Pura Vida in the News
VOGUE MagazinePrêt-à-Ski
Snow Sport Conditioning at Pura Vida Fitness & Spa, Denver
Good form on the hills starts in the studio, with moving stretches (hurdle walks, knee hugs) that develop the postural stability skiiing demands. Cardio is built around deceleration drills, like turn-and-cut sprints, and jumps down from boxes to practice a soft landing (for when skis return to Earth after catching some air). Like the rest of the enlightened exercise world, the program, which emphasizes stability and mobility of ankle joints, recently went barefoot; foot rolls and heel and forefoot walks that target neglected foot muscles are now perfected sans sneakers. The endurance-focused class typically culminates in a meet-up on the mountain for a day with a pro.
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Fox 31Snowshoeing with Pura Vida Personal Trainer Adrian Wegeng
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Sources+Design - Pura Vida Fitness & Spa - Semple Brown DesignClick for article.
Residents of Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood may fondly recall a certain four-story building as the longtime home of the city's beloved Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore. Today, the building is again imbued with life thanks to a new forward-thinking tenant, Pura Vida Fitness & Spa, and an architectural transformation that opened the structure to sunlight and urban views....
Savoring The City - Pura VidaClick for article.
Famous For: Gorgeous space and amenities, a staff renowned for excellence and superlative service.
Don't Miss: Four Floors dedicated to mind and body wellness, and their luxurious SPAVITAL.
Consistently voted Denver's Best Health Club, Pura Vida is known for taking the typical health club model and turning it on its ear; think The Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton and then add expert instructors, top-of-the-line equipment and outstanding classes. The club struts the line between form and function, boasting flawless contemporary interior design and an unparalleled staff and range of machinery. With extras like fresh organic fruit awaiting you after a challenging workout and $150,000 in sublime original art hanging on the walls, this is no run-of-the-mill treadmill gym. Its clientele is a literal 'who's who' of Denver,, and its social significance doesn't stop at the club - PV maintains an extensive party schedule where members meet up monthly at restaurants, clubs and museums around town.
Best Facial in Denver - SPAVITAL at Pura VidaClick for article
Denver's beauty secret? Lots of fresh air - and customized facials at this luxe retreat, where aestheticians go beyond the basic deep cleanse and tone: The vitamin C serum delivers instant brightness; an intense lymphatic massage de-puffs tired eyes...
Denverpost.comSpa Report: SPAVITAL AT PURAVIDA
The treatment: Nurturing prenatal massage, 50 minutes, $90
This spa is for: People who want to relax and pamper sore muscles after a workout; or people who want to skip the workout and just relax
First impressions: Light and breezy, the spa brings to mind the ocean with its aqua decor and minimalist feel. "Pura Vida," a popular saying in Costa Rica, means pure life, which is what you want to have after hanging out there — you leave ready for a healthy salad and a tall glass of water.
The treatment was: Worth the money. Moms-to-be who are dying to lie on your stomach, this is your spa. Foamy pillows with belly and breast cutouts let you lie facedown in comfort, avoiding the side-to-side flip many spas use for pregnant women. The face-down position lets the massage therapist go deeper into sore back muscles, including the sacroiliac joints of the pelvis. At times, this massage was intense, but necessary to improve a sore back — the perfect massage for people who want more for their money than just a relaxing rubdown with oil. Despite the deep concentration on sore spots, the treatment — in a dimly lighted room with soothing classical music and nature sounds — was quite relaxing... Click for entire story.
Denver MagazineStacey Lei Krauss takes on Denver heart and sole with barefoot training
“Once you learn how to use your feet, everything else will be easier,” says Stacey Lei Krauss, Denver’s barefoot- training movement guru.
