From the active Chicks Climbing and Skiing in Ouray, and the unisex Carmichael Training Systems in Colorado Springs, to an array of yoga and healing retreats at SunMountain Center in Manitou Springs, fitness, health and wellness retreats are on the rise in Colorado.
Elevate Your Fitness
Choosing the retreat that is right for you depends on what you hope to gain from the experience…a sense of calm, sisterhood, a vigorous workout or simply an escape from daily life. Ouray’s Chicks Climbing and Skiing and Chicks with Picks empowers women through a variety of mountain sport clinics as well as workshops on such skills as how to ice climb efficiently. For a weekend or whole week, the Carmichael Training Systems, at 6,200 feet above sea level, combines endurance training and one-on-one coaching with spectacular bike rides.
And if you want to combine TRX and indoor cycling with yoga, Telluride is home to the WOW Festival, a June 2019 weekend of wellness and fitness.
Focus on Holistic Wellness
However, it’s wellness and health retreats that are experiencing a meteoric rise. The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) estimates from the period 2015-2020, the largest projected growth sector in the five main categories of wellness will be Wellness Tourism, far outpacing other categories such as spas and thermal/mineral springs.
Wellness and Fitness Retreats aren’t new to Colorado, in fact, Manitou Springs was dubbed the Saratoga of the West in the mid-1880’s and flourished as a spa town for TB sufferers and others seeking relief from its’ healing waters.
SunMountain Center in Manitou Springs, is home to an array of retreats, from two days to a week, primarily for women. According to Sara Gallagher, General Manager of SunMountain Center,”The most common reasons to retreat are to get away from the hustle of your daily life, deepen your spiritual practices, and to make like-minded friends. When people arrive, they are yearning to ground down and step away from their daily responsibilities and demands. By the time they depart, we can see that they’ve changed. They’ve absorbed and processed teachings, made new connections, or found a deeper sense of peace. That transformation is the best part of the retreat experience, and it’s why we do what we do.”
The retreats, set in historic lodges, offer yoga, meditation, wellness, spirituality, hiking, art and soaking. A sample includes the Yoga and Sound Healing Retreat and Maya Legacy Journey at SunMountain Center.