Spokane Health and Fitness

Wild Walls Indoor Climbing Gym sprawls across 6,000 square feet of a historic armory building, challenging gravity-bound bodies with various climbing and bouldering structures. “People have the misconception that rock climbing is like an amusement ride,” says Todd, the general manager. Wild Walls lures exercisers from dull workouts, such as watching paint dry on dumbbells, by offering challenging routes, tricky angles, and a wide variety of top-rope and sport-lead routes. Indoor adventurers can vary sweat sessions with yoga classes.

Wild Walls also stocks portable walls that soar to 16 and 24 feet, ideal for birthday celebrants or bosses who need a way to determine which employee gets a raise. For more permanent climbing surfaces, its staffers can install traverse walls, which run horizontally, in locations such as school gyms or underground monkey-training facilities.

The Fairways Golf Course’s layout unfurls over rolling terrain teeming with wetlands and native grasses. Multiple water hazards and fast greens pose challenges for experienced players, and relatively open fairways and a set of closer, forward tees cater to junior clubbers, beginners, and golfers testing out a set of repurposed spatulas. A dramatic conclusion awaits at the par-4, 419-yard 18th hole—the course’s most challenging hole—where golfers must contend with a dog-leg right and a small pond that arches around the front and left sides of the green. Golfers can prepare for the round at the driving range and practice green, or simply ask the course’s beverage-cart operator for the liquid cure for a slice-prone swing.

Alison Rubin first discovered yoga when she moved across the world, leaving England behind for sunny Southern California in 1972. She fell, or steadily posed, head over heels for the ancient exercise form, eventually earning her teaching certification in 1984 when she moved to Spokane. Now, with 40 years and myriad certifications under her belt, she leads a dedicated troupe of instructors who teach Hatha-style classes within a cozy studio, winning Best Yoga Studio by The Pacific Northwest Inlander in 2009 and 2010.

They lead a lineup of classes that accommodate a spectrum of skill levels, ranging from newcomers to Twister world champions.

More than two decades ago, Paul Fish dreamed up a unique backpack and stitched a prototype by hand. After some redesigns, Fish and his wife opened an outdoor apparel shop—Mountain Gear—where they could sell these packs to local climbers and backpackers. Today, Mountain Gear's spacious retail location boasts a comprehensive selection of gear for camping, hiking, and climbing, as well as snowsports and watersports. Skiers can bundle up in gear from The North Face and Black Diamond, and mountaineers can ascend to new altitudes with Mountain Hardwear apparel. Mountain Gear also houses an indoor climbing wall, and its outdoorsy staff hosts classes that teach attendees how to tackle their first climbing wall or cook meals in the wilderness without having to call a restaurant for instructions.

At The Fitness Center's two gyms, a welcoming, familial atmosphere is paired with high-tech exercise equipment and a full menu of group classes. Guests can work out on Hoist, Cybex, and Octane machines on their own, or first-time visitors can enlist the help of a staff member to show them around or install training wheels on their stationary bike. Les Mills and Zumba classes torch calories in a group setting, and water aerobics takes place in the pool when family swim, lap swim, or swimming lessons aren't in session. Guests can adjust the intensity of their racquetball games from playful to competitive on four courts, then retire to the sauna for a post-workout bask.

Though a licensed massage practitioner, Kenneth J Zutter doesn’t limit his focus to sore muscles and tight knots. Instead, he assesses the whole person, gleaning insight into the way each client’s lifestyle and stress level affects his or her bodily health and ability to withstand gratuitous saxophone solos. His trainings culminate in balance-point therapy, a holistic treatment plan that combines massage therapy with chakra healing, energy healing, intuitive healing, and other gentle healing techniques.