dfitness1, Author at Destination Fitness

HRT Happy Hour with Vivify Health & Hormone Optimization Clinic

HRT Happy Hour Saturday July, 18 at 10:00 AM Destination FitnessPlease Register Below Join us at Destination Fitness for an educational and fun women’s wellness event focused on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). If you’ve been struggling with fatigue, weight gain, low libido, poor sleep, mood changes, brain fog, or just not feeling like […]

Annual New Year’s Party & Shake Shop Grand Opening!

SAVE THE DATE! Annual New Year’s Party & Shake Shop Grand Opening! Mark your calendars—our annual New Year’s Celebration is happening on Saturday, January 3rd! from 8am-Noon. Free Classes All Morning!We’ll be offering 3 complimentary 45-minute classes to kick off the new year strong. Please register online. 8:00 AM – Bootcamp 9:00 AM – Simply Strength 10:00 […]

10 LB Challenge

So, you wanna lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks? You CAN do this! Here are the details. HowYou can choose to lose weight however you’d like. We will, however, provide our preferred way. Don’t worry, no fad diets. WeightYou must weigh in at Destination Fitness or virtually April 6th – 8th. There are no official […]

Christen’s Story

There is so much more to life than the continuous pursuit of destinations. If you merely bounce from one location to the next, checking goals off your life’s bucket list, you will miss the fulfillment found within the journey itself. My fitness story embodies the full comprehension of this reality in the fact that I […]

Elevate Your Workplace with Destination Fitness’ Corporate Wellness Programs

The workplace can be stressful. In today’s fast-paced work environment, stress is a common factor impacting the well-being of employees. Did you know that 25% of workers consider their job to be the number one source of stress in their lives? Reduce stress with Destination Fitness’ Corporate Wellness Program. Designed to boost productivity, reduce burnout, […]

Massage Desriptions

Chair Massage
Experience a focused chair massage that relieves tension and targets stubborn muscle knots. Our skilled therapist will assess your needs and use their talents to get you quick relief. You’ll leave revitalized and ready to take on the day. Treat yourself to this effective experience!

Standard Massages
Every body is different, and so is every massage. Each session is tailored to your specific needs—whether you’re seeking deep tissue relief, stress reduction, or targeted work on problem areas. Choose from 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120-minute options to suit your schedule and goals. Your therapist will customize the techniques and pressure to create a personalized experience that supports your well-being.

Multi-Session Packages
By purchasing a package, you save money and can enjoy a choice between a Deep Tissue or Relaxation massage.

After clicking “Book Now,” you can select a package of 1, 4, or 10 sessions at checkout. Any unused sessions will remain as credits on your account for future use. These are for therapeutic massages and are not valid for Hot Stone, Himalayan or Cupping Massages.

Cupping Massage
Release. Restore. Revitalize. Cupping Massage is an ancient healing technique that uses suction to lift and decompress soft tissue, stimulating circulation, reducing tension, and supporting the body’s natural detoxification process. Blending traditional cupping therapy with flowing massage movements, this treatment offers a powerful way to address pain, improve mobility, and encourage deep relaxation.

Silicone or glass cups are placed on the skin to create a gentle vacuum. This negative pressure draws blood flow to the surface, breaks up stagnation, and helps loosen tight muscles and connective tissue.

Wellness Benefits
For wellness seekers, cupping massage offers a unique way to release stress and restore energetic balance. It helps calm the nervous system, reduce anxiety, and improve the flow of Qi or vital energy throughout the body. Many clients report feeling lighter, more open, and deeply relaxed after a session. It can also support healthy skin by increasing circulation and aiding in lymphatic drainage.
Athletic Recovery
Cupping has become a go-to recovery tool for athletes at all levels. It effectively breaks down fascial adhesions, reduces muscle stiffness, and promotes faster healing after intense physical activity. By improving blood and lymph flow, it helps flush out toxins and reduces inflammation—making it ideal for injury prevention and recovery.
Whether you’re training hard or simply carrying the stress of daily life in your body, cupping massage offers a targeted, therapeutic approach to helping you feel and perform your best.
What to Expect
Mild marks or circular discolorations may appear on the skin after treatment—this is a normal and temporary response to increased circulation, not bruising or injury. These marks typically fade within a few days and are often seen as evidence of the body’s healing process in action.

Himalayan Stone Massage
Reconnect. Restore. Rebalance. Himalayan Stone Massage is a deeply therapeutic experience that blends the soothing warmth of hand-carved Himalayan salt stones with the restorative power of massage. This unique treatment not only relaxes the body but also nourishes it—physically, energetically, and emotionally.

