Yoga challenges the mind and body without the violence and hurt feelings of full-contact chess. Steer clear of overaggressive pawns with today's Groupon: for $25, you get 25 classes at Joy Yoga Center (a $282 value).

Joy Yoga Center's team of attentive yoga instructors leads students through challenging Vinyasa-style yoga classes that help yogis of all skill levels develop a fitness-boosting, stress-relieving practice. The studio's robust schedule of 60 classes per week includes beginner sessions to introduce fledgling yogis to the technical aspects of Vinyasa flow, focusing on proper alignment and regulated breathing techniques. Students in search of more challenging postures can drop into intermediate and advanced classes. Hand weights add extra resistance to the series of slow, flowing postures performed in Yoga Sculpt workouts, where muscles are sculpted from head to unnecessarily strong toes and minds are pushed to the edge of steep sticky-mat plateaus. Yoga and Pilates fusion combines floor exercises from each discipline to strengthen abdominals and shape long, lithe limbs without having to arm-wrestle wish-hoarding genies.