Fitness at Rancho La Puerta

Hiking
Did we mention Rancho La Puerta has great hiking trails? Well if you missed it we can say it again. Look at the stone detail work in the bridge above. This is the level of detail Rancho La Puerta places on everything even something this basic. Here is the crew heading out on a foggy morning to the Pilgrim Hike. The fog lifted and I got lots of great pictures. Check out Rancho La Puerta tour.

Daily Mountain Hikes
>Pilgrim Trail - A 3.5-mile mountain hike climbing 800 feet up Pilgrim Trail, returning via River Trail to complete the loop. (Challenging). Beautiful views of the mighty mountain and valleys.

>River Trail - A timed mountain hike climbing numerous switchbacks for 30 minutes and then returning. (Challenging)

>Rolling Hills Hike - 2.5-mile lowland hike over undulating terrain. Two route options offered mid-hike, one with extra hills for more challenge. (Moderate). Nice to do on the off days.

>7 mile hike - Here is the hike you get to pack your breakfast and bring it with you. Forget your 9:00 AM class, you are heading way into the back country. This hike heads up the River Trail then adjoins the Pilgrim Trail around Skull Rock and you are out into the back country. Your breakfast stop is at the edge of a beautiful overlook of river and mountain valleys.

>Organic Vegetable Garden Breakfast Hike
A 4-mile roundtrip trek over rolling hills to Tres Estrellas, Rancho La Puerta 's organic vegetable farm. Enjoy a garden breakfast and a tour with the resident horticulturist. (Moderate) DO NOT miss this hike, then take the shuttle to the environmental center.

Make sure you drink lots of water and wear lugged sole hiking shoes. Think safety, you are in another country.

Pilates
The Ranch just constructed a new Pilates only facility in 2004. It is a spacious building without any interior obstructions similar to others on Rancho La Puerta . The equipment is Balance Body and another brand we never heard of. We prefer the Stott equipment, but this is one very nice facility. The head Pilates instructor Erin is highly rated by Cheryl. She trained in San Diego with some of the top trainers in that area. Of course David had to under go assistance to complete some of the moves which has prompted him to sign up for privates with Larry back home.

Yoga
The Ranch invited Eddie Marks a top Iyengar Yoga instructor from the San Diego area as a guest instructor. We felt it was the best yoga instruction we ever had. The facility was a large room with a comfortable environment and large picture windows. The Ranch offers many yoga classes during the day in the Hatha style.

Fitness
Many fitness classes taught by a group of highly trained staff that make workouts fun. The Ranch has a large selection of Hoist brand fitness machines and cardio equipment just in case walking around Rancho La Puerta and all the hikes do not give you enough cardio.

Tennis
The Ranch has two nice large courts. Cheryl and I do not play tennis but we spoke with some people and they confirmed the instruction is excellent.

Feldenkrais®
We took this interesting class. Cheryl seemed to get this right away, I however missed the whole point. But she tells me this is more of a series of movements designed to discover your body's place in space. Humm.

NIA (Neuromuscular Integrative Action)
A low-impact aerobic workout using movement, melody, and rhythm, inspired by jazz, modern and Eastern dance forms. Strengthens, improves balance, and nourishes the spirit (right from the course description). We unfortunately did not take this class, however Cheryl has high interest in this as it combines many of the classes and exercises she currently teaches. We met the two instructors very nice people and very dedicated to this approach.

Check Rancho La Puerta 's Web site for more fitness programs. The ones above interested us and might interest our clients.