Things To Do In Meridian

When recent budget cuts forced Treasure Valley to implement a pay-to-play program for high-school athletics, Jonathan Gonzales, Jeff Allen, Steven Caporale and Brett Hughes banded together to help aspiring athletes in need. Their donation-driven Farm Man Challenge tests competitors with lengthy races and farm-based obstacle courses while raising several thousand dollars each year to, according to KTVB, directly support high-school athletic programs. The annual event’s creators constantly tweak its matches, coaxing participants through new variations of multi-mile runs, corn-maze and obstacle navigation, and limbo contests against scarecrows. While only one male and one female finisher receive the honors of FarmMan and FarmWoman annually, each racer earns the ability to select the high school to which they donate.

TQ Speedway & Hobbies' warehouse hobby shop is infused with the earthy smell of a 5,000-square-foot miniature off-road racetrack, its intricate curves and jumps constructed from clay and topsoil. Remote-controlled trucks vault over gaps and skid around corners as their operators and grandstands full of action figures cheer on. More than 40 pit stations give visitors ample space to set up their 1/10th-scale rides for the day's races, and an AMB timing system allows racers to accurately track their lap times.

With machines set up in rows to encourage competition, many ordinary gyms cater to men's bodies and psychology, right down to the urinals that were accidentally installed in the women's locker room. At Curves, you'll move around a circle of hydraulic resistance machines designed to work with women's bodies, promote weight loss, protect against osteoporosis, and deal with arthritis. An experienced trainer is always nearby to help manage machine maneuvering and muscle making. Instead of fiddling with weight stacks and losing momentum, the hydraulic machines use each lady’s body weight and unique fitness level to create resistance that matches her abilities, decreasing the risk of soreness or injury. Because traditional lift-and-lower motions can create bulky muscles, each machine uses push-and-pull motions to create toned, lean muscles perfect for crushing a grapefruit without looking like you can.

Novice calorie burners and ripped Michelangelo models alike can take advantage of Anytime Fitness’s one-month membership ($59), which equips bodies with enough treadmills, cycles, elliptical machines, and weights to make them fit enough to run a marathon inside of a swimming pool filled with mud. Two personal training sessions ($35) help self-sculptors attain results. This deal also includes unlimited tanning ($25/month) to paint new, ripply physiques a brilliant shade of bronze.

From the crowd, sweat-slicked hands wave in the air, their bodies dancing to the thunderous beats of a nearby sound system. But this isn’t a rap battle or a rock concert—it’s a fitness fiesta packed with international music and Latin-inspired dance moves. Known as Zumba, this phenomenon swept the nation starting in 2001, after Colombian-born fitness instructor Beto Perez began setting aerobics to salsa and merengue tunes rather than live performances of whalesong. Today, more than 12 million exercisers have tried the workouts, which torch calories, melt stress, and boost energy levels. At Boise Racquet & Swim Club, AFAA-certified instructors lead regular classes, augmenting regular Zumba workouts with a second discipline known as Sentao, which incorporates a chair to offer targeted resistance training and sculpt bodies until they sprout two new legs on their own.

Improvolution’s motto is “live funny, die laughing,” and although it’s a slightly edgy sentiment, the troupe promises that its shows are clean enough for kindergarteners, grandparents, and everyone in between. The crew, whose managing director is also a regular cast member, regularly stages evenings of short-form comedy at their new venue or at business and birthday functions. Continual audience interaction and occasional wacky props produce a stream of new inspirations for the performers as they build quick scenes or even stage a rap video at a moment’s notice. The troupe also spearheads workshops in the art, helping aspiring actors flex their adlibbing abilities and audiences break through debilitating suggestion-shouting blocks.