Virginia Health and Fitness

In much the same way that heat turns an ordinary root vegetable into a thrilling game of hot potato, a heated room enhances the effectiveness of yoga. Zen Hot Yoga’s signature hot classes move participants through 26–30 postures and breathing exercises that center, strengthen, and lengthen each body with the melting powers of a high-temperature room. Zen Hot Yoga encourages all skill levels to participate, and the skilled instructors will adapt each pose to meet an individual’s fitness level for optimal results. Sweat out toxins and enjoy mind-expanding stretches while breathing deeply; afterward, you'll leave focused, with a cleansed, centered, and worry-free glow. If you’re looking to raise your heart rate, hot vinyasa classes will challenge your body to move through each pose in a continuous flow of movement. If you’re worried about achieving proper alignment or hot temperatures make you uncomfortable, warm yoga moves at a slower pace in a mildly heated room. Zen Hot Yoga also offers pre-natal yoga, kids yoga, and core fusion, a full-body workout that incorporates sports conditioning and targeted muscle work. Mix and match any 10 classes to find the one you like best. Check the schedule here for individual class times.

Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. JoAnne Lopes has worked at the Cosmetic Surgery Center for more than 14 years. Surrounded by a scenic waterfront, the facility encompasses several rooms for consultations and treatments, including a fully accredited OR—which includes a recovery room— as well as rooms specifically set up for laser and skin care treatments. Aside from cosmetic surgery, Dr. Lopes also administers minimally invasive treatments such as Botox and fillers, which restore volume and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Her office also offers Latisse, an FDA-approved prescription that helps grow darker, fuller, and longer eyelashes in 8 to 12 weeks.

Hands-on learning and playtime in two of JW Tumbles’s interactive classes—along with the lifetime membership, which gets you discounts on JW Tumbles’s open gyms, parties, and camps—helps children explore the far reaches of their cranial caverns. Parents with toddlers younger than 3 years old can enroll in parent-participation classes such as My Big Messy Art Class or Wobblers Class, where baby bodybuilders 11- to 18-months-old practice tumbling and balance to increase motor skills and decrease the need for sippy-cup creatine shakes. Ages 3 and up can fly solo (parents can watch from the sidelines if they wish) during age-appropriate and highly interactive independent classes. The Winners Class teaches 7- to 9-year-olds sporting skills, and 3- to 4.5-year-olds prep for kindergarten in the Stompers Class.

A pain in the neck—specifically a broken neck—illustrated for Erica Steele the inadequacies she found in modern Western health care. Though her physical pain was ameliorated with pharmaceuticals, Erica's emotional trauma went unaddressed, a shortfall that led her to open Essential Wellness, a holistic health-care facility that unites a team of primary-care physicians, spiritual counselors, and alternative practitioners under one roof. An outspoken proponent of naturopathic medicine, Erica, along with her staff, strives to relieve patients of their ailments using an approach that centers on the cause of symptoms instead of the symptoms themselves. For example, when discussing the treatment of depression, instead of prescribing traditional solutions, such as antidepressants or bank vaults filled with bubble wrap, Erica rattles off a litany of alternative therapies, including constipation relief, positive thinking, meditation, exercise, and probiotics. "All patients have the ability to heal themselves," she says. "My role is to help them access those abilities." The staff does this with comprehensive primary medical care that can include naturopathy as well as wellness classes, healthy programs , and detoxification services. Shades of turquoise fill treatment rooms with a color meant to awaken clients' confidence, and framed affirmations such as "I love myself" and "Those water-park guards will never stop me" inspire people to look inward for healing strength.

Groupon subscribers also receive a 15% discount on additional treatments.

Gravity training uses a machine with a tilted gliding board, similar to a Pilates Reformer, to help you achieve a fat-burning, strength-building, low-intensity cardiovascular workout in 30 minutes, exactly as much time as it takes to for a pizza to sink in salt water. It increases flexibility, making it is a great complement to a Pilates program, but can also be used alone, away from Pilates' relentless fishing for compliments. For optimal results, three sessions per week are recommended. You'll come away from your six sessions seeing gravity for the myth that it is.