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Monday, May 14, 2007
05/13/07 Reader's Choice: Health and Body
Best health club for working out
Colony Square Athletic Club
The Lowdown: Pilates, Body Pump and free parking are just a few of
the perks at this 15,000-square-foot Midtown gym. Check out the Dies...
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HEALTH AND BODY
Best health club for working out
Colony Square Athletic Club
The Lowdown: Pilates, Body Pump and free parking are just a few of the perks at this 15,000-square-foot Midtown gym. Check out the Diesel class, an intense circuit of weights and bursts of cardio. Afterward, get a sauna, tan, massage and lunch at the Internet café or the Colony Square food court.
The BASICS: 1197 Peachtree St., Atlanta, 30309, 404-745-9309, www.colonyathletic.com.
Best health club for flirting
Crunch
The Lowdown: It’s not just the juice bar and whirlpool that lure members to this club’s two locations. Check out the sweat-glistened bodies of potential dates in classes with sexy names like Beach Body Bootcamp, Rock Bottom, Strip Bar, Booty Kickin’ Step and Buff Yoga.
The BASICS: 3101 Cobb Parkway, Atlanta, 30339, 770-955-3845; 3365 Piedmont Road, Atlanta, 30305, 404-262-2120; www.crunch.com.
Best day spa
FaBu Face Spa and Boutique
The Lowdown: How shall you be pampered? A Swedish massage, chased with an exquisite, nourishing fruit-and-vegetable facial? Hot-stone massage followed by an ear candling? Or perhaps you’d like your eyelashes tinted, a bikini wax and your wrinkles zapped with microdermabrasion? Like the name, it’s all fabulous at this downtown Decatur spa.
The BASICS: 335 West Ponce de Leon Ave., Suite E, Decatur, 30030, 404-377-6363, www.fabufacespa.com.
Best yoga class
Colony Square Athletic Club
The Lowdown: You can have your yoga straight up or mixed with Pilates at this hip Midtown club. Begin with intense ab-strengthening moves, then segue into a yoga-flow sequence to stretch, strengthen and release tense muscles. Finish up with a relaxing segment integrating body, breath and mind.
The BASICS: 1197 Peachtree St., Atlanta, 30309, 404-745-9309, www.colonyathletic.com.
Best diet for Atlantans
Weight Watchers
The Lowdown: Give up biscuits, pecan pie and martinis? Get real. You count points, not calories, on this diet that works when nothing else has. The key: You quickly figure out that the pounds won’t come off until you start counting points, exercising and eating lots of fruits, vegetables and fiber. And drinking eight glasses of water daily.
The BASICS: 800-651-6000 or find a meeting at www.weightwatchers.com.
Best new fitness trend to hit Atlanta
Pole-dancing
The Lowdown: Your love handles will never look the same after you’ve worked those hips in the grinding, aerobic dance moves perfected by strippers. Leave water aerobics to the prudes and get busy slithering up and down that phallic prop of a pole. Bottom line: This is the best way to tighten your abs since sit-ups.
The BASICS: PoleLaTeaz, 2148 Hills Ave., Suite H2, Atlanta, 30318, 404-399-3358, www.polelateaz.com; Aphrodite’s Toy Box, 3040 North Decatur Road, Scottdale, 30079, 404-292-9700; www.aphroditestoybox.com.
Best masseuse
Marian Bonner, Salon Red, Candler Park
The Lowdown: Muscles melt in the hands of this petite powerhouse. Clients love her infectious optimism as much as her rubs, which are a fusion of traditional Thai, deep-tissue, sports, heated stone and Swedish massage, with a little reflexology for good measure. She says her “holistic approach” helps clients “achieve better balance, health and harmony in their lives.”
The BASICS: 1642 DeKalb Ave., Atlanta, 30307, 404-373-2003, www.salonred.com.
Best jogging path
Freedom Parkway
The Lowdown: Stretching from the Candler Park golf course to downtown skyscrapers, the Freedom Parkway trail offers 18 miles of intown pavement—minus intown traffic. The Carter Center, at the heart of the path, includes a 35-acre park with formal gardens, a wildflower meadow, a cherry orchard and waterfalls amid two small lakes. Consider it the lungs of the city.
The BASICS: www.pathfoundation.org.
Best hiking trail
Stone Mountain
The Lowdown: Tourists in heels have traversed the 1.3-mile hike to the top of the granite monadnock. Yes, it’s that irresistible. From 1,683 feet above sea level, you can see downtown Atlanta and the North Georgia mountains and visit the snack bar. Slackers can ride a cable car up and hike down—a far easier trek.
The BASICS: 16 miles east of downtown Atlanta on Highway 78, 770-498-5690, www.stonemountainpark.com.
Best bike ride
Silver Comet Trail
The Lowdown: Georgia’s bicycling nirvana: a flat, smooth trail, winding past rock cliffs and cathedrals of pines. The trail goes from Smyrna clear through to the Alabama border, detouring between Rockmart and Cedartown. No bike? Borrow one from the Rockmart library or rent one trailside at the Silver Comet Depot in Mableton.
The BASICS: Trail begins northwest of Atlanta, just outside the perimeter; www.pathfoundation.org.
Best bike shop
Atlanta Velo Exchange
The Lowdown: A bike for every budget and taste. Choose
a new GT, Opera, Time or UNO track bike, or pick from an assortment of high-end used models. AVX also sponsors a racing team and regular rides, including the Buckhead Bellyache, departing from the shop at 6 p.m. every Thursday.
The BASICS: 857 Collier Road, Suite 20, Atlanta, 30318, 404-869-2393, www.avxbikes.com.
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