Unlike traditional hot stone massage, Himalayan salt stones are rich in 84 naturally occurring minerals and elements. As the stones are gently glided across the body using slow, intentional movements, they help to detoxify the tissues, balance the body’s energy, and leave the skin feeling soft and replenished.

Wellness Benefits
For those seeking stress relief and inner harmony, this massage offers a grounding, calming effect. The warm stones help melt away tension, reduce anxiety, and promote a deep state of relaxation. The gentle exfoliating properties of the salt also revitalize the skin, leaving it smooth and radiant.
Athletic Recovery
Athletes and active individuals will appreciate the way this treatment supports physical recovery. The heat from the stones penetrates deeply into muscles, improving circulation, easing stiffness, and accelerating the healing of sore or overworked areas. It’s an excellent choice for reducing inflammation and supporting muscular detox after intense training.

Massage Desriptions

Multi-Session Packages
By purchasing a package, you save money and can enjoy a choice between a Deep Tissue or Relaxation massage.

After clicking “Book Now,” you can select a package of 1, 4, or 10 sessions at checkout. Any unused sessions will remain as credits on your account for future use. These are for therapeutic massages and are not valid for Chair, Himalayan or Cupping Massages.

Wellness Benefits
For wellness seekers, cupping massage offers a unique way to release stress and restore energetic balance. It helps calm the nervous system, reduce anxiety, and improve the flow of Qi or vital energy throughout the body. Many clients report feeling lighter, more open, and deeply relaxed after a session. It can also support healthy skin by increasing circulation and aiding in lymphatic drainage.
Athletic Recovery
Cupping has become a go-to recovery tool for athletes at all levels. It effectively breaks down fascial adhesions, reduces muscle stiffness, and promotes faster healing after intense physical activity. By improving blood and lymph flow, it helps flush out toxins and reduces inflammation—making it ideal for injury prevention and recovery.
Whether you’re training hard or simply carrying the stress of daily life in your body, cupping massage offers a targeted, therapeutic approach to helping you feel and perform your best.
What to Expect
Mild marks or circular discolorations may appear on the skin after treatment—this is a normal and temporary response to increased circulation, not bruising or injury. These marks typically fade within a few days and are often seen as evidence of the body’s healing process in action.

Hot Stone Massage

Hot Stone Massage is a therapeutic technique that involves the use of smooth, heated stones as an extension of the massage therapist’s hands. These heated stones are strategically placed on specific parts of the body or used in gliding motions to provide deep relaxation, relieve muscle tension, and promote overall well-being. The combination of heat and skilled massage techniques enhances the therapeutic benefits and makes hot stone therapy a unique and deeply rejuvenating experience.

Wellness Benefits
For those seeking stress relief and inner harmony, this massage offers a grounding, calming effect. The warm stones help melt away tension, reduce anxiety, and promote a deep state of relaxation. The gentle exfoliating properties of the salt also revitalize the skin, leaving it smooth and radiant.
Athletic Recovery
Athletes and active individuals will appreciate the way this treatment supports physical recovery. The heat from the stones penetrates deeply into muscles, improving circulation, easing stiffness, and accelerating the healing of sore or overworked areas. It’s an excellent choice for reducing inflammation and supporting muscular detox after intense training.

Mike Hendrickson

Let’s go way back to elementary school. I loved watching and playing sports. I would play games in gym class and at recess- come home- and brag about how good I was in all these sporting activities. My dad started playing catch with me and realized I always stated how I threw a great pass – or made such a good catch. He listened to me as I continuously complimented myself while never giving any credit to the others playing. After stating a rule of “no organized sports until junior high”, he relented while I was in fourth grade to teach me a lesson in humility. That’s how my athletic story began…. A little lesson on “no I in TEAM” turned into a long, successful career in wrestling, basketball, football, and track. In college, I was fortunate enough to play a game I loved while obtaining my exercise science degree and taking classes in health education. Football had always kept me in shape and I learned so many other valuable lessons in weight training, sports conditioning, and coaching others.

After my college career ended, I started working for a distribution center. It was amazing how well I could stay in “lifting shape” while being on the truck. I was still strong and trim, but could feel my cardio slipping. I joined a one-hand touch football team as an outlet to continue to play the game I loved – while trying to get back to the shape I was in college. I remember coming back from playing on Sundays and still feeling my legs on Wednesday!!! I needed something else to do and I did not like how out of shape I was getting.

