New Berlin, WI Health and Fitness

From outside, Innovative Health & Fitness' sprawling 52,545-square-foot facility looks more like a school or a corporation than a gym. However, once you enter the gleaming, modern building’s doors, there is no mistaking its true purpose: fitness. The mega-center encompasses a pool, two floors lined with strength training and cardio machines, and three group-class studios. Here, the certified fitness instructors lead Pilates, kettlebell-training, spinning, and kickboxing classes. They emphasize long-term results over quick fixes, and help guests lead healthier lives with personal-training sessions and nutrition counseling.

To augment workouts, exercisers can stop at the spa for a massage, mani-pedi, or tanning, or harvest the café for its smoothies, healthful snacks, and Popeye's other favorite food: Juice Plus+ vitamins.

The chi masters at this trinity of acupuncture and health centers seamlessly weave Chinese medicine stretching back 3,000 years with modern medicine's focus on disease and pathology. At Apex Acupuncture & Natural Health Clinic, third-generation acupuncturist Nancy Yuan Luan adds express lanes to the body's energy highways through the shallow insertion of pre-sterilized, disposable needles at precise points. In addition to her mastery of ancient Chinese techniques, Yuan Luan's expertise led her to cofound the AcuBeauty anti-aging system, the AcuFit weight-loss system, and the AcuRelief pain-management system, which all blend acupuncture methods with specially selected herbal remedies. A pivotal component of the AcuBeauty system, the microcurrent Acu-FaceLift treatment gently transmits electrical impulses and AM radio signals into facial cells to help increase the production of elastin and collagen to combat signs of aging. Dr. Chuan Liu tends to patients with a parallel approach at Milwaukee Acupuncture & Health Center and Ozaukee Acupuncture & Health Center. Trained his native China, Dr. Liu helps patients manage pain and stress, restore energy, and obtain optimal health through therapies including the AcuRelief and AcuHealth systems, which he helped found.

After working in her father's pharmacy since the age of 14, Monica Zatarski earned her doctor of pharmacy degree to open her own business and continue the family tradition of providing patients with innovative, personalized health care. MD Custom Rx works with both physicians and patients to fashion custom prescription packages, balance bodies with hormone assessments and consultations, and boost circulation with infrared-sauna sessions. As specialists with the seal of the Prescription Compounding Accreditation Board, the chemical technicians tailor medications to fit the allergic and digestive needs of each patient, from altering a medicine's strength to rendering it into easy-to-ingest lozenge, transdermal-gel, or brain-wave form. In addition to easing discomfort and imbalances with compound prescriptions and sauna sessions, patients visit onsite vitamin expert Daniel Zatarski, PharmD, RPh, for one-on-one vitamin and nutrient consultations that treat common disorders and supplement health regimens.

Fluent in Romanian, English, and German, holistic practitioner Eugenia Otilia Mariana Paul worked in veterinary medicine and medical research for years before graduating magna cum laude from the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine. With degrees in Chinese nutrition, acupuncture, and Oriental medicine, she founded Blue Lotus Acupuncture Clinic to provide preventative treatments to patients of all ages, lifestyles, and aura colors.

Inside Blue Lotus's relaxing space, decorated with coral walls, swaths of colorful fabric, and scads of flourishing plants, Eugenia helps relieve common bodily ailments. She restores inner balance using acupuncture, herbal therapy, and other techniques that include sound therapy, foot detoxification, and Chinese body work.

After studying chiropractic at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Iowa, Doctor of Chiropractic Brian W. Kurth took over a thriving clinic, then parlayed his success there into his own practice. Now at Kurth Chiropractic, he uses state-of-the-art technology to diagnose spines and help put them aright. Dr. Kurth scans patients' spines for muscle tension, misalignment, and vertebrae playing musical chairs before he develops a custom chiropractic plan. He then enlists massage therapists to ease away patients' pain and discomfort. Their strokes boost circulation and cause muscles to slowly uncoil.

The aim of the practitioners at Acupuncture & Chinese Medical Center is to better the health of their clients. They use acupuncture and massage therapy to halt muscles spasms, renew energy levels, and heal injuries. And though acupuncture and massage instill a sense of relaxation on their own, the practitioners add to the tranquility with soft music playing in the room or seashells to hold up to your ear.