Healthworks Fitness Centers

Once again, HEALTHWORKS is our readers’ favorite place to work out — our female readers, at least, unless the male ones have caught wind of how amazing this ladies-only gym is, and figured out a way to sneak in. (Wigs, perhaps? In that case, we wouldn’t recommend the “Urban Rebounding” classes, which involve mini-trampolines.) Healthworks feels like an escape, with lots of thoughtful details — sort of like your gracious friend’s funky-yet-swanky beach house. There are yoga classes, but there’s also African Dance and “Punk Rope.” There’s a movie-theater-type room with rows of treadmills, so you can both exercise and watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants without admitting to wanting to see it (“Oh, it was just on at the gym. . .”). There’s a cafe, a spa, and an immaculate locker room with complimentary necessities, like tampons. Free tampons — what a kind gesture from a gym.

HEALTHWORKS | 441 Stuart Street, Boston | 617.859.7700 | various locations | healthworksfitness.com