Namaste Personal Training, Emeryville

At Head Over Heels Athletic Arts, an experienced staff crafts a roster of sports and gymnastics classes, all anchored in the philosophy that, given the opportunity to explore the body’s athletic capabilities at a young age, participants can greater achieve their goals and increase their self-esteem well into adulthood. Open since 1977, the fitness center enables everyone from toddlers to adults to stay active through social endeavors designed to strengthen the mind and encourage sportsmanship more effectively than crossword-puzzle relays. Gymnastics classes cultivate strength and flexibility, propelling several past students to national levels of competition, and circus-arts sessions harness the expertise of internationally trained performers to illustrate a story via colorful costumes and aerial twists. Beyond teaching youngsters and frustrated penguins to fly during trampoline and tumbling classes, coaches train at the Behavioral Intervention Association in order to mold classes to special-needs students’ unique demands.

Five days a week, Head Over Heels opens its colorful gym floor to kids aged 2 and older for an unstructured, supervised playtime, during which kids can bounce on trampolines and dive into the foam pit to rescue friends from drowning in their own imagination. The facility also hosts special programs within its rainbow walls, from birthday parties and camps to weekend childcare sessions intended to give parents an evening alone.