Area Yoga Montague Virginia

Avid Birdwood golfer Blair Engle admits that part of his decision to move to Charlottesville hinged on the Boar’s Head course. Photo: Amy Jackson/Jackson Smith

Birdwood Golf Course

Walk this way
A better course? Not by a long shot
Part of long-time golfer Blair Engle’s decision to relocate from Seattle to Charlottesville in 1999 was how much he enjoyed playing golf at Birdwood. It was the very first place he visited when he came to town for the first time.

“I played the course and after-wards called my wife and said I could move here, ” he says. “For me, what defines a course is the ability to play it over and over and still look forward to the challenge of playing it again.” Here are five holes he can’t resist, after all these years.—C.W.

Most challenging

“The 18th hole is the longest of the par 4s on the course and, in addition to being long, is the toughest. The hole requires a long tee shot down the middle of the fairway in order to have any chance to reach the green in two. If you hit your tee shot right, you lose your ball in the long grass and, if you hit your tee shot left, your approach shot is blocked by trees (in addition to hitting out of thick grass in the rough). The second shot is going to be a long shot uphill, with bunkers to the left and right of the green, requiring another well-executed shot. When I’m playing a match with my son or friends, more often than not the match has been decided by who wins the 18th hole.”

Hardest tee shot

“With large trees and a large pond on the right side of the fairway, and large trees and a creek on the left side of the fairway, the 11th hole par 4 tee shot is very intimidating. As with many of the holes on the course, there is a risk/reward aspect to the shot choices one needs to make throughout the round. Play conservative and you have a very long approach shot, or take a chance by going over some trees and you have a shorter approach shot. However, if you miss getting over the trees, you now have a very difficult approach shot or may have to take a penalty stroke due to a lost ball.”

Best view

“The 16th hole at Birdwood provides the best view on the course, especially in the fall when all the leaves are turning different colors. When standing on the tee box, the view looking east is absolutely stunning. As a golfer who likes to walk, and with the 16th hole being at the highest elevation on the course, the walk from the 15th green to the 16th tee box is long and steep. The reward for the long walk is the view you get to soak in while catching your breath.”

Easiest shot

“The easiest shot on the course is the 8th hole tee shot from the middle tees. Although not the shortest of the par 3s at Birdwood, I think it’s the easiest tee shot on the course. The 8th hole green is large and generally flat, with not much undu-lation, so the tee shot has a very big target to hit, leaving a relatively flat putt. The 8th hole is the only hole-in-one I’ve ever had hitting a 9 iron 145 yards into the cup (which might explain why I think it’s the easiest shot on the course!).”

Prettiest hole

“The par 3 14th hole is the prettiest and most charming of the holes at Birdwood. The 14th hole is an island green completely surrounded by water and, with the recent con-struction of a stunning rock wall around the green, is absolutely beautiful. One of the attributes that make Birdwood so appealing is that you see so few houses on the course. The back nine in particular feels like you’re hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains without having to drive to get there.”

Runner-up: Old Trail Golf Course
Honorable mention: Farmington Country Club Golf

MADabolic

Runner-up: Pure Barre
Honorable mention: Barre.[d] Studio
Five or six years ago, workout options in Charlottesville were limited to the big gyms, but these days you can’t drive a mile without passing a boutique gym that promises better results and personalized attention. Since it opened a couple of years ago, MADabolic in the Ix property downtown has risen to the top of C-VILLE readers’ list of niche gyms, with its intense interval training that gets you fit in less time than you’d guess. And if you think ballet isn’t a tough workout that gets crazy results, you haven’t tried runner-up Pure Barre, where small, controlled movements will get your muscles quaking.

Bend offers classes for moms and kids from 6 weeks to 4 years old (though the babies are mostly along for the ride). Photo: Lauren Stonestreet

Bend Yoga

Present minds
Bend is teaching more than just yoga
For 14-year-old Ava Hession-Landman, the best part about taking kids’ fitness classes at Bend is the impressive number of skills she’s learned—for her, yoga was just the beginning. She says she’s also learned how to be happy and how to have a present mind, and she credits this to her teacher and owner of Bend, Kelly Cox.

“Ms. Kelly is amazing and brings the most wonderful energy to every class, ” says another student, Annelise Stunes, 15. Both Ava and Annelise have been taking classes at Bend for almost five years, and Annelise co-teaches the Yoga Bears class for 4- to 9-year-olds once a week while also taking the “teen/tween” class for her age group.

And if you don’t think a 4-year-old can do yoga, Cox says kids’ fitness classes range from prenatal little ones to 18-year-olds. Of course, the prenatal classes are for the mothers, she says, and so are the 6-week-old to 4-year-old classes. Cox says she loves teaching new mothers.

And the best thing about a class full of moms? No one’s bothered by the sound of babies crying.—S.B.

Runner-up: Charlottesville Parks & Recreation
Honorable mention: ACAC

Photo: Courtesy subject

Dar Malecki

Up-lifting
Dar Malecki shares training tips and personal peeves
Charlottesville is chock full of personal trainers, and plenty of them inspire loyalty among their clients, but it hasn’t taken long for MADabolic co-owner Dar Malecki to power above the rest as she inspires her clients to push them-selves to new fitness heights in high- intensity classes. Malecki, who moved to Charlottesville from Charlotte, North Carolina, three years ago, doesn’t take being the best for granted. She gets at least one new certification a year and says she’s “studied all different areas of fitness to make sure that I’m up on the latest philosophies and methodologies of the people I respect the most in the industry.”

We asked Malecki to share a few of her fitness secrets.—C.S.

Where are you from?

I grew up in the suburbs of Chi-cago. I ended up in Charlottesville by way of Dallas and then Char-lotte, where I lived for almost 14 years before moving to Charlottesville in 2012.

How did you get into the field of fitness?

I’ve always been athletic and loved both playing and watching sports, but just recreationally. When I was in college, I got into lifting, and in my early 30s I literally rode the first wave of cycle popularity and started teaching classes after work. There was just something about it for me; sharing my pas-sion, the physical demands and providing my knowledge as a resource to my students, and it grew from there.

What’s your favorite exercise?

Anything with kettlebells. It’s also my favorite thing to coach. Most new people who walk through our doors at MADabolic have been taught incorrectly or not at all, so I love to take it down to the fun-damentals and help them un-derstand the power and functina-lity of the movements —especially the swing.

What’s your least favorite exercise?

Bird pickers. It’s one of our MAD movements, basically a single leg deadlift, and while it doesn’t come up in the programming too often, I totally dread it. My core strength is pretty solid, but there’s some-thing challenging for me with my equilibrium and the single leg balance. I’m a believer in “work your weaknesses, ” so it’s really a love/hate relationship.