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• Best Beaux Arts Workout Spot — With a Movie (1912)

  Los Angeles Athletic Club

  Founded in 1880, when the main mode of transportation was the stagecoach, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, celebrating its 130th anniversary, remains a downtown oasis for fine-tuning your body, inside and out. Relocating in 1912 to a stunning Beaux Arts building, the first private club in L.A. no longer has members with handlebar mustaches flying on trapezes in the gym,… More >>

• Best Yoga in a Garden

  Liberation Yoga

  There’s nothing quite like a soft breeze and a bubbling fountain to take your downward dog to the next level — which is why Liberation Yoga built a covered garden studio, an urban Eden complete with dark wood flooring, ancient Chinese wood carvings and rustling vegetation. The aim was to encourage “an infinite connection with the organic world,” and by… More >>

• Best Lift in Venice

  Ascended Living

  Levitating high above the bustling consumptive Abbot Kinney fray, Ascended Living is a tiny, hidden haven for body, mind and spirit (or, as Osho says, bodymindspirit). The happy bamboo studio — a great bright burst of ionized, Ormus-laced air — houses a handful of treatment rooms and a collective of healers and wellness professionals who make magic inside ’em. Among… More >>

• Best Hike to Eagle Rock, But Not the One You Think

  Eagle Rock in Topanga State Park

  For a dose of classic California beauty, endless views and dramatic boulders, hike to Eagle Rock in Topanga State Park, the world’s largest (at 14,000 acres) wildland within the boundaries of a major city. While picnic areas attract crowds of suburban families on the weekends, the trails are usually very open, luring naturalists and runners. Springtime is lovely with meadows… More >>

• Best Dirigible Passenger Airship

  Eureka zeppelin

  While the Eureka zeppelin technically is berthed in San Francisco, it makes frequent trips south to offer L.A.’s thrill-seekers sky rides aboard the only passenger airship in America. The zeppelin is 60 feet longer than the biggest blimp and 15 feet longer than a 747, with a cabin that holds just 12 passengers. But despite its small size, it already… More >>

• Best Basketball in the Fog

  Del Rey Lagoon

  Saturday mornings often find prodigious full-court games on this court tucked away in Del Rey Lagoon Park in a little-known part of L.A. But true lovers of the game understand the magic of having a court to yourself. You can do that here most weekday mornings or even on weekends in winter, especially when the coastal fog is so thick… More >>

• Best Giant Pile of Sand

  Sand Dune Park

  There’s nothing like a giant pile of sand to play in, especially for those who love to indulge their inner child or treat themselves to a killer workout. And for that the Manhattan Beach sand dune is the ticket. Just south of LAX, at Sand Dune Park, sits a 100-foot-high dune perfect for climbing and playing. Fit folks of all… More >>

• Best Stairway to Torture

  Beachwood stairs

  Undoubtedly some of the best workouts in L.A. are free and grueling, and by this we mean the Beachwood stairs on Beachwood Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The historic 1923 staircase was part of the original design of Hollywoodland, a housing development created by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler. The stonemasons who built the 148 stairs and five… More >>

• Best Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling

  All Star Lanes

  Forget the newfangled Lucky Strike Lanes; the All Star Lanes bowling alley in Eagle Rock is the real deal. With original midcentury architecture and retro decor, the old-school building features pool tables, karaoke and a video arcade, on top of 22 automatic-scoring bowling lanes that may or not be working. There is plenty of parking, an on-site Chinese restaurant and… More >>

• Cascades, Punchbowls and Pools

  Eaton Canyon Falls

  There is something about a waterfall: Its hypnotic movement and meditative white noise, its irresistible pull as you draw near, the sound growing from hiss to rumble. L.A. is surrounded by dozens of waterfalls. Some of the best are also the most easily accessed: John Muir described Eaton Canyon Falls as “a charming little thing, with a voice sweet as… More >>

• Best Skate Park

  Venice Skatepark

  More than 30 years after Tony Alva defied the laws of gravity and personal property, destroying the rims of snuck-into swimming pools as he jettisoned from the earth to the sky, skateboarding is legal — a development some said would eviscerate skating’s rebellious soul. Yet consider the heart of the Venice Skatepark. Trapped between the final intercession of concrete —… More >>

• Best Way to Learn How to Walk in Heels

  Edge Performing Arts Center

  Pole-dancing classes generally promise to simultaneously help students get a hotter bod and teach them talents that will otherwise improve their sex lives. The Cabaret class at Hollywood’s Edge Performing Arts Center offers a more practical bonus: The class’s “across the floor” segment, according to Edge’s website, “is designed to get you comfortable living in your heels!” A former soloist… More >>

• Best Overuse of the Word “Hip” (With Stairs)

  Dan Koeppel

  Trekking staircases might not seem very hip, but with Silver Lake resident Dan Koeppel leading the way, you could get as skinny as a hipster while acquiring some actual street smarts. For years the writer has been seeking and mapping out public stairways across his neighborhood and beyond into hiking routes that are more cultural excursion than cardio exercise. Ranging… More >>

• Best Hike for Public Sex

  Solstice Canyon Trail

  One look at the seemingly never-ending waterfall at Santa Monica Mountains’ Solstice Canyon Trail and it’s easy to see why the Native American Chumash tribe was known to use the area for food, water and shelter. It’s the same reason Matthew Keller built a stone cottage circa 1865 and why grocery store proprietors Fred and Florence Roberts amassed property in… More >>

• So You Think You Can Bust a Move?

