exhale spa

If you're a fan of fashion and great deals, then you're probably already familiar with the Gilt Groupe, the online high-fashion sale site. To help you get back on track after your Summer holiday, the site is offering great deals to help you de-stress, detox, and get back in shape with style.

On Aug. 26 at noon EDT, the Get Back in Action deals begin with a focus on wellness. Look for offers for Exhale Spa beauty treatments and fitness classes, BluePrintCleanse detox packages (if juice until dinner is your thing), a Stott Pilates At Home Reformer Machine, and Beyond Yoga (a FitSugar fave) tanks and pants.

The following day, the offers turn toward fitness. With the US Open beginning in a week, you might want to take advantage of deals on tennis fashions created by Venus Williams for her EleVen label made exclusively for Gilt. Running shoes and gear from New Balance, Saucony, and Puma will be featured, too. For a more private workout, you can also save on fitness DVDs from Tracy Anderson and AeroSpace founder Michael Olajide.

To participate, you do need to join the group, and you can do so here. Check out the deals below to see what your savings could be. Remember, everything is on a first-come, first-served basis. Happy shopping!

The Exhale Mind/Body Spa is well-known for its dynamic yoga classes, and now you can feel like you're taking one with renowned instructors Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito, right in your own living room. Check out their newest DVD, Exhale Core Fusion Yoga Energy Flow ($17). The 55-minute video is energetic and fast-paced, with a unique combination of traditional yoga poses, cardio, Pilates toning moves for the entire body, as well as Chi Gong for flexibility and balance.

There are five segments, and the first, called Energy Flow, is a sequence of postures that includes favorites like Cat and Cow to warm up the spine and Lizard to open the hips. It moves fairly slowly so you can deeply open the body and begin to connect your movements with the breath.

The next two segments are variations of basic Sun Salutations. They move more quickly, flowing from one pose to another, so at points I could feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest. I was a huge fan of how they incorporated strengthening moves like push-ups, squats, and lunges within the traditional sequence. If Vinyasa is your favorite type of yoga, this part of the video will feel like coming home.

To hear about the rest of the video and see a clip, read more

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."
— Fred DeVito, Exhale Spa's fitness instructor

Need a little more motivation? Check out all of my words that move you.

I'm doing a little dance right now because Exhale, the luxe spa that has everything from Core Fusion exercise classes to acupuncture and brow tweezing, is adding another quirky set of services — and they're cheap, my friends, (relatively) cheap. From this month on, all their spas will have a Wellbar kiosk that offers shorter, less expensive takes on some of their full-length services, which means $20 for a zit-zapping mini-facial that includes a round of blue light therapy, or $40 for an aromatherapy scalp and hand massage, which is incredi-cheap given how much spa massages usually cost. It sounds perfect for days when I'm stressed in the morning and just need a half hour of pampering.