South Orange Gyms and Fitness

At Re-Fit, fitness is paramount for life inside and outside of the gym. The certified trainers helm boot-camp-style classes, striving to help patrons sculpt and condition their entire bodies. They focus on muscle-fiber development and the body's three energy systems that help fuel movement.

Most sessions take place in Central Park, where participants utilize the park's features, climbing stairs, jogging on trails, and hurdling pigeons the size of large cats. Participants cheer one another on during these physical challenges, creating a supportive environment that pushes everyone to transcend their comfort zones. The trainers also lead personal-training sessions that target clients’ goals and specialized workouts that prepare them for events, including the Men’s Health Urbanathalon. To further push their charges toward their fitness goals, they also offer nutrition supplements filled with nature-derived ingredients such as olive oil, pumpkin seeds, ginger root, and organic kelp.

Belly dancer Amira Mor has tapped finger cymbals for Moroccan royalty and shimmied for the prime minister of Jordan. Her moves can be elegant or sensual: she coached Britney Spears through new routines at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City, and has also choreographed for the New York City Ballet. “From the moment Mor begins her dance,” a reporter for the Star-Ledger wrote, “there’s no doubt who’s in charge.… She wears a fringed bustier spangled with gold, and, for a skirt, slashes of sparkly fabric that whip away from her body as she spins, which she does in a blur of speed.…”

At Amira Mor International Entertainment Company, anyone interested in belly dancing can benefit from the award-winning dancer's instruction. With the help of dance instructors Louis and Stephanie, she teaches groups traditional Middle Eastern moves, drawing on modern innovations including flashy hip movements and songs about fax machines. Additionally, Amira is a certified fitness instructor, so she can also help students on quests for sculpted abs.

Since its 1965 founding in Venice Beach, California, Gold's Gym has dotted the globe with more than 600 locations where professional athletes and exercise newbies gather under the umbrella of personal strength. Nearly 3.5 million Gold's members chart and aim for their fitness peaks, perspiring beneath the gaze of certified personal trainers or pedaling beside peers at cycling sessions. In a diverse lineup of group classes, patrons strengthen cores with Pilates, finger-paint pictures of ninjas in martial arts, and amp up heart rates along to the pulsating soundtracks of Les Mills routines. Many Gold's Gym locations stockpile futuristic amenities, such as cardio machines with individual iPod docks and televisions that help keep patrons motivated.

Peering through CKO Kickboxing's forest of professional punching bags, onlookers can make out men, women, and children alike. Once swathed in boxing gloves, students grapple with the heavy bags during fitness-focused kickboxing classes held every day of the week, toning muscles, boosting endurance, and setting ablaze a calorie conflagration.

CKO Kickboxing’s 10 certified instructors, each boasting abundant experience and expertise, prowl across the red and black mats during each class. They guide students through movements, ensuring proper form and politely pointing out unnoticed lettuce stuck between front teeth—an occupational hazard for anyone dedicated to eating well and working out. In addition to kickboxing classes, the studio offers courses in TRX suspension training.

There are only a few certainties in life, two of them being the sun rising every morning and the folks at TNT Fitness Studio opening their doors when it does. The steadfast exercise facility invites the public to work out or cleverly disguise a sweating problem seven days a week, hosting group fitness classes that range from dance-based Zumba to martial-arts infused Pilates and yoga sessions. Teachers also conduct classes geared toward kids aged 6–12, including yoga and hip-hop dance.

Within the energetic confines of Meadowlands Athletic Club, adults can get in shape during one-on-one personal-training sessions or dynamic group classes. Exercisers of all levels can groove their bodies into shape in Zumba; annihilate calories in Spin, Skip, & Box; or relieve tension in yoga. Two racquetball courts host friendly competition and tournaments, and the boxing-studio's ring fosters sparring against both live opponents and punching bags. Throughout the gym, a slew of equipment in the form of ellipticals, treadmills, and kettlebells helps to augment workout sessions.

After working out, clients can rejuvenate their spirits with spa services. The staff blankets clients in relaxation through sports massages, European facials, and mud body wraps, which can double as earth-friendly workout attire.