  The Sweat Spot

  Bust out your legwarmers, dig up your old Flashdance sweatshirt and head over to the Sweat Spot. Choreographer and performance artist Ryan Heffington recently opened this Silver Lake dance studio, which is home to his colorful all-levels dance classes: Sweaty Sundays, Wet Wednesdays and Fit Fridays. Students of all shapes, sizes and abilities, in their early 20s or late 40s… More >>

• Best Head Waiter

  Johny Santorre at Urban Bodies

  There are a couple reasons that most people don’t meditate: 1) It’s hard to do. 2) Most instructors stink. Whether you’ve been at the foot of a swami who chants in some gibberish that doesn’t mean squat, or in a dank community center where a reinvented midlifer expects you to center on your third chakra, you end up needing a… More >>

• Best Badasses on Wheels

  World on Wheels

  Let’s get one thing straight: This is not your junior-high roller-skating flashback. World on Wheels is devoid of wobbly teenagers cruising to Styx classics and awkwardly holding hands during K-Ci & JoJo. Instead, this rink caters to those who didn’t quit skating after the field trips faded away. Here you’ll find semi-professional roller skaters gliding in pairs, practically skate-dancing in… More >>

• Best Slice of Ojai in Culver City

  RakSa

  Feldenkrais Hula-hooping. Flying yoga workshops led by a Maori warrior. Shamanic healing, myofascial massage, past-life regression, tai chi, qi gong, ayurveda, green-living workshops and oh — yoga. Lots of yoga. RakSa wellness center provides the ultimate holistic respite from urban living, cramming the essence of Ojai into its sustainably decorated complex. Let your child try Yoga for Kids on RakSa’s… More >>

• Best Places to Find Sanctuary

  Alpine Butte Wildlife Sanctuary

  In the far northern reaches of L.A. County, you can find a number of open-space preserves and wildlife sanctuaries where you can walk undisturbed, encounter rare desert plants and animals, or just experience sublime silence. Unique among the city’s constricted corridors, these spaces remain quietly, defiantly open. Alpine Butte Wildlife Sanctuary, East Avenue O, Lake Los Angeles (Between 130th & 135th… More >>

• Best Room to Move

  Heartbeat House

  It’s just a room. A little nook in Atwater Village with a scratched-up wooden floor, a stereo, one big mirror and some cubbies to hold your gym bag. But there’s a whole lot going on within the four walls of Heartbeat House. In its simplest form, it’s a place to work out, even if the workouts themselves are anything but… More >>

• Best Missing the Point

  Los Angeles Nanka Kyudo Kai Zen Archery dojo

  Kyudo, or Japanese archery, combines martial arts with the manners of evolved society. This naturally involves an enormous amount of control. In fact, the aim isn’t even always to hit the target. Shishou Rick Beal, a practitioner of the archery art, explains: “Japanese archery, or kyudo, as it is called in Japan, is often called Zen archery. I am a Zen monk. Kyudo… More >>

• BEST YOGA INSTRUCTOR FOR ALL

  Mark Blanchard’s Power Yoga Center

  If you’re one of those harried types whose mind is all over the map, power yoga can rein you in within minutes. And the best man for the job is Mark Blanchard, owner of Mark Blanchard’s Power Yoga Center, whose sweat-inducing classes take you through a whirlwind series of strong poses. There’s no incense, new-agey music, heated rooms or goofy… More >>

• Best Giant Tree House

  Treehouse for All

  Tree houses aren’t just for Bart Simpson and the Little Rascals. The Treehouse for All at Torrance’s Wilson Park is for everyone (though it’s especially popular with toddlers on the go and teenagers from nearby Torrance High School looking for a stealthy place to make out). Dedicated in 2006, the 2,500-square-foot wooden structure is California’s first universally accessible tree house… More >>

• Best Legal and (Relatively) Risk-Free Psychedelic Experience

  Float Lab

  Float Lab’s Venice Boardwalk lobby is decked out with a saggy, ancient couch and two Turbosonic Ovation machines that shake their human users’ cells, organs and systems into never-before-achieved states of optimal health. Run by a salty dog named Crash, Float Lab houses twin flotation tanks — oversize steel boxes filled with water and massive amounts of semi-stinky Epsom salts,… More >>

• Best Place to Get Your Groove on With the Pros

  Crunch

  You can shake your booty alongside dancers from your favorite music videos at Crunch in West Hollywood. Veteran L.A. choreographer and former Miss Fitness America MaDonna Grimes, who may have been a drill sergeant in a past life, brings her sweat-inducing hip-hop dance classes to the Sunset Boulevard gym, where she regularly draws a crowd of sculpted dance pros and… More >>

• TAKE A HIKE AMONG THE STARS

  Franklin Canyon

  Hiking areas in the Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica Mountains each have their own distinct personality. Griffith Park has a scrubby, Wild West feel. Will Rogers is defined by its ascent through a dramatic, vegetated canyon. And Runyon Canyon feels like a big Hollywood exercise party — dogs invited. But if you want to hike surrounded by some of the… More >>

• Best Cosmonaut Workout

  FBE Spa

  Infrared sauna pods? Check. EOS 6600 vibration machines that shake your fat into outer space? Check. Lymphatic pneumatic compression suits that massage your body with air and look like cast-offs from the set of Dune? Check. FBE Spa, with its space-age muscle-toning devices, is the John Cage of gyms, providing Angelenos with a truly avant-garde workout, the kind that will… More >>

• Best Spokeswomen

  Ovarian Psychos

  The Eastside-based cycling crew rides under the sobriquet Ovarian Psychos and hosts bimonthly rides dubbed Ovarian Cycles. Their “solidarity ride with our brothers” was originally titled Testosterone Tuesdays before a child-care conflict forced the change to Huevo Wednesdays. But ask Xela de la X, who organizes the ride-outs, to take credit for the most outrageously named bicycle crew in L.A.… More >>