If you live relatively close to New York and have a penchant for tennis, squash, cool massages and/or divine views of our pretty city skyline, CityView Racquet Club in Long Island City, NY is your new spa spot.

Step into the sprawling 80,000 square foot, prestigious, members-only sports club, an easy 10 minutes from the city by train, and feel the vibrant energy ricochet off the walls and envelop you upstairs in the CityView Spa.

Now, there was a time I thought I didn’t like people walking all over me. Turns out, I love it. I experienced Ashiatsu for the very first time—and the more appropriate term to walking would be gliding. It was the spa’s 60 Min Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy, which uses the therapists’ weight and bare feet to deliver deep compression and gliding strokes to your entire body. The smooth flat surface of the foot is able to produce a consistent and firm pressure without the sharpness of, say, a finger or elbow. The feet glide over warm oil and penetrate deep into your muscles in a different way than any other massage does. Watch the video:

Recognized as one of the top instructors and innovative pioneers in the massage industry, Ruthie Piper Hardee developed Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy® in 1995, and it was trademarked 3 years later. Why did she invent it? Ruthie had scoliosis (like me!)— she was always hunching over clients and using her hands to massage, and it became taxing on her bad back. She and her team developed specific therapeutic techniques and a DeepFeet training program, and sure enough, massage therapists around the country became trained to use their feet as their modern massage instruments.

Members and non-members alike have access the CityView Spa, which offers a wide variety of treatments designed with the athlete in mind, and during Spa Week they are offering Ashiatsu as well as a Swedish Massage in their $50 treatment offerings.

I suggest you leave yourself a few hours to enjoy the facilities; anyone who uses the spa has access to the sauna and steam room, and additional access to fitness equipment is included with your Spa Week treatment. Bring a friend and play a few rounds of tennis or squash—it’s $24-$36/person/hour depending upon singles play, doubles play, peak and off peak time. Book in advance, because this is the most premier racquet sports club in the New York metropolitan area—seriously, all the other nearby contenders are now shut down.

Depending on what time it is (or what mood you’re in) when you’re done with your sporty spa day, get a refreshing juice and salad from the juice bar, or opt for a stiff cocktail at the upstairs lounge with one of their healthy-ish meal options. I had the grilled salmon with veggies and the hand cut sweet potato fries over a few glasses of wine, and my day was deliciously complete. I was so relaxed that I didn’t even want to go back into the city… and that’s saying a lot!

CityView Spa
43-34 32 Pl Penthouse
Long Island City, NY 11101
718.389.6252

Spa Week $50 Treatments:

• 60 Min Swedish Massage-Soothing Massage Promoting Rest and Relaxation + Additional Access to Fitness Equipment
• 60 Min Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy-Therapists’ Weight and Barefeet Deliver Deep Compression and Gliding Strokes + Additional Access to Fitness Equipment

Ask about their special Spring Spa Week perks, many of which I mentioned above.

Ashiatsu image via bodyworkbydesign.com

“Endermologie, The Cellulite Solution: …Reshape thighs, buttocks & stomach bulges….Great after pregnancy or liposuction….Eliminate cellulite…Improved pain & circulation…”

The great thing about Spa Week is that it’s the best time to give a spa treatment you’re unfamiliar with a test drive. Botox can run upwards of $400 a session but during Spa Week it’s only $50. Celebrity eyelash extension gurus can charge almost $100 per lash but during Spa Week it’s only $50 (for all of them). Then there is Endermolgie, a treatment you may have read about or watched it on Live Spa TV, but never tried, and it’s only $50.

Over the weekend I took a ride out to Queens, NY to visit Sara’s Endermologie to get the scoop for myself. Sara has been in business since 1991, and her customers keep coming back. Endermologie is performed with a machine that is essentially a suction device that rolls your skin in different directions to create an ideal image. The key to the service lies within the practitioner. Sara, has worked with so many bodies over the years she can just look at you and see what area needs to be worked on. To start, she puts you in an all-white nylon body suit that serves as a protector against the machine. She rotates your body beginning flat and attacks areas of cellulite from the stomach, the thighs, butt and any other area in need of work. She tested out the machine gently on my thigh and it was painless, in fact it felt like a massage.

On the way out, I met one of Sara’s clients whose been coming to her for 10 years, and who just happened to be a professional model. If that’s not promising, I don’t know what is. After meeting her and looking through Sara’s enormous successful client book, it is apparent that for a tighter and a slimmer figure this is surely a way to go. I would recommend Endermologie for someone looking to go on a bikini baring vacation, or just wanting to look and feel better in a dress. At this point if your curiosity hasn’t piqued, she is offering an introductory free session to go on top of the $50 Spa Week treatment.

Sara’s Endermologie
29-11 Broadway
Astoria, NY 11106
718.777.9581

Image Courtesy of MarieFrance.ch

"I'm not a spa guy!"

As we send bloggers off for Spa Madness to check out and report back on some of the Spa Week treatments, realize– this is not being done at random! We’ve been doing our best to pair our bloggerati up with spa treatments that suit their mind-body-wellness needs and fit their personalities.

Which is why when Hagan Blount, the Wandering Foodie, gained 12 pounds after his latest blogging stunt “93 plates” (dining at 93 of NYC’s best restaurants… breakfast, lunch and dinner… throughout the entire month of January), we sent him STRAIGHT to the spa for a slimming body wrap. We also sent him to Queens with a purpose; this is the borough where he found his favorite restaurants during his grotesquely indulgent (yet pretty awesome) 31-day adventure.

Watch what happens when this “I’m-not-a-spa-guy” foodie experiences seaweed and wraps in their non-edible forms… and read his full account at Wanderingfoodie.com.

I SPA
28-27 Steinway Street
Astoria, NY 11103
718.777.8886
http://www.ispa-ny.com