Walker Mill Gyms and Fitness

With today's Groupon, $50 gets you a choice of three Pilates instruction packages at Mind-BodyFitness. Choose among 10 mat classes, two private sessions, or six group reformer classes. This isn't your typical introductory class discount—it's a complete instructional package designed to show you real results. At just $5 per mat class, $8.33 per reformer class, or $25 per private session, this deal is a no-brainer.

Driven to share her passion for yoga with others, Quiet Mind Yoga’s director Rita Maximilian left her career in business development and education-policy reform to become a yoga instructor. She and her dedicated instructors guide students of all fitness levels through a variety of yoga classes—with a focus on the Iyengar and Ashtanga practices—at Columbia Heights’s first yoga studio. They help newcomers build a foundation for their practice during beginner sessions by walking pupils through standing and seated postures, and challenge more advanced students in intermediate-level Vinyasa classes that connect postures with athletic transitional movements, culminating in the secret yogi handshake. As a member of Live Green, Quiet Mind Yoga's studio provides environmentally friendly props, mats, and blankets to help students enhance their yoga practice while giving Mother Nature the day off.

Pole Pressure owner Jessalynn Medairy is an international pole-dancing performer, judge, and teacher. In 2010, she placed fourth in the US Pole Dancing Championship, she has appeared numerous times in Pole2Pole magazine, and she often performs for NATO. With these credentials, Jessalynn heads a team of certified pole-fitness instructors as they teach students the art of pole fitness in a variety of beginner, intermediate, and advanced pole-dancing classes. The instructors keep classes small to give students the one-on-one attention they need to master the sultry and muscle-toning spins, twirls, and climbs.

After crocogators, poor fitness is the number one cause of the night-scaries. With today's Groupon, turn the nightmare where you haven't exercised all semester and are naked on exam day into a toney vision of fit obliques and strapping deltoids. For $36, you get a three-class pass to GYROTONIC™ beginner group classes at Elements Fitness and Wellness Center in Upper Georgetown, a $105 value.

After a long day of negotiating bilateral trade agreements, you can head to one of Yoga District's three equally homey and convenient studios for one of a dozen specialized classes, such as Restorative, perfect for recharging after the whipping of work week, or Flow, to build strength. Classes start as early as 6:30 in the morning and as late as eight at night, if you like doing yoga with jittery, caffeinated owls. Check the schedule for availability and times. Yoga veterans malleable as warm wax and neophytes unable to touch their toes are equally welcome.

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.