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Each week, KCUR's Adventure! newsletter brings you a new way to explore the Kansas City region.

Looking for a new gym in Kansas City? Try out these locally-owned fitness centers

Located in the West Bottoms, Freight House Fitness offers transformative boot camps and personal training sessions.
Freight House Fitness
Freight House Fitness in the West Bottoms is one of many locally owned fitness facilities around Kansas City.

Whether you’re already a gym rat or working towards developing a sustainable exercise routine, the Kansas City metro has plenty of options to help you stay active.

This story was first published in KCUR's Creative Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.

The holidays are officially over and 2023 is well underway. We made it through another stressful season of traveling, baking, gift buying and family gatherings.

If you’re anything like most Americans, during the holidays you probably found yourself eating more sweets and rich foods than usual. Maybe your schedule got thrown off.

If so, the start of a new year can be a good time to assess and make adjustments, and that might include adding some exercise to your routine to crush those New Year goals.

Whether you’re working on developing a sustainable exercise routine or you’re already a gym rat, Kansas City has plenty of options to help you stay active. Get started with this list of locally-owned gyms around the metro

Get swole in Waldo

The interior of City Gym with three people exercising on artificial turf.
City Gym
City Gym in Waldo is female-owned and has been recognized by Google Small Business for its inclusivity.

Tucked conveniently in Waldo off Wornall Road, City Gym’s 11,500-square-foot green and gray-clad facility is a great spot to dive into your fitness goals. City Gym is female-owned and has been recognized by Google Small Business for its inclusivity.

If going it alone isn’t your style or you need some extra motivation, City Gym offers more than 30 group class options for members as well as personal training. And, since joining a new gym can be kind of intimidating for some, you can take a virtual tour and see the facility’s spin studio, 1,200 square feet of training turf and tons of equipment at this link.

An individual membership starts at $64.99 a month and senior citizen and military discounts are available, too. If you’re a nearby resident, you can try City Gym’s seven-day free trial.

Core training in the Crossroads

People working out in an indoor gym with resistance suspension trainers and other exercise equipment.
CORE Strong Fitness
Located in the Crossroads, CORE Strong Fitness focuses on TRX training, a type of suspension workout that uses a person's body weight as resistance.

Strengthening your core is key to improving your posture, balance and stability, and it can even help reduce your risk of injury — an important thing to keep in mind when embarking on any new exercise regimen.

Located in the Crossroads, CORE Strong Fitness claims to be the only TRX-based training gym in Kansas City. TRX, which stands for Total Resistance Exercise, is a suspension workout that uses a person’s body weight as resistance, engaging the core with each movement. Check out these CORE Strong videos for an example.

CORE Strong offers a variety of guided classes, all of which utilize the TRX Suspension Trainer. Things like kettlebells, sandbags, slam balls, weighted ropes and other equipment are incorporated into classes, too. It’s a great way to meet your exercise goals and tone your muscles along the way.

There are a variety of services offered by CORE Strong, such as virtual classes, small group classes, nutritional coaching and personal training. If you’d like to try it out, you can get two weeks of unlimited classes for $30.

If you’re looking for an option at a lower price with added flexibility, theGYMkc is another locally-owned gym in the Crossroads, with additional locations in Uptown and River Market — each with 24-hour-access. It’s been around since 1999, and offers a wide variety of classes including the “Project Poolside” or “Jacory’s 808 Dance Fitness.”

Facilities at theGYMkc are furnished with free weights and a variety of cardio and strength training equipment. Membership includes 24/7 access to all three locations and starts at $45 a month. There are no sign-up or cancellation fees.

Get in the zone in NKC

A group of eight people sitting on artificial turf pose for the photo and show off their biceps.
Zone 6 Fitness
Located near the river in North Kansas City, Zone 6 Fitness is a sprawling 30,000-square-foot indoor gym.

Located near the river in North Kansas City, Zone 6 Fitness is a sprawling 30,000-square-foot facility. There are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to how to work out at Zone 6.

From two different synthetic turf areas to gym-essential training equipment to more unique contraptions such as The Frog, Zone 6 has everything you need to take your gains to the next level — or, to start from scratch. If you don’t know where to start, Zone 6 provides personal or group training courses to help you on your fitness journey.

Zone 6 offers a free trial for anyone who wants to test out the facilities before making a commitment. To learn more about signing up for a membership or starting a trial, you can get started here.

HIIT your fitness goals in the West Bottoms

Boot camp classes at Freight House Fitness are a combination of weight training and high intensity-interval training workouts — commonly known as HIIT.
Freight House Fitness
Boot camp classes at Freight House Fitness are a combination of weight training and high intensity-interval training workouts — commonly known as HIIT.

If you walk into a gym and have absolutely no idea where to start, or you have very specific goals and would like a professional trainer in your corner, Wellness Warehouse is the perfect place for you.

Wellness Warehouse is home to almost a dozen coaches and even an in-house acupuncturist. The facility offers a variety of group classes including yoga, strength training and mobility courses as well as small group and personal training sessions.

Located in the West Bottoms, the Wellness Warehouse houses an infrared sauna, battle ropes, custom obstacle courses and more. Memberships, which vary based on the amount of course credits you purchase, start at $99 a month.

Also located in the West Bottoms, Freight House Fitness offers transformative boot camps and personal training sessions.

Bootcamp classes are a combination of weight training and high intensity-interval training workouts — commonly known as HIIT. Though the classes only last half an hour, they’re intense and offered at multiple time slots ranging from early morning to late evening. The courses are designed to fit any schedule and become a part of your everyday life.

Freight House Fitness is a contract-free gym, and monthly memberships for group classes range between $49-129. As an incentive to get started, they’re offering new members a 21-Day Jumpstart, which includes access to 21 days of unlimited boot camp classes for only $21.

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Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga reports on health disparities in access and health outcomes in both rural and urban areas.
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