Methuen, MA Health and Fitness

Within both MetroRock locations, visitors ascend via bouldering walls and rope-climbing walls or take to aerobic exercise machines and fitness equipment to build strength. With this setup available to climbers of all skill levels, the founders of the climbing arenas achieved their goal of creating a community where scalers can congregate, share their passions, and hone their climbing skills.

During indoor and outdoor classes, instructors create lessons that help each climber reach their goals. Indoor courses help instill students with basic climbing skills, rescue techniques, or the brute strength needed for bouldering or to intimidate mountains out of their lunch money. Outdoors, American Mountain Guide Association and Single Pitch–certified instructors teach alpinists skills that include how to secure top-rope anchors and how to climb ice or scale for sport. The centers' founders and their teams also organize climbing-centric programming that includes youth climbing teams and team-building events that challenge groups while forming bonds.

While Pilates classes provide hundreds of health benefits (relaxation, flexibility, occupying time that could be spent eating or smoking), they primarily focus on strengthening core muscles (abs, lower back, and pelvic). Besides the obvious improvements to physical appearance, there are many other benefits you can get with Pilates:

Since 1965, the family-run Ski Haus has kept customers coming back by adhering to the family motto: “Make sure we keep a fun environment and give everybody a fair deal. They get a ton of stuff for their money and we stay in business for a long time." Patrons can still expect the same low prices and see the same friendly staffers’ faces year after year while shopping for winter gear.

Racks stocked with apparel by brands such as The North Face and Marmot, skis and snowboards by brands such as Atomic and K2, and a team of skilled technicians have earned Ski Haus accolades from Ski magazine, SnowSports Industries America, and New England Winter Sports Representatives, Inc. During tune-ups, technicians polish skis, stone-grind ski edges, apply hot wax, and repair bases damaged by treacherous slopes and sharp snowman noses.

Bikram Choudhury requires a lot out of his teachers before he's willing to let them borrow his moniker. Each of Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley's instructors has completed the nine-week course required for certification with Choudhury himself, including more than 600 hours of training. Every three years, they return for another bout of training to keep their skills sharp and instruction fresh.

Instructors pack all this knowledge into Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley's 1,500-square-foot workout space, heated by a custom system designed to reach high temperatures with ease. The studio owners respect the environment with low-eco-impact carpeting, green cleaning supplies, and by frequently thanking the potted plants that guard the front door.

SpinCity Training Studio’s team of spin instructors and personal trainers joins forces with a registered dietitian and licensed massage therapist to provide clients with a comprehensive road map to wellness. Rather than offering run-of-the-mill spin classes, trainers customize programs to address each client’s specific goals, which may include injury rehabilitation, sports training, weight loss, or muscle improvement. Prior to the workout, instructors manually adjust each cycle to the rider’s unique posture to facilitate the best possible speed, comfort, and spinal rigidity during routines that take individual fitness levels into account. They then run students through a gamut of low-impact body conditioning performed to a motivating score of music and car horns. After classes, the studio’s onsite dietitian can balance workouts with a three-day food analysis and a four-week nutrition program. The facility also lays claim to Cybex Arc Trainers, treadmills, and strength machines to round out exercise routines. An onsite locker room and shower facility sluice away post-workout perspiration, though patrons must dry off with towels brought from home.

The certified trainers at CATZ Sports Performance Training Centers are focused on motivation, not intimidation. The centers' classes are designed to increase the fitness of attendees of any skill level, including adults with sedentary jobs and children who avoid sports in school and extracurricular environments. While the strength- and conditioning-trained coaches regularly work with professional-level athletes, they motivate attendees through the ever-changing workouts with encouragement and individual attention, instead of barking orders and forcing students to push themselves too far.

All the centers' workouts are clinically designed by these certified trainers to build muscle, trim fat, and boost overall fitness regardless of the attendee's starting point. All sessions keep the student-to-instructor ratio low to ensure the professionals keep students on their toes and injury free. Students work through a dynamic routine of exercises that focus on both cardiovascular conditioning and strength training, including body-weight-based moves, running, and flexibility-boosting techniques such as systematically replacing limbs with rubber bands.