Like Julie mentioned, we joined the Y in 2008 and I had no problem getting back into lifting shape. The cardio would come, and with my exercise science background, I started putting a plan of sorts together to help me achieve my goal. That was the problem…. What was my goal? What am I training for? What am I trying to achieve? For the first time in 15 years, I was no longer training for a sport. I needed something to drive me. I needed a reason to be at the gym after a 10-hour day on the truck. Enter triathlon.

This was it! I became fascinated with this sport. The Y had a “cycle camp” class where I figured out how to bike. I could not believe how exhausted one could get while riding a stupid bicycle! I started running. I could always run – however my 4.6 40-yard dash speed was not going to help me in a 5k. I started running for mileage. Pacing was something totally new. I hit the pool and became friends with a man named Tim Keppers. He was a fantastic swimmer and graciously took the time to teach me how to swim efficiently. It was fantastic! I couldn’t wait to begin the racing season.

Around this time, Julie had started working again. She started at the Y and you know her story about becoming a personal trainer. We talked about our future. I felt I could not do my job forever, and I was wishing I was doing a job that I could use my degree in. I wanted to do something that I really enjoyed. Julie would come home and she always seemed happy with what she was doing. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could do that too. As Destination Fitness was born, I went out and started personal training as well. From my experiences with overseeing the weight program at my high school to tracking/developing an off-season training program for one of our college sports’ teams – I felt like I had a lot to offer. I gained a ton of knowledge and expanded my certifications to include a USAT Level 1 Triathlon coach.

This is it – something I truly enjoy doing and look forward to. I love getting to know each one of you. I hear your stories, I long for each one of your goals, I enjoy our accomplishments, and I want to work harder when we stumble. It has been so gratifying to read your stories. Julie and I have talked about how we can serve each of you better. We have lots planned for the future – so keep working hard!

Kait

Kait was born and raised in Duluth. She played soccer, softball, and figure skated as a kid but quit when things got too scary (Fast pitch? Scary. Spinning jumps on ice? Scary). In high school she played volleyball until that got too scary (overhand serves hurt when you get hit in the face). She was also a cheerleader until that got too scary (catching a flying person). She went to UW-Eau Claire for college where she played no sports and did no working out. Then she moved in with a boy. Neither of them learned how to cook (too scary?) so they ate out a lot. Kait gained a lot of weight. “A lot a lot” of weight (scary for health reasons).

The she ditched the boy and moved home to Duluth. She didn’t realize how much she loved to move her body until she went to her first Zumba class. Zumba turned into running, which turned into group fitness classes, which turned into saying yes to absolutely every new activity anyone asked her to try – races, spin classes, yoga classes, indoor triathlons, dragon boats, rec league softball, bar league volleyball, Ragnar, inline skating marathons, Tough Mudders… she loved everything so much, Kait became the pusher of others to try new things with her. Are new things scary? Absolutely. But she hasn’t quit yet (except for CrossFit… because the barbell was scary… but a few personal training sessions with Julie seven years later took care of that fear).

In the years between quitting CrossFit and overcoming her fear of the barbell, Kait started teaching fitness classes (SUPER scary at first). She got her first certification in 2018 and started teaching at Destination Fitness a few weeks later. Kait’s taught in a few studios around Duluth over the years, but Destination Fitness will always be home for her.

Kait’s actual home is in Lakeside with her French Bulldog-Chihuahua mix, Clyde. She has a boyfriend, Dan, who loves inline skating, volleyball, and golf. She has twin nieces who she can’t wait to get into sports and piano lessons when they’re old enough. Kait’s super supportive parents still come to her races and volleyball games any chance they get. Kait works as an HR systems analyst by day and teaches fitness classes by morning, evening, and weekend. Her two fitness life goals are to do one singular hand stand push-up (really, just one is fine) and be a pacer in a running race. She is inspired by everyone out there finding the courage to try new things, and not quitting when things get too scary.

Kait is a Certified Personal Trainer, RYT-200 Yoga Instructor, and Certified YogaBarre Instructor, and is in the process of completing her Corrective Exercise Specialist and Nutrition Coach certifications.

Julie Hendrickson

Certifications Held
Personal Trainer, Yoga Specialty, Kettlebell Specialty, Group Fitness Instructor, Senior Fitness

I began my fitness journey as an 8 year old. That was the year I began participating in running races and scored a whole 4 points in my first basketball season. Come 7th grade, I was able to play basketball and run track for Duluth East. The next year, I added volleyball. After high school, I was fortunate enough to be able to continue my volleyball career at good old UMD. I will never forget my first off-season weight training session with Annie Sitek (the first time I had ever lifted) She was a senior and a LOT stronger than I…Needless to say, I couldn’t move the next day. Learning to lift free weights in college proved to be the most beneficial skill I left with. During those years, fitness was easy!!! Being told what to do and when to do it, made things simple.