I’ve used my feet since I could stand and life hasn’t been any easier because of this skill-set. But, when I recently jumped into Krauss’s signature class, willPower and grace® at Cherry Creek’s Pura Vida Spa, my paradigm shifted from head to toe. I’ve done my share of yoga holding Eagle pose while ardently avoiding toppling over. But, in Krauss’s willPower and grace® workout, I feel energy emanating through the floor and can’t even conceive of the possibility of toppling in this room. Krauss starts by reintroducing us to our feet – their connection to the floor, the movement of our toes, and the stretch of our Achilles, making us supple and ready for balance...Click for entire story.
5280 Magazine's Top of the Town: Best Health ClubEditors' Choice
Pura Vida Fitness & Spa
We fell in love with the place when it first opened a couple of years ago, and we still can't deny it: Having a membership here is like having the keys to a secret kingdom. Walking through the Zenlike hallways of this four-story club, past the organic fruit bowls and tea/coffee station, you might actually forget that you're here for a workout. Until you walk into one of the state-of-the-art studios—yoga, indoor rowing, spinning—for your complimentary fitness class (included with membership). Sleek locker rooms and private showers the size of most bedrooms make prepping for the real world a refreshing experience. 2955 E. First Ave., 303-321-7872.
The Denver PostWhat Makes a Great Trainer?
Pura Vida Fitness Pilates
For Pilates director Colleen Glenn - a Pura Vida Fitness favorite - educational empowerment is the ultimate corollary to physical strength. After 26 years spent traveling the globe on a mission to expand Pilates from a "cottage industry" into a worldwide phenomenon, Glenn has discovered that "it's the balance between working out and learning" about structural alignment, proper breathing, and core stability that benefits students above all. Meanwhile, by incorporating dance moves into the traditional Pilates sequence of strengthening and stretching exercises, she also ensures they have more fun than they might in a more rigidly formatted class, "altering their form and their mood without feeling beaten up" from repetitive exertion...
Club Business InternationalUpbeat in a Downbeat Economy
Pura Vida Fitness & Spa Soars On Challenges!
The Denver Market was fiercely competitive. The Great Recession was about to begin. But J Madden was determined to launch a new club.
J Madden, the owner of two landmark Colorado facilities - the Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club, in Greenwood Village, and Pura Vida Fitness & Spa, in Denver - is the first to admit that, if he'd known anything about the fitness industry...things might not have worked out so well...Click to read the article in CBI.
Modern in DenverFrom the crosswalk at First and Milwaukee to the cross trainer three stories above, two Denver-based architects have redesigned the former Tattered Cover book store building into a new landmark for Cherry Creek North. Click to read the story. Modern in Denver
Condé Nast Traveler:Hot List Spas 2009
A little R and R is just what the doctor ordered. And as luck would have it, this past year delivered a bumper crop of superlative spas from Macau to Mexico. Our reviewers left no hot stone unturned in their effort to identify transcendent spots for head-to-toe pampering—rejecting scores of also-rans in the process.
Touted as "recess for grown-ups," with jelly beans at the front desk, bright translucent "art panels" quartering the locker rooms, and a home in Denver's yuppie-hippie hybrid neighborhood of Cherry Creek North, Nectar is a refreshingly unstuffy spa. Sustainable wood floors and American clay plaster walls lend the 4,000-square-foot space a clean, natural aesthetic. Signature treatments, focusing on decompression and delivered by serene therapists in subtly lit rooms, include the Wild Mint Wrap, which uses Colorado mud to soothe and hydrate, and the deep-tissue Vital Touch massage, designed to knead out the aches of mountain climbers. The Blossom facial, a 30-minute sloughing followed by an intensely moisturizing mask, is the perfect remedy to a few days in the dry altitude of Mile High City. From there, a quick exit path brings you to the downstairs Pura Vida fitness center, where spa-goers can take a full day's spinning, yoga, Pilates, and dance classes for free.
