Oshkosh, WI Health and Fitness

Elite Sports Clubs' encyclopedic menu of group classes injects novelty into stale workout routines with more than 200 classes each week. Choose from pound-pummeling programs in five categories: cardio, strength, aquatics, mind/body, and fusion. Zumba shimmies off unwanted pounds and boot camp drop-kicks calories through intense cardio and agility training. Let supple limbs flow smoothly between strength-building postures during a graceful session of Vinyasa yoga or mesmerize muscles with Trouble Zone Tone, a speedy weight training and cardio routine. Joint-friendly classes such as H20 Blast provide aquatic-based fitness that’s far more enjoyable than pumping iron while chasing the neighbor's sprinkler. Body benders can drop off their child or tofu-based child substitute at Elite Sports Club’s daycare before their class, and retire to the locker rooms afterward to towel off accumulated sweat and war paint. Check out Elite Sports Clubs’ schedule for a list of classes offered at each location.

Erin Naatz—a personal trainer certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine—values goals and potential. As the owner of Fitness Revolution, she dedicates all the center's resources to helping individuals work toward their own fitness aspirations. Group classes meet throughout the week in the 2,000-square-foot facility, where attendees of all fitness levels hone their technique and send calories scattering under her watchful eye. In keeping with Erin's passion for interval training, her programs cycle through intense cardio blasts interspersed with full-body workouts that build muscle tone with TRX suspension systems, kettlebells, and barbells. Meal plans and occasional fitness assessments help attendees stick to their fitness goals outside of class, where they have to face the reality of readily available snacks and the constant hectoring of the Kool-Aid man.

Because Snap offers 24-hour access, you don't have to let The Man tell you when you can avail yourself of the gym's top-of-the-line Matrix-brand cardio and strength equipment. Arrive at Snap super late and pretend you're working out in an Edward Hopper painting, or pound the treadmill at four in the morning and get pumped to host a morning shock-jock radio show. Even if you exercise during conventional hours, Snap's friendly, unintimidating atmosphere will provide a refreshing change of pace from any meat-market gym or tough elementary schoolyard.

With few trees to knock down errant drives, the wide-open course at Kestrel Ridge rewards control and course-management skills for players negotiating its more than 6,000 yards. Players point their tee shots down the center of the fairway from one of four different sets of tees, taking care to avoid numerous lurking fairway bunkers and the water hazards that run alongside the fairways of holes 1, 8, 9, and 10. When they're not engaging in physical altercations with swirling crosswinds, visitors should take time to appreciate the open expanse of rolling Wisconsin countryside through which the course winds. The track saves its crown jewel for last, with an 18th hole that forces players to nail a small, sloping landing area from the tee and then carry their approach over a rock ravine that runs alongside the right of the hole and contains fossils of Neanderthal golfers.

After a round, tired golfers can head to the clubhouse bar for traditional pub fare or re-create dramatic putts on the two large putting greens. A driving range hosts hitters on both grass and rubber mats and challenges them to assail greens located strategically between 125 and 230 yards away.

As they enter the training circuit at Curves, female guests come face-to-face with the smiles of other women. And just as points on a circle share a common distance from the circle's center, workout participants share the experiences of those nearby by trading stations throughout the 30-minute training session. One minute is spent on a piece of strength-training equipment built for feminine frames and designed to work two opposing muscle groups with a single movement. Exercisers then move on to a recovery station, where they run, jog, or dance to maintain heart rates and keep platforms in place during momentary losses of gravity.

Created by fitness trainer and life coach Dr. John Spencer Ellis and led by owner and certified fitness professional Doug Krueger, the Lake Country Adventure Boot Camp program shepherds women to physical fitness with motivational workout regimens and nutritional counseling. Before the camp starts, trainers take your measurements and body-fat percentage before hopping into a curious pod, leaping into the future, and comparing them to those of the trimmer post-camp you. In the interim, the four-week or three-day workout regimen cycles through circuit training, jogging, kickboxing, and yoga to surprise and challenge muscles. During winter months and unforeseen Renaissance festivals, sessions move to spacious indoor facilities.