Middleton Gyms and Fitness

Patricia Hockin, a devoted mother with an MBA, has something else up her sleeve: she’s also the founder and owner of Miss Pole. After deciding that her life needed some serious changes, Patricia enrolled in pole-dancing classes and was so inspired, so enthusiastic, and so dramatically altered that she decided every woman should have the opportunity to feel confident, strong, and sexy. Hence Miss Pole was born.

At Miss Pole, she leads classes that explore the sensual and physically challenging aspects of pole dancing and sensual dance. She leads beginner, intermediate, and advanced pole-dancing classes that cover hundreds of moves that tone the entire body. Other classes include lap dancing, burlesque, and sexy/sassy stretching.

The instructors at Kaivalya Yoga believe that, like yoga practitioners themselves, the rules of yoga should be highly flexible. They pioneer fresh approaches to Vinyasa techniques inside their University Square studio with the aim of inducing kaivalya—a state of freeing personal enlightenment. Heated and nonheated classes cover fluid posture transitions that synchronize breath with stretching rather than having students take one long breathing break halfway through class. Each session aims to eradicate the body's toxins and boost mental clarity, whether students are attending a free beginners workshop or hefting small weights during Power Sculpt.

Many of the teaching staff joined the yoga movement to combat physical ailments, such as slipped disks or chronic migraines, and now they deepen their practice through Kaivalya's inventive curriculum. They inject posing sequences with pieces of individual flair—Hally Marlino's classes embrace freestyle Vinyasa set to music, and director of teacher training Alex Pfeiffer leads groups through spiritually focused, dance-like routines. Certified massage therapists are also on hand to work muscles into an even noodlier state with Swedish, deep-tissue, and sports modalities.

Kaivalya Yoga's central location is no accident. Owners Dave and Tim met at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1998 and maintain ties with the school as an employee and a graduate student, respectively. They've engineered their venue and schedule to suit the student population: classes provide a meditative escape close to home, scheduling never interferes with Wisconsin Badgers games, and the boutique carries chic headbands, T-shirts, and hoodies from their exclusive Mad Yogi clothing line, ideal for moving from dorm to dining hall to yoga studio in comfort.

The club keeps visitors fit with group exercise classes, personal training, and aquatic activities in indoor and outdoor pools. Specific classes vary by location, though each hosts cycling, yoga, and Pilates. The 24-hour Harbor location caters to muscles with 160 classes per week, including youth classes in swimming, sports, and ballet.

For years, Jennifer “Bhavani” Sebastian used her calming voice and lighthearted humor during stressful work at an emergency communications center. Despite helping others in crisis, she struggled find peace in her own life. Upon meeting Rama Berch, creator of the Svaroopa method of yoga, she discovered what was missing: a sense of self-acceptance. Yoga became an agent of change as she learned to teach relaxing, Hatha-inspired poses and lead pain-melting yoga-therapy sessions. During her signature Svaroopa classes, props such as blankets, blocks, and chairs help bodies achieve optimal alignment during sitting, standing, and inverted poses. Jennifer circulates the room, showing students how to adapt the poses to different levels of strength, flexibility, and Rubik’s cube mastery. Bolstered by deep breaths and hands-on alignments, the exercises gently release tension from the sinews attached to the spine. As muscles unclench, bodies may gain mobility and shed chronic discomfort.

Founded by filmmaker and radio personality Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau, The Studio in Madison heats up yoga sessions in its Machinery Row Building locale, accented by exposed brick, soaring bay windows, and hardwood floors. Balancing mind and body like a metaphysical unicyclist, classes at the flexodome focus on strength, stamina, and meditation respectively. First-timers enjoy two complimentary uses of the studio's mats before needing to purchase or rent their own, and all are welcome at regularly scheduled workshops and discussion sessions, which can cover topics from health and nutrition to marriage and parenthood.

The techniques that Lauren Birkel imparts to her trainers are the same ones she used on herself while preparing for and completing the rigorous Ironman World Championships in 2005 and 2011, as well as the France-held International Triathlon Union Long Course World Championships in 2007. With this history of achieving difficult goals, Birkel knows how to inspire students without commissioning a band of rabid coyotes to chase them while they run.

She and her many cotrainers use these thoroughly tested methods of motivation to push students toward healthier lives in one-on-one, small-group, and large-group training sessions. She decks out her indoor studios with all the necessary equipment for personal-training sessions and isn't afraid to lead all-outdoor boot-camp academies in the heat or rain.