Best of Health & Fitness

Chiropractor

1st Place
Wilson Chiropractic and Sports Medicine
2000 E. Main St., Ventura
643-4176

2nd Place
Dr. Matt Leonard, Coastal Chiropractic
1453 E. Main St., Ventura
667-2260

3rd Place
Dr. Angela Sutter
1445 Donlon St., # 5, Ventura
658-9999

Cosmetic surgeon

1st Place
Dr. Michael Pickart
Pickart Plastic Surgery
428 Poli Street, Suite 2C, Ventura
648-4567

2nd Place
Dr. Robert Improta
2460 N. Ponderosa Drive, A117, Camarillo
484-2855

3rd Place
Dr. Arthur Flynn
168 North Brent St., Suite 403, Ventura
643-5437

Dance instructor

1st Place
Monica Galindo Thompson @ Premier Dance Studio
2425 W. 5th Street, Suite B, Oxnard
382-6242

2nd Place
Louise Bretz @ Connexions Dance studio
275 S. Laurel St., Ventura
643-0788

3rd Place
Patricia Monico @ House of Dance
3007 Bunsen Ave., Suite E, Ventura
650-2719

Best place to exercise your inner gangsta

Jill Johnson’s Dance Studio

811 W. Telegraph Road, Santa Paula, 525-3187, www.jilljohnsonsdancestudio.com

You know that feeling you get when a good song comes on the radio? Your foot starts tapping and your body starts grooving. Believe it or not, there’s a place you can go to do this for exercise. It’s a place where the music blasts through the air, and your body can move to it in new and exciting ways without the driver in the car next to you staring with judgmental eyes.

Instead, at Jill’s Dance Studio in Santa Paula, you are encouraged to move to the beat, despite how awful you think you might look. Whether you want to get your inner gangsta on or create a rhythm with your feet, there are open classes for adults to give dancing a try. But don’t enter the mirrored studio expecting a fluffy, relaxing experience. As with all true exercise, sweating comes with the territory.

Dance instructors will lead you in a pre-workout warm-up before jumping you into their choreography, literally stretching muscles you probably didn’t know were there. With dancing, you will be using your entire body to reflect the movements the choreographer presents. One of the best parts about dance, however, is that it’s not just a physical workout. Your brain will be firing quickly and wielding the ability to memorize the routine. “Muscle memory” is what they call it. Every class brings new choreography, so you can always be sure that your brain will be getting a new workout every week; and as your muscles work hard to perform the choreography, you will be sure to break more than a sweat. When you get home, take a couple of ibuprofen, as you’ll for sure be sore over the next couple of days (which, of course, means the magic of exercise is working).

— Hannah Davis

Dance studio

1st Place
Premier Dance Studio
2425 W. 5th St., Oxnard
382-6242

2nd Place
Connexions Dance studio
275 S. Laurel St., Ventura
643-0788

3rd Place
House of Dance
3007 Bunsen Ave., Suite E, Ventura
650-2719

Best place to climb on the walls

Boulderdash Indoor Rock Climbing

880 Hampshire Road, Suite A, Thousand Oaks, 557-1300, www.boulderdashclimbing.com

As a 12-year-old, I wanted to climb all over everything. Big rocks, walls, trees – anything I could scramble up. My inner child still yearns to be a monkey, so I headed to Westlake’s indoor rock climbing studio, Boulderdash.

I don’t have a lot of climbing experience, but I wanted to have a chance at the big walls, so I signed up for a 45-minute guided session. I couldn’t imagine there being any sort of rock climbing tucked into a sprawling office complex, but there it was, just down a short hallway. Through the door awaited a cavernous warehouse where walls covered in bright knobs and bumps stretched up almost endlessly toward the well-lit ceiling.

At the front desk, I’m given shoes and a harness, and shuffle over to wait for the instructor with my fellow climbers, four young siblings.

The blue carpet lining the floor under the climbing walls is springy, and for each segment of the wall to be climbed, a long rope already hangs to the floor, ready to be clipped in. In an opposite corner, a cluster of low rocks forms the bouldering section, where you don’t need a harness or experience to try out your abilities.

Our instructor briefly explains the numbered rating system of the climbs before hooking us in and sending us scurrying up the wall. Though we don’t get a crack at the tallest wall, a 45-foot behemoth, when your own upper body strength is all that stands between you and dangling from a harness midair, even 10 feet seems like an accomplishment. It looks safer from the ground than it feels in the moment, and all the way to the top I can feel the adrenaline high.

It’s not until halfway up the route of colored knobs, as I’m about to put my pointy-toed climbing shoe onto a hold that’s barely more than a bolt in the wall, that it occurs to me that I don’t go to the gym, I don’t work out and, yes, bracing my body splayed out on a flat wall and letting go with one hand to grab another hold two feet beyond my reach might be a bad idea.

But once I get to the top, lean back, and let gravity zip me down the line to the floor, it’s worth it.