Next Chapter Motherhood
Uh oh. No longer was I being told what to do and how to do it. After having two kids, I was struggling with my fitness. The weight gain wasn’t too bad, but I just didn’t know WHAT to do. In January 2008, while also getting pregnant with #3, we decided to join the YMCA. They help people with their membership fees if they cannot afford payment. With me being a stay at home mom and Mike a truck-driver, we were broke!! I spent the first month in the weight room, where I was comfortable, and thought I was getting in pretty good shape. Next thing I know, I am invited to join a bootcamp class and I went. Ok, I guess I wasn’t in such great shape. People 3 times my age were killing me. BOO. Nevertheless, I was an athlete darn it, and I worked hard to get back at it. I loved classes! It brought me back to being part of a team. I worked out hard all throughout my pregnancy and cruised through labor and delivery. Yay to getting back in the gym 2 weeks later.

Next Chapter Class Instructor
Anna McGee (instructor at the YMCA) believed in me… I guess. She taught me how to instruct BOSU Challenge. I was hooked on teaching. I was hooked on helping people feel awesome/exhausted.

Next Chapter Triathlete
We thought that Steve and Angel Hohenstein were gods. They were triathletes and we wanted in. We had found a new challenge. I still remember my first group ride and asking Angel how long it would take before my legs would stop burning. She said “never, you just get used to it.” Awesome, sign me up. I raced several years at the Sprint, Olympic, and Half Ironman distances, as well as participating in some local half marathons, and found it very challenging and liberating. I generally placed in the top 10% and was happy with that.

Next Chapter Personal Trainer
I was ready to help people in a more intimate way. Personal training was the vehicle. After studying hard, I became a certified personal trainer for the YMCA. I love being a part of everyone’s success story. One day, my client Nicole asked me to come to her house. I told her that YMCA policy wouldn’t allow that, but it got me thinking. I wondered if there were more people out there who needed a trainer to come to their home, and hence, Destination Fitness was born.

Next Chapter Destination Fitness
Apparently there was a great need for an in home personal trainer. God had set us on the right path. After the first year, we were lucky enough to find a studio at the DECC. It was great for the time being ,but in 2014 we moved up to Rice Lake and started building our very own space. Our Rice Lake studio opened in August 2016 and has been awesome for our family and business.

Outside the studio
We live right next door to our studio which is THE BEST! In my free time I like to workout, cook, feed the birds, do yard work, read & watch movies while snuggling with the cats. When I’m lucky, I get to spend time with our 3 adult children, all of whom are still in town. Mike and I hit the jackpot with these kids and we have so much fun together.

Author: dfitness1

HRT Happy Hour with Vivify Health & Hormone Optimization Clinic

Annual New Year’s Party & Shake Shop Grand Opening!

10 LB Challenge

Christen’s Story

Elevate Your Workplace with Destination Fitness’ Corporate Wellness Programs

This is for “open gym” members only.

Benefits of using an infrared sauna:

better sleep

relaxation

detoxification

weight loss

relief from sore muscles

relief from joint pain such as arthritis

clear and tighter skin

improved circulation

help for people with chronic fatigue syndrome

FITNESS

WELLNESS

RESOURCES

ABOUT US

Author: dfitness1

Gina Luna

Elaina Benson

Amy O'Brien

Greg Bachinski

Gloria Piche´

Massage Desriptions

Massage Desriptions

Dr. Saul Helgeson

Contact Christen

Erick Anderson

Gym Orientation Request

Kayla Dietzman

Contact Tom

Rosalie

Mike Hendrickson

Stephanie (Steph) Gregorich-Mahnke

Sea Smoke Aerial Questions

Hailey Chupp

Steve Grigal

Christen Hull

Jeannine Leste

Schedule a Tour

In-Person Registration

Suzy Jezierski

Kait

Julie Hendrickson

Request a Personal Training Consult

Request a Nutrition Consultation

INFRARED SAUNA

This is for “open gym” members only.

Benefits of using an infrared sauna:

better sleep

relaxation

detoxification

weight loss

relief from sore muscles

relief from joint pain such as arthritis

clear and tighter skin

improved circulation

help for people with chronic fatigue syndrome