Get in Shape: Fitness Classes in Greenbelt

If you're already starting to fall back on your new year's resolution, here are some classes to get you back on track.

Was losing weight a part of your new year's resolution? Here are some classes offered in Greenbelt to help you stay on track (or get back on track) now that February is almost here: Exercise at Lunch Program, Daily, 11 a.m. Greenbelt Youth Center, 99 Centerway, Greenbelt, MD Cost: $75.00   Indoor Fitness Boot Camp, Feb. 1, 2013, 5:30 a.m. 9801 Greenbelt Rd, Lanham, MD Cost: $12.50   WOWbodyNOW Ab Hour, Feb. 2, 2013, 8 p.m. 9607 50th Ave, College Park, MD Cost: $10.00   WOWbodyNOW Boot Camp, Feb. 5, 2013, 6 p.m. Lastner Ln & Ivy Ln, Greenbelt, MD  Cost: $8.00

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Gold's Gym Closes Abruptly in Greenbelt Mall

No sign posted, gym equipment gone just before the holiday season.

It may have taken gold in our Readers' Choice for best gym in Greenbelt, but the Gold's Gym located in Beltway Plaza Mall closed abruptly just before the Thanksgiving holiday. A Patch reader wrote into us to notify us about their closure—noting that the gym closed overnight on Nov. 21, but the space was cleared out of the gym's equipment. However, there was no note on the door explaining why. It closed so quickly the Beltway Plaza Mall directory still lists Gold's Gym as an open business. Members missing their workouts can go to the gym's nearest locations in Laurel and Bowie. While we figure out why it closed, let us know if you're surprised about its closure. A Planet Fitness recently opened in the same mall—do you think competition is …

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Curves Offers Free 30-Day Memberships During National Women's Health Week

Curves is offering free memberships and fitness assessments in Greenbelt, MD, through Friday.

Curves of Greenbelt, MD, invites women to join the fitness club for a week-long open house to celebrate National Women's Health Week, running through Friday, May 18. Interested women can get a free 30-day membership, Curves says. Women will also get free tours of the club and free fitness assessments, including body fat analysis, Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements, and waist circumference measurements, according to Curves. And Curves will also offer health screenings and talks on women's health issues. For more information, check out Curves' events listing on Greenbelt Patch.

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Gold's Gym Greenbelt Health & Wellness Fair

Free Zumba, spinning and more.

LA Fitness in Greenbelt to Honor Bally’s Lifetime Memberships

Fitness club buyout leads to confusion, frustration by lifetime members.

  In late November LA Fitness purchased 171 Bally’s health clubs across the country, including associated customer contracts, but not lifetime memberships. As reported in the Upper Dublin Patch, many customers had paid thousands of dollars for the lifetime memberships, only to find out that the memberships were not truly “lifetime.” Customers took to online message boards and forums to share their stories, one going so far as to create Ballyssuit.com, “an online forum created by Michigan resident Jeff Levy with the ambitions of forming a class action law suit.” Before any suits were filed, LA Fitness released a statement on their website explaining that they would in fact, honor the lifetime memberships from Bally’s: "LA Fitness has …

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Living Well

Fighting the Wintertime Blues

Cold winter days do not have to mean dealing with the depression that comes with seasonal affective disorder. Columnist Ann Brennan shares how she fought back and now enjoys Maryland winters.

It is cold outside. It is the kind of cold that has many of us avoiding the outdoors at all costs, moving from car to house or office as quickly as possible. And if we are exercising at all, it is in our homes or at a gym.  For most of us, the winter months can mean putting on weight and losing the conditioning we have built up over the rest of the year. Worse still it can mean depression and moodiness brought on by seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  According to Medicine Net, “your mood is influenced by a complex web of relationships between sunlight, melatonin (the sleep hormone) and serotonin (the hormone associated with wakefulness and elevated mood). As darkness falls, your melatonin levels naturally increase. And as the morning …

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Living Well

Holiday Gift Idea for Your Favorite Runner: the Gift Basket

Looking for that perfect gift for the runner in your life? Get creative with a gift basket.

I love gift baskets. I love receiving them, because the gift goes on for so long as I pick my way through, examining each of the items. But I love giving them as well. I enjoy deciding on the theme months in advance and picking up items throughout the year that will make the basket special. I enjoy finding the last minute perishable items to add just a little sweetness, and I enjoy watching the recipient as they go through the layers of gifts. One of the best parts about giving a themed gift basket is that you can’t possibly go completely wrong. With several items to choose from, at least one will hit the spot. My favorite theme basket this year is for runners. Because of the number of hours I spend inside sports stores throughout the year…

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Shannon Hoffman

12:02 pm on Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I never heard of this book... This is awesome. I can think of several people I would buy this for.   more ›

Living Well

Join the Holiday Fitness Challenge

Join columnist Ann Brennan and other Patch readers in a quest to maintain your fitness and weight during the holiday season.

This morning I found myself wanting to kick my scale under the bed, hoping that if I hide it, I might be able to avoid the anxiety that comes with weight gain over the holiday season. Unfortunately, tighter waistbands will reveal the same news if I am not careful. But I have a new plan. This year, I’m organizing a Prince George’s County Fitness Challenge, and I’m inviting the Patch community to participate. The challenge is meant to be motivating. It is meant to offer support and encouragement throughout the holiday season, as we try to maintain our current fitness and weight. Most importantly it is meant to be fun. Starting on Thanksgiving Day and ending on Jan. 3, the challenge is open to any Patch readers who are interested in …

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Bailey Henneberg

11:50 pm on Friday, November 25, 2011

Good idea Cynthia — thanks for sharing it!   more ›

Living Well

Staying Mentally Fit Through Exercise, and Reaching Out for Help

Staying fit and healthy does not always refer to our bodies. Our mental health is just as important.

As a fitness writer I have the opportunity each week to speak to dozens of athletes. One of the questions I ask most often is why, “Why do you run?”  Though I sometimes receive something along the lines of, “to fit into my skinny jeans,” more often than not the answer is some variation of, “I run for my sanity.” This is the answer that is most true for me as well. Just this morning, after reading the Grand Jury Report about Jerry Sandusky, I had to go for a run. I had to run the stress and sadness out.  An hour on the roads did that for me.  I came home still not happy that children have been the victims of such horrible acts, but able to cope with it. Whether it is the endorphins that are produced when we run or the ability to spend an …

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