— Shaunacy Ferro

Dentist

1st Place
Dr. Stacy M. Schmitt
3400 Loma Vista Rd., Suite 8, Ventura
642-6884

2nd Place
Dr. Bryan Fisch, Ventura Center for Dental Health
2807 Loma Vista Rd., Suite 201, Ventura
656-7033

3rd Place
Dr. David Satnick
6633 Telephone Rd., Suite 220, Ventura
639-3050

Dermatologist

1st Place
Dr. Peter L. Karlsberg
1190 S. Victoria Ave., Suite 300, Ventura
677-1600

2nd Place
Dr. Robert Jordan
3400 Loma Vista Rd., Suite 1, Ventura
644-9321

3rd Place
Dr. Ross Kaplan, Coastal Dermatology
3615 Las Posas Rd., Suite F100
484-2813

Family physician

1st Place
Dr. Thomas McBreen
2929 Loma Vista Rd., Suite E, Ventura
653-5741

2nd Place
Dr. Andrew Kerr
Loma Vista Family Practice
3555 Loma Vista Rd., Suite 100, Ventura
648-3316

3rd Place
Dr. Edward Banman
Primary Medical Group
3555 Loma Vista Rd., Suite 110, Ventura
653-0303;

10885 Telegraph Rd., Ventura
647-7704

Gym

1st Place
Mavericks Gym
5171 Telegraph Rd., Ventura
642-9600

2nd Place
805 Boot Camp, LLC
3406 Monticello Ave., Simi Valley
823-3409

3rd Place
Pierpont Racquet Club
500 San Jon Rd., Ventura
648-5161

Holistic practitioner

1st Place
Ema’s Herbs
695 E. Main St., Ventura
648-6426

2nd Place
Lisa Wong @ Holistic Healing Center
2856 5700 Ralston St., Ventura
653-6008

3rd Place
Dusty Antos @ Flow of Life
208 Gazania Ct., Thousand Oaks
494-0844

Licensed massage therapist

1st Place
Shannon Mathey @ ArchiTexture
25 S. Ventura Ave., Ventura
641-3900

2nd Place
Susie Christensen @ Cara Mia
424 E. Main St., Ventura
641-2556

3rd Place
The Massage Place
4255 E. Main St., Suite 4, Ventura
477-7501;

652 E. Main St., Ventura
652-1450;

2100 Outlet Center Dr., Suite 360, Oxnard
485-0568

Martial arts instructor

1st Place
Fabio Leopoldo @ Gracie MORUMBI
Fabio Leopoldo
51 W. Main St., Suite J, Ventura
643-7717;

1182 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite A, Thousand Oaks
496-1610

2nd Place
Jason Flame @ Jason Flame’s Tang Soo Do University
5285 Kazuko Ct., Suite A, Moorpark
530-0000

3rd Place
Larry Reynosa @ Makoto Dojo
3026 Telegraph Rd., Ventura
641-0447

Martial arts studio

1st Place
Gracie MORUMBI Fabio Leopoldo
51 W. Main St., Suite J, Ventura
643-7717;

182 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite A
Thousand Oaks
496-1610

2nd Place
Jason Flame’s Tang Soo Do University
5285 Kazuko Ct., Suite A, Moorpark
530-0000

3rd Place
Makoto Dojo
3026 Telegraph Rd., Ventura
641-0447

Personal trainer

1st Place
Randy Shoemaker (805Boot Camp)
3406 Monticello Ave., Simi Valley
823-3409

2nd Place
Rob Yontz (True North Fitness)
6019 Olivas Park Dr., Suite D, Ventura
650-1239

3rd Place
Warren Middleton (Physique)
2945 Los Olivos, Suite 105, Oxnard
278-7700

Pilates instructor

1st Place
Gail DeSart @ Mind & Body
Wellness Studio
1445 Donlon St., Suite 9, Ventura
654-8354

2nd Place
Erin Cushman @ Pilates Space
www.venturapilatesspace.com
901-3052

3rd Place
Kathy Lopez @ Pilates with Kathy
1455 E. Main St., Suite 200, Ventura
844-3425

Pilates studio

1st Place
Mind & Body Wellness Studio
1445 Donlon St., Suite 9, Ventura
654-8354

2nd Place
Pilates Influence
3150 S. Harbor Blvd., Oxnard
479-1066

3rd Place
Ventura Pilates Studio
1455 E. Main St., Ventura
648-4191

Yoga center

1st Place
Yoga Jones
105 S. Oak St., Suite 200, Ventura
643-5669

2nd Place
ZanZilla
2750 E. Main St., Ventura
890-4863

3rd Place
The Yoga Channel
at Silverstrand Beach
2520 Roosevelt Blvd., Oxnard
984-2520

Yoga instructor

1st Place
Sabrina Zan Ferris @ ZanZilla
2750 E. Main St., Ventura
890-4863

2nd Place
Maribeth Hammond @ The The Yoga Channel at Silverstrand Beach
2520 Roosevelt Blvd., Oxnard
984-2520

3rd Place
Pixie Kastrup @ ZanZilla
2750 E. Main St., Ventura
890-4863