Jacksonville Health and Fitness

Though he may look intimidating garbed in camo and shiny military boots, the head instructor at C.G.R. Fitness—C.G.R. stands for “clients getting results”—motivates his students with positive reinforcement, instead of the threat of latrine duty. Students of all sizes and fitness levels don their C.G.R.-issued dog tags and prepare to push themselves to their physical limits during the basic-training-style boot-camp classes. The indoor/outdoor classes focus on functional training, meaning that students build strength and stamina as they heave barbells, leap up and down steps, and drag tires until they agree to stop heckling you. In addition to chiseling sculpted physiques during personal-training sessions, clients can improve their health with self-defense, nutrition, and Zumba classes.

Mindful Motion Yoga's eight certified instructors cultivate an accepting atmosphere inside the studio, sure, but they also bring classes outdoors for yoga by the tree, which places students amid nature's oxygen factories. As they help their students to boost strength and flexibility, these dedicated instructors also help students to release tension during Basic, Gentle, Power, Restorative, Yin, and Kids Yoga classes.

The team opens most of its classes and workshops to students of all levels, as well as dogs, since they have a copyright on their downward pose. An instructor will modify each posture for beginners and advanced students alike. To further immerse their dedicated students in this enlightening practice, they hold a comprehensive teacher-training program registered through the Yoga Alliance. Mindful Motion Yoga also supports several charities, including the Wounded Warrior Project, Challenged Athletes Foundation, Girls, Inc., and Christina Phipps Foundation, which owner Terri Morrison co-founded.

In the 1940s, Walt Baptiste and his son Baron created a new branch of yoga—called Baptiste yoga—that combines the principles of yoga, meditation, and inner reflection. The Baptiste-yoga movement grew rapidly, and in 2005, senior Baptiste teacher Mark White introduced his community to the practice with three studios. He and a staff of 13 certified yoga instructors guide students from pose to pose while observing proper alignment and breathing technique. Studios are heated to 90 degrees to keep bodies limber and destroy any ice cream that enters the building.

When the treadmill incline is at 90 degrees, your fingerprints are etched into the dumbbell grips, and you start talking to the exercise balls, it’s time to pursue a new way to challenge your body. The staff at VIP Women’s Dance invites ladies of all shapes and ages to fill that need with a dance, acrobatic, strength, and aerobic workout performed on a vertical pole. In their intimate studio, 11 brass poles line the hardwood floor surrounded by striped pink walls and black ceilings. During each 45-minute class, ladies try out new dance moves, spin on the pole, and do push-ups, all while learning to support their entire frame with their lower- or upper-body strength. In addition to group classes, the studio also hosts private classes and instructor-led private parties, divulging the sultry art forms of burlesque and belly dance.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Brett Hirsch has studied advanced treatments to restore lush heads of hair to men and women. Among the most advanced treatments he performs, NeoGraft hair-transplant therapy reduces the recovery time and scarring of traditional hair therapies. A completely noninvasive option, low-level laser therapy attempts to bolster the growth of thicker, more robust hairs by promoting blood flow to the scalp. More dramatically, Sensigrafts, Virtuesse, and Reallusions hair-restoration treatments outfit sparse scalps with realistic locks available in many colors, textures, and rainbow-fro styles.

At Blue Lotus Acupuncture, practitioners Patti Menefee and Chris Rohman stem pain and discomfort by unblocking the body's energy pathways, or meridians. Grounding their practice in the tenets of ancient Chinese medicine, Patti and Chris free obstructions in chi through acupuncture, traditional Chinese herbs, moxibustion, and cupping. The center also offers tuina, a massage technique that integrates acupoints, as well as shoni shin, and hosts acupuncture "Happy Hours" each month that allow patients to receive communal treatments while sipping tea and listening to music.