Las Vegas Health and Fitness

Pole Fitness Studio owner and operator Fawnia Dietrich is a pioneer of modern pole-dancing fitness. She cut her teeth as a professional exotic dancer, learning the sultry art as she went along, like all the other dancers. She wondered why there wasn’t a place to learn these difficult moves and was motivated to start teaching. Soon after, she opened her own pole-dancing studio, something not common to the world of 1994, much like time-traveling hovercrafts. Fawnia has continued on as a force in the industry, producing the first instructional pole-dance video in 1998—followed by six more videos—and creating the pole-dance instructor-certification course. Thanks to her chiseled physique, she has also been featured in three spreads in Muscle & Fitness magazine.

She now leads a team of instructors in teaching a variety of flirty fitness styles, including burlesque, pole-, lap-, chair-, floor-, and dance classes. Each 55-minute class takes place in their spacious studio, where 17 poles stand ready to hold ladies aloft as they spin and practice complex inversions. An additional 11 poles can be found downstairs, should more space be necessary. Beyond the steamy dance classes, the instructors also helm more traditional fitness classes such as cardio kickboxing, salsa, yoga, ballet, go-go hip-hop and boot camp classes..

Because they believe movement is a precise science, the teaching team at Pilates + Yoga only recruits experts. Each certified instructor must have a background of 10 years or more in their movement-based art, whether they practice Pilates, yoga, dance, or interpretive sitting. They wield their knowledge during the studio's classes, adapting mat-based and apparatus moves to suit beginners and Pilates pros alike. Their wealth of experience also allows them to structure specialized lessons for pre- and post-natal women. From moves aboard the reformer machine to Vinyasa sequences to boot-camp circuits, they compose workouts that hone both strength and mental focus. The Pilates + Yoga studio reflects the same level of commitment toward the environment that the teachers display for their practice. Students stretch on bamboo flooring, their silhouettes dimly illuminated by low-lighting sconces, and solar blankets deter the sun. Reusable cups and cloth towels cut down on waste, and the Return Your Mat policy ensures that no mat purchased at the studio is thrown out or forced to work under wrestling Barbie dolls.

At Bodysport Fitness Center, highly trained instructors motivate pupils of all athletic abilities during high-intensity group boot-camp classes designed by personal trainers. During each coed session, a barrage of full-body workouts replaces lazy fitness routines and helps build lean yet strong physiques. Each trainer adapts his or her program to fit the personalities and abilities of the students, and changes the regimen routinely to confuse muscles, enraging them until they get strong enough to do something about it.

Exercisers feed off each other’s energy during the fun one-hour sessions, cultivating a group bond and camaraderie based on mutual success and encouragement. The recently revamped program may incorporate elements of kickboxing, Bulgarian bags, and even yoga alongside classic boot-camp musts, including core workouts and primal screaming. During comfortable weather, students kickbox away excess calories in scenic outdoor parks and move into the gym’s 4,000-square-foot facility in cases of extreme heat.

It's Wednesday and a group of newcomers shuffles into an empty fitness studio. Some anxiously fidget with their fingers as they see the professional floor where they'll be dancing, and others take deep breaths and stretch out their limbs like they've done countless times at the gym. This motley mix of strangers is what Gwenda Hansen envisioned when she founded Be Bad Hip Hop.

Hansen, who struggled with weight as a young adult and started choreographing when she was 13 years old, shares her Be Bad Hip Hop dance-fitness routines in a supportive, accepting, and empowering environment. As the infectious melodies of Top 40 music escape the sound system's quarantine and fill the communal space, newcomers relax into the easy-to-follow moves, and regulars of all ages lose themselves in the hourlong sequence of club-style, hip-hop shimmies and shakes led by Hansen or one of her skilled instructors.

Designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee—the duo responsible for famed courses including Doral Blue Monster and Cog Hill’s Dubsdread—Desert Rose Golf Course spans 6,511 yards of tight fairways and player-friendly terrain. Runaway swings gain traction before the round at Desert Rose’s driving range, where players can warm up by hitting a bucket of practice balls or save them for later use in a seasonal cobbler. Nimble carts traverse the course’s emerald corridors, allowing clubbers to save their stamina for treacherous approaches and breaking putts. After the round, players can replenish energy with a tasty handful of sand out of the practice bunker or a nosh from the Desert Rose Grill or quench their appetite for sounder swings by heading to the onsite practice facilities or signing up for a private lesson.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 71 course designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee 

• Length of 6,511 from the farthest tees 

• Course rating of 69.6 from the farthest tees 

• Slope of 117 from the farthest tees 

• Three tee options available 

Designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Billy Casper and course architect Greg Nash, Palm Valley spans 6,849 yards of undulating fairways set against a dramatic backdrop of striking mountainscapes. Relatively generous fairways entice aggressive tee shots throughout rounds, but particularly ill-struck drives are likely to find the shadows of encroaching pine trees or the grizzly sands of 68 bunkers peppered throughout the course. Nine ponds loom ominously throughout the course, occasionally forcing golfers into tricky course-management decisions and granting golf balls a chance to pursue their lifelong dream of becoming dinner for fat fish. The course’s emerald corridors play their way into expansive greens, where bentgrass surfaces, subtle breaks, and shape-shifting holes can complicate even the simplest putts.

Course at a Glance:

• Designed by Billy Casper and Greg Nash
• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Length of 6,849 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 71.6 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 123 from the farthest tees
• Four tee options
• Link to scorecard