Things To Do In Manassas

UFC Gym's staff features a team of professional fighters who come from backgrounds as boxers, mix martial artists, professional Muy Thai fighters, and Bruce Banners at its many area locations.The proprietary style of the UFC Gym workout is a mixture of genuine fight training and engaging fitness routines, designed to help clients use fitness techniques to reach their health goals. Clients can burn 800 to 1,000 calories during these total-body routines, which combine external inspiration and jukes, jabs, and kicks that the instructors demonstrate as students practice techniques on 150-pound punching bags. The facility includes a regulation-sized boxing ring, quarter octagon, full weight room, cardio equipment, and showers for both men and women. Session sizes are kept small, ensuring personal attention and manageable battle-royale numbers.

Like UFC Gym, the boxing arena is no slouch when it comes to fitness: fight-centric gyms ditch the polished look of wood-floored workout studios for gritty, competitive spaces filled with 150-pound punching bags and intense workouts. Like a baker molding gingerbread men, UFC Gym sculpts six-packs with boxing, kickboxing, and mixed-martial-arts classes, and additionally, most experience boosted self-confidence after conquering their first class. Private training sessions further stoke courage with workouts that leave patrons with the exhilaration of having survived 12 rounds in the ring or five minutes in a high-school lunchroom.

Sam Hatfield honed his gunsmithing skills in one of the most elite units in the US Army: the US Army Marksmanship Unit. He crafted customized weapons for the men and women of the unit and now personalizes firearms for the general public. In addition to his customized guns, he and his staff offer training classes such as a NRA basic home-safety course. Visitors can also eschew guns altogether inside the simulator, which drops users into tense situations to let them hone their skills while safely under artificial fire.

The cream of the local culinary crop comes out in full force for the first-ever Taste of Historic Manassas, held at The Harris Pavilion. From the gourmet Italian cuisine of Carmello's to fresh-brewed coffee from Grounds Central Station, Manassas's most dedicated chefs put their best flavors and tallest chef hats on display for foodies. Meanwhile, the musicians of Harlen Simple break free of genre constraints and play a set list of rock, funk, and reggae covers throughout the day.

The Yoga Connection’s students work through focused breathing, meditation, and body-bending asanas in Hatha yoga classes at the gentle command of patient instructors. A seasonal schedule accommodates pupils with weekend and nighttime hours. A variety of times is offered for the studio's 75- and 90-minute sessions, including the Gentle Beginners class, where aspiring yogis can harness serenity and hone flexibility with fundamental postures. Level One classes cultivate calm breathing techniques as effectively as an Olympic-caliber Lamaze instructor, and sustained poses help to intensively lengthen limbs in Yin or Deep-Stretch yoga, which helps to increase joint mobility for students with restricted movement due to age, injury, or staring contests with Medusa. The more invigorating Sunrise yoga sessions motivate muscles and engender relaxation with meditation and fluid movements facilitated by exhilarating Sun Salutations.

Bubbles rush from beneath the diving group’s masks—one of the only nearby signs of moving life—as they float beside the sunken submarine U-352. More than 70 years resting in 110 feet of North Carolinian coastal waters have transformed it into a reef of sorts—rife with small tropical marine life—but the unmistakable shapes of torpedo hatches, a conning tower, and the massive propeller give away its identity. Above and around the hollow hull float Blu Water Scuba’s instructors, guiding a detailed tour to the wreck, which is considered among the most unique wrecks to inhabit American waters.

The dive shop’s owners-cum-teachers regularly plan excursions from their base in D.C. to explore seldom-seen, deeply submerged portions of the Atlantic. To ensure that as many people as possible can share such amazing experiences, they offer basic certification courses in open-water diving as well as in a slew of advanced underwater skills, such as rescue diving. They start training sessions in enclosed spaces such as classrooms, local pools, and senators' private hot tubs, ultimately diving in outdoor locations such as the local Lake Millbrook flooded stone quarry, where they administer certification tests. Apart from full PADI certification, they also teach introductory diving skills in the safety of local pools.

The Range

Based in Manassas, Virginia, Innovative Defensive Solutions' instructors travel to host ranges across the US that specialize in gun safety, personal awareness, and personal-defense training—including indoor and outdoor locations—where they coach students through live-fire drills and live-fire courses.

At a Glance

With a team of defensive firearm instructors, state-certified and NRA-certified instructors, including lifelong gun owners, users, and military veterans, it’s no wonder that students of Innovative Defensive Solutions build such solid foundations of safety and tactics. The course list's subject matter includes combat-focus shooting, pepper spray, home-defensive handguns, home-defense tactics, and defensive handgun training. The instructors also cover basic and introductory skills for newcomers, and they even prepare experts to become instructors themselves.