Wheaton Gyms and Fitness

For more than 30 years, the ladies at Women's Workout & Wellness have cultivated a supportive environment in which women can focus on health, fitness, and wellness. Whether grooving through Zumba sessions, pushing weight sleds, performing lifts, or sweating, students find plenty of challenges in the center’s classes. Staffers gauge fitness level by analyzing BMI and testing cardio, strength, flexibility, and the ability to karate-chop airborne cucumbers. Experts also lend advice on nutritional intake and help clients set personalized goals. Before and after sweat sessions, ladies can suit up and cool down in the spacious showers and locker rooms at each location. Daycare is available at some locations for a nominal fee.

Bob Miller has kept men, women, and children off the ropes for more than 25 years. As a certified U.S. amateur-boxing Level II coach and professional trainer, he's armed men and women with confidence and competence to jab, bob, and weave into professional boxing careers. Bob continues to focus his pugilistic pedagogy on the nitty-gritty of footwork, conditioning, and practice lessons of aspiring boxers of all skill levels. Warrior Boxing’s spick-and-span training center sports two boxing rings, heavy and speed bags, and an avalanche of tools to keep warriors light on their feet and free from the wrath of inflatable, bottom-heavy clowns. After sparring, kickboxing, or jujitsuing with one of the coaches during any number of cardio-blasting classes, students can ratchet down adrenaline levels by taking a relaxing shower in the locker rooms with free towel service.

Oak Hill founder and certified yoga instructor Kris Shields has been balancing out-of-whack energies and adding lean muscle to bodies for over three decades. Not one to rest on her rich legacy, she retains the hunger for knowledge, regularly attending yoga conferences, workshops, and readings of the great masters’ diaries to add new information to her vast yogic library. This dedication to craft shows during the intimate classes held within her earth-toned studio. By keeping things small and focused, Kris ensures that each student receives her individual attention, helping her modify poses for beginners and intensify postures for advanced students. As large volumes of natural light illuminate the expansive wood floor and vaulted ceilings of the practice space, Kris teaches students to connect their minds and bodies through breathing and the postures being performed.

Marengo Ridge Golf Club, which began as a modest nine-hole course, endured a 25-year gap before taking full advantage of the surrounding landscape’s diverse terrain and expanding into a sprawling 18-hole course. Course architect William James Spear broke ground on the front nine in 1963, designating a large, renovated cow barn as the first clubhouse and cleaving nine holes through densely wooded hills. This layout proved sufficient until a late ‘80s spike in the local caddy population—and business boom—made the addition of a back nine desirable. Construction began in 1988 and, two years later, a new nine-hole track opened for play, presenting golfers with a profound shift in scenery, as this layout was built on an expanse of open farmland. The old clubhouse lasted for three more years, but the awkward location and argyle-wearing cattle called for the construction of a new clubhouse to match the new 18-hole golf club.

Today, golfers enjoy the diverse layout of the 18-hole course from the first hole, the longest par 4 on the course, to the last, a par 5 severe dogleg right. Water enters play on nine holes, including on the first six, creating the potential for an extending water break for thirsty golf carts.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Total length of 6,654 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 72.5 from the back tees
• Course slope of 129 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard