There is no shortage of ways to achieve your 2024 health and fitness resolutions in the nation’s fittest city. Whether you want a big-box or boutique gym, specialized classes like yoga and Pilates, or one-on-one attention from a personal trainer, the Arlington area has plenty of fitness options to get—and keep—you moving. Below are four places that opened in the past six months, plus one that’s coming soon, for inspiration. (For even more workout options, check out the fitness category winners in our 2024 Best of Arlington Awards.)
Cut Seven
Clarendon’s newest gym opened Dec. 21, 2023, offering a rotating menu of classes designed to target different muscle groups. During a circuit-based workout, you might do squats paired with kettlebell swings, battle ropes and bicep curls, or a sled push and wall sits.
“Most of our activities are driven by some sort of athleticism,” says co-founder Chris Perrin, who created and owns Cut Seven with his wife, Alex. “The only machine that we use is a [Concept 2] SkiErg,” a full-body workout machine that mimics Nordic skiing.
Classes have obvious names like “Arms,” “Core and Ass” or “Heart,” so clients know what they’re signing up for. Right now, seven coaches lead 30 classes a week, although the Perrins plan to eventually offer 50 sessions weekly.
They also emphasize recovery time—not only by giving alternating muscle groups time to rest, but also by offering Normatec sleeves (compression sleeves with built-in massage to use onsite), cold plunge therapy (submerging into tubs set to 40-50 degrees) and an infrared sauna that heats the body, not the air.
“[These therapies] certainly support recovery, but there are so many more benefits—how we manage stress and deal with stress from a mental perspective, mood boosting and all of that,” says Alex, a Clifton native. “We wanted to make these services really accessible.”
The husband-and-wife team started offering their classes almost a decade ago at the Lyon Hill Community Center and outdoors at Rocky Run Park before opening their first two brick-and-mortar locations in D.C. “It’s pretty nostalgic to be back on what I’d say is our home turf,” Alex says.
Cut Seven is located at 3101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington (Clarendon).
Hustle
Former Soul Cycle instructor Sunny Miller opened her first gym in July 2023 at Amazon’s HQ2 in National Landing, offering 45-minute cycling, strength and stretching classes.
Cycling is rhythm-based, meaning there are no metrics or leaderboard, she says. “We focus a lot on adding resistance to any kind of choreography that we do, and having it be more of an athletic workout,” Miller says.
Her team programs strength workouts by body part (think back and biceps or core). “All the strength classes are done as partner workouts and they’re station-based, so you’ll have one type of movement or exercise at one station and then you’ll move to the next,” Miller says. “We try to make strength training—which can be very monotonous and simple—a fun, teamwork environment.”
Stretching workouts cover the whole body, with each stretch being held for about 90 seconds. “Most of us don’t stretch, and when you do, you’re like, ‘OK, ten seconds, I’m done,’” but that isn’t enough to get the full benefits, Miller says. “It’s nice to have that instructor-led stretch where you’re forced to actually hold it.”
All fitness levels are welcome. Members also get access to special workshops in yoga, boxing, Pilates and more that Hustle offers a few times each month.
“The idea is to have variety in the programming, so that you stay focused and entertained,” Miller says, “but also you see the changes in your body.”
Hustle is located at 1450 S. Eads St., Arlington (National Landing).
Training Ground
Opened in Rosslyn in November 2023, Training Ground offers a free consultation, nutrition and body composition testing, and workouts tailored to your needs, no matter your fitness starting point. You can go it alone with a trainer or bring a partner, friend or even a kid (12 or older) for small-group training.
Personal training can “really address someone’s need and personalize their program and fitness…so that they get the best results possible,” says owner Andy Schaefer.
This is the third location for the expanding gym, which also operates in Ballston (850 N. Randolph St.) and Bethesda.
Although the space has a treadmill and some rowers, the bulk of the work is strength-based, Schaefer says. “We have a barbell rack, we have dumbbells and free weights and kettlebells, we have turf with sleds and medicine balls. You don’t see a lot of machines you might see in a gym. The clients are going to sweat, but it’s not going to be from running on the treadmill. I wouldn’t want a client to be like, ‘I’m paying to run on this thing?’ ”
On Jan. 24, at noon, Training Ground is hosting a free pop-up cardio-based workout class that combines strength and agility drills at Bennett Park Art Atrium (1601 Clarendon Blvd.), as part of the Rosslyn Business Improvement District’s New Year’s Rosslyn Rossolutions program.
Training Ground is located at 1500 Wilson Blvd., Arlington (Rosslyn).
Life Time Clarendon
This four-story, 113,000-square foot gym-meets-country-club opened at the Crossing Clarendon last July. It offers the usual suspects: group exercise classes (120 of them a week, to be exact), rows of cardio machines, racks of dumbbells and strength-training machines. But there are also some unexpected extras, such as a cedarwood sauna, eucalyptus steam room, kids’ academy, cafe, salon and a 28,000-square-foot co-working space for remote workers.
Blast calories and sculpt muscles in the gym’s seven studios offering barre, spinning and yoga, or sign up with a personal trainer to jump-start or refresh your fitness routine.
“This is an area we’ve been looking at for many years given the location, surrounding area and businesses,” says Life Time spokesperson Natalie Bushaw. “And the great demographic.”
Life Time Clarendon is located at 1440 N. Edgewood St., Arlington (Clarendon).
Rumble Boxing
Coming soon to Courthouse and Falls Church, this gym will offer full-body, boxing-inspired group classes that combine high-intensity interval training with metabolic conditioning. Never thrown a punch? No worries. Instructors will walk you through the six types of punches used in the class (jabs, hooks, uppercuts) before it starts.
The forthcoming Rumble Boxing locations will be at 2055 15th St. in Arlington, and at 118 Founders Ave. in Falls Church.