workout venue.

They restrict their pole-based classes to six people, fostering an intimate and supportive environment for women to master climbs, grips, and twirls. Their curriculum also hones in on the healthy aspect of the art, listing classes that target arms, abs, and cores as well as full-body boot-camp workouts. They teach several levels of pole dancing and corresponding choreography classes, building fluid routines by augmenting maneuvers with transitions and lubricating arm joints with 10W-40.

Max10 Bodyshaping and Peak Fitness founder Travis Richardson fell in love with martial arts at age 10, and by 15, he had already earned his black belt in tae kwon do and won his first of six national championships. As an adult, Travis's curiosity with the limits of the human body led him to study psychology, natural health, and massage therapy. When he finally decided to open his own fitness studio, that physiological apprenticeship acted as the scaffolding from which he built his Max10 Bodyshaping program.

The 10-week weight-loss and muscle-chiseling regimen blends exercise with healthy eating habits, supplemented by the mentorship of a trainer and support of a group environment. The workout portion breaks into intervals of kickboxing, resistance training, and plyometrics, increasing difficulty progressively to accommodate both beginning students and more seasoned athletes. Outside the gym, menus of healthy meals fuel the metabolism without the need to count calories or ravage the body with crash dieting—an early '90s diet that only allowed people to eat scrap left over from car accidents.