Shaping Up for Your Nups
By Kelly McGuinness
In the midst of planning a wedding, it’s important to take some time out to nurture yourself. While this can be a fun and exciting time, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with the countless decisions and small details that planning a wedding entails. Taking care of your mental and physical well being is just as important as picking out bridesmaids’ dresses and ordering a wedding cake.
Brentwood’s Athena Health Club and Day Spa is the perfect place for the busy bride-to-be to pamper herself. This ultra-modern facility is the first and only one of its kind in middle Tennessee. In fact, you would likely have to travel to New York or Los Angeles to find a comparable full-service spa and health club. Since opening its doors in January 2004, Athena has built a solid clientelle base and, not surprisingly, is frequented by quite a few local celebrities.
The luxurious European style spa and health club offers amenities ranging from a heated pool and a state-of-the-art fitness center to private changing rooms and wet and dry saunas. Spa services include microdermabrasion, collagen treatments, Botox, chemical peels, deep tissue and Swedish massages, European facials, reflexology, and Dead Sea mud and salt treatments. The spa also offers sunless tanning, manicures, pedicures, waxing, and laser hair removal.
Athena is committed to providing a care free, relaxed environment. The staff tells members, “Come as you are. Don’t dress to impress!”
Health Club
Regular exercise is a great way to clear your mind and release stress. It will help you stay healthy and energetic during this most hectic time and will have you looking your best on your wedding day. Athena’s world-class gym provides a spacious environment in which to achieve your personal fitness goals. Whether you are looking to loose weight or simply increase muscle tone, the women-only gym provides personal service in a tranquil atmosphere, free of pressure.
At Athena, you can work one-on-one with a personal trainer, who will create a customized fitness plan to help you achieve your specific fitness goals. Through these sessions, trainers are able to develop programs according to each woman’s needs. Offering both encouragement and assistance, a personal trainer will ensure you are doing the exercises properly and getting the most out of your fitness routine.
Other benefits to working with one of Athena’s professional trainers include a fit and healthy body, assurance that your workout regime is both safe and effective, and qualified advice and expertise. And rather than just telling you what exercises to do and for how long, the personal trainers at Athena help you understand what it is your doing, why it’s important and where it fits into your fitness plan. This gives you the knowledge to maintain a healthy workout routine, even without the help of a trainer.
Athena also offers various group exercise classes including step aerobics, Liquid Pump (or water aerobics), spinning, yoga, and Pilates. Members and visitors enjoy private dressing rooms, complete with plush towels and robes, as well as a relaxation room, steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi.
Nutrition
Because the professionals at Athena’s health club know that nutrition determines over 70 percent of your success in building a healthier body, they have partnered with NutriFit, Inc., to provide members with personalized nutritional counseling. In addition, nutritionists put together individual assessments, complete with a member’s health history and an analysis of the best foods to eat for her specific body type.
Count Down To the Gown
Athena Health Club and Day Spa offers special membership packages for the bride-to-be. These packages are perfect for the bride who wants to fit into her dream dress. Both eight-week and 12-week membership packages are available and include two sessions per week with a personal fitness trainer, as well as a goal-oriented, personalized training regiment to get you, “wedding ready.” These packages also include a nutritional assessment and a nutritional counseling session with one of the registered dieticians (the 12-week package comes with two nutritional counseling sessions). The bride-to-be can take group fitness classes, receive discounts on spa services, and access all of the great amenities at Athena, such as the pool, Jacuzzi, saunas and the relaxation room.
Of course, you don’t have to be engaged to enjoy everything that Athena Health Club and Day Spa has to offer. Regular memberships are available for all women, though they are limited in order to ensure the club is never oversold.
Athena Health Club and Day Spa is located at 620 Church Street East in Brentwood. For more information about the health club, treatments, or spa packages, or to make an appointment, call 615.370.1000.
Photograph by David Wright Photography