Boot Camp: The Latest Trend in Group Exercisewww.cbs4denver.com
Moody Gets Help Keeping in Shape in Holidays
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A Virtual Cycling Training Ride Moody Likes
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Goal: Getting Moody’s Head ‘In Right Place’
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The Difference Between Perception and Reality
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As CBS4’s Fit for Colorado campaign continues, so does the quest for Greg Moody to find a new measure of fitness at Pura Vida.
Moody Takes First Step in Fitness Plan
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CBS4 Critic at Large Greg Moody has a strong fondness for cycling in Colorado. He has penned 5 novels on the subject and reported on and rode in the annual Ride the Rockies event in 2007 and 2008. As CBS4’s Fit for Colorado campaign continues, Greg Moody takes the first steps in a new fitness program at Pura Vida to get in shape for the next Ride the Rockies.
PuraVida: Rishi tea now brewing at Nectar
Denver Cooking Examiner
Rachel Ruff
Executive fakeout: Exercise the right to loaf. Repeat.The Denver Post
Bill Husted
Kick, Stretch, Burn - Blending martial arts, yoga & modern dance,Nia is a whole new kind of exercise
Rocky Mountain News
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Pura Vida - Embodying the Good Life1 Magazine Click image below for PDF
Favorite Fitness Teachers
The Denver Post
This Post article features Dave Farmar, Jamie Vance and Jessie Franklin, three beloved instructors of Pura Vida. Please check the schedules for their current class offerings.
Back to school: PUR Power Fitness Class Revisits the Lost Childhood Art of Weird Balancing
Excerpted from Chris Anthony’s Corner
“. . . The most difficult part of being on the road is keeping fit. So this year I decided to team up with a very nice athletic club in Denver’s Cherry Creek district called Pura Vida . I wanted to offer this as a way for people to get in shape for my camps I will be holding at the Park Hyatt in December: The Beaver Creek Park Hyatt & Spa Technique Weeks (www.chrisanthony.com) . . . It has been a long time since I have been part of an organized conditioning program, or for that matter had a coach pushing me. This was part of the reason I decided to be the catalyst of a ski-conditioning program called PUR Power at Pura Vida. . . . Then just as the snow fell, day one of Pur Power took place under the leadership of master trainer Tim Harris. Our small but mixed group, a little nervous about what we were getting ourselves into, was enthusiastic, a bit quiet, but ready to jump in. . . The class is on its way, but feel free to join Pur Power anytime over the next six weeks and be able to take advantage of Tim’s guidance, but also Pura Vida itself.”Fitness: Fall Back Into Step - In the Mix
Denver Post
“Mind, body and aerobic moves are incorporated into Stacey Lei Krauss' "willPower and Grace" class taught on Tuesdays at Pura Vida in Cherry Creek North. "I've been in the business 15 years, and I've never experienced anything like it," says marketing director Keith Moore. Krauss, who is based in San Francisco, also teaches a 30-minute "Ex-Tension" class on Tuesdays and will add other offerings in October. Small-group Kinesis circuit training classes and group Pilates on Reformers classes are among the other new offerings at Pura Vida.”
Pura Vida Fitness & Spa chosen as Best Denver Health Club
5280's Top of the Town.
”If you're going to sweat, you might as well do it in style. At Pura Vida, Cherry Creek North's new athletic club, you can do nearly anything—Pilates, spin class, yoga, kinesis, treadmill, free weights—in a setting with flair to spare. The sleek, four-level club dresses out in pale blue and brown hues, which accent the clean white walls adorned with contemporary art. But while the decor is fabulous (even the locker rooms have panache), it's the first-class equipment (TVs on every treadmill) and accessible yoga and Pilates classes (many of which are included in membership) that really get your heart pounding.”Denver Architecture: 10 Buildings Worth the Trip
Rocky Mountain News
“Talk about a better life. For years, this stodgy building fronting on East First Avenue was remarkable only for being the home of the Tattered Cover. A new regime removed various exterior walls and added glass panels that make this one of the sleekest structures in town. Thank the architecture firm Gensler for that; Semple Brown Design is responsible for the interior.”