Sometimes it's the little touches that make a fitness center stand out. Take the Biltmore Fitness Center's twin water cooler. One, enticingly glistening with condensation, held plain ice water. The other was filled with fresh-cut lemons and water. That's not only classy but it's a smart and healthy drink to offer someone who has lost minerals through sweat.
David Pearson, 75, likens Ed Delatorre's South Miami Bootcamp class to a little United Nations. ``It is by far the most integrated -- physically, socially, intellectually -- place of its type in Florida. The workout is terrific but it's almost like a spiritual lift when I leave here.''
SWEAT EQUITY
Crunch trainer Randy Washington looks over a first-timer to his Athlete's Workout class and makes sure this person has suitable sneakers. ''A lot of jumping,'' he warns.
SWEAT EQUITY
Mariah Carey coos and pleads, ''touch my body,'' in her current No. 1 single of the same name. In case the vocal invitation isn't fetching enough, there's Carey clad in a bikini, erupting out of the ocean, on the cover of last week's People magazine.
SWEAT EQUITY
If you saw The Bourne Ultimatum recently, or the other two action films in the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, you probably marveled at the amazing fight sequences coordinated by Jonathan Eusabio.
SWEAT EQUITY
This week, instead of looking back at a class and grading it, we're going to depart a bit from the column's regular format and look ahead to three new class offerings coming to South Beach's Equinox in mid-April: Yoga 360, which utilizes a round yoga mat because, well, they say it's better; Impact shadow kickboxing and -- snicker -- Climb-Max, a stepping class taken on a slanted riser.
SWEAT EQUITY
Bodyweb with the TRX System sounds something we'd find on the back of a Spider-Man DVD. Instead, it's a component of the popular suspension training exercise program making inroads across the States. The ''total resistance exercise'' (TRX, for short) suspension system is a pair of yellow straps with black handles attached to a playground-like rod that looks like a swing set sans the swings.
SWEAT EQUITY
Disclosure: I hate spinning. Yes, I realize one can burn upward of 700 or more calories in an hour peddling like a maniac on an indoor bike -- going nowhere, mind you -- but I don't care.
SWEAT EQUITY
The Cars were on to something with that Shake It Up song. The Power Plate, utilizing something called ''advanced vibration technology,'' hit the States in 2001 but was developed in the '60s in Russia to strengthen muscles, aid circulation and stimulate bone mass for cosmonauts in training.
SWEAT EQUITY
Two weeks ago I wrote about a wonderful workout -- boxing class at South Florida Boxing. ''No namby-pamby tae-bo, kickboxing, box aerobics,'' I said about that intense workout.
SWEAT EQUITY
Few things beat socializing and exercising together, especially as we age. Anything that gets us out of the house to see familiar faces, catch up on the day's news and burn calories while we do so is a blessing.
SWEAT EQUITY
Growing up I caught all the boxing movies: Rocky, Raging Bull, The Main Event, The Champ -- all the way up to the recent Cinderella Man and Million Dollar Baby.
SWEAT EQUITY
Crunch's imagination in designing and naming classes can make exercising feel like a trip to the county fair or an adult video shop: The Long Ride. Spectrum Ride. Hard Core Cuts. Virgin Yoga. Rear Attitude, to name some.
SWEAT EQUITY
A 30,000-pound, 32-foot-tall rock mountain wall looms against one side of the Downtown Athletic Club. Strap yourself to a harness system, put on special shoes with pointy toes, and haul yourself to the top.
SWEAT EQUITY
''I call it the whole peace workout because you never know what you're going to get,'' says fitness instructor Nan Imbesi as she introduces a newcomer to her total body workout class at the Miami Conservatory in South Miami.
