Middletown, OH Health and Fitness

Snap Fitness's around-the-clock gyms enable members to work on their physical well-being with a cornucopia of fitness equipment. With 24-hour access, members don't have to let The Man tell them when to help themselves to Snap's strength and cardio equipment, which features built-in TVs and other media diversions. For those who exercise during conventional hours, Snap's friendly, unintimidating atmosphere welcomes patrons of all ability levels, unlike schoolyard dodge-ball squads. Members also enjoy nationwide access to all Snap Fitness locations, ideal for working out while traveling. For a dose of custom advice, patrons can seek out a personal-training session with a certified coach, who helps them assess and address their fitness goals. Clients reap the benefit of individual attention as a personal trainer helps them tackle weight loss, prepare for an arm-wrestling competition, or unveil the mysteries of arcane cable-weight machines.

Many are familiar with the saying "Love what you do and do what you love," but few actually live it. When Missy Steed discovered massage therapy, she finally found the thing that made her truly happy: making others happy. A graduate of the Dayton School of Medical Massage, Missy is well versed in most of the classic treatments, including relaxation, deep-tissue, and cold-stone massage. Additionally, she is also a certified infant massage instructor who leads classes that teach parents how to pamper their little ones at home. These classes, and the subsequent treatments lavished upon the lucky kids, can have numerous benefits. They promote bonding between parents and children and also relax infants after a long day of refusing to eat or arguing with the cat about whose tiny sweater is cuter.

The crack of a bat signals another powerful hit inside Extra Innings' spacious, 70-foot-long batting tunnels. Each cage's Iron Mike pitching machine emulates the power and speed of a cantaloupe tossed by Popeye, sending a feast of fastballs screeching toward homerun-hungry hitters. Extra Innings' 12,000-square-foot facility also divvies its plethora of space for private pitching, fielding, and batting lessons hosted by seasoned instructors, as well as a circuit training area furnished with soft-toss machines, tees, and stride boards that further perfect techniques. The onsite pro shop also equips players with all of the baseball essentials.:m]]

Yankee Dental’s Dr. Phillip E. Gallagherbelieves in constantly expanding his knowledge of his profession, which is why he has accrued more than 2,000 hours of continuing education since graduating from The Ohio State University College of Dentistry. By keeping up to date in his field, Dr. Gallagher has been able to push his practice beyond in-depth cleanings—which include scaling, root planing, and polishing—into cosmetic chomper work such as veneers and Invisalign. For convenience, Yankee Dental makes its new-patient forms available on its website, and the office has even set up an online payment system so that clients don’t have to pay by hauling in a soufflé full of nickels.

Stanton Optical treats shoppers to a selection of more than 3,000 frames from designers such as BCBG, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, and Calvin Klein. Their optometric physicians calibrate fresh prescriptions before patients browse the wealth of frames and then select from brands of lenses such as Sola, Zeiss, and Transitions, which alternate between clear and tinted to protect eyes from sun rays and help them absorb the zinc found in moon rays. For those who prefer frame-free faces, Stanton Optical also outfits eyes with contacts by Acuvue and Bausch + Lomb.

Tac Force Challenge tests the strength of racers by putting them through the rigors of an adventure 5K obstacle course designed by power lifters, martial-arts experts, and special-operations professionals. The muddy, muscle-straining course houses 31 obstacles, such as rope walls, river dashes, unbalanced beams, log trips, and tunnels that force runners to use all their strength and jet-pack fuel to reach the finish line. Participants begin their first race ranked as a Private and advance closer to General as they complete each run. This progress is saved in the Tac Force database, which catalogs completion dates so that the government knows whom to call in the event of a sweaty-bicep shortage.