Cold Comfort: Five Ice Cream Shops Within Steps of Fitness Studios

What better way to cool off from a hard workout than with a succulent scoop of ice cream? After all, you deserve it after all those tummy tucks, downward facing dogs and weight lifting. With these five studios, listed in alphabetical order by ice cream shop (because we know what's important), you can burn some calories and then add them all back with a cooling treat just a few steps away.

5) Bonnie Brae Ice Cream
799 S. University Boulevard
303-777-0808
Center Strength
1000 S. Gaylord Street
303-333-6674
Bonnie Brae Ice Cream has been serving scoops to Washington Park residents for almost thirty years, so you know the little shop must be doing something right. That's why once you've completed a Gyrotonic (with a name like that, it must be good for you) or Pilates class at Center Strength, walk two blocks north to this ice cream institution to indulge in a cup or cone of tasty frozen fun. Bonnie Brae has dozens of flavors to choose from, including butterscotch custard, gingersnap and one called triple chocolate death, which just might be the ticket to revive you after all that exertion.

4) Inside Scoop Creamery
1535 Platte Street
Opening this summer
Kindness Yoga Platte Street
1539 Platte Street
303-388-3000
Both of these venues are new to Platte Street — with Inside Scoop so new it isn't quite going yet, but given that the original Littleton location has done so well, we don't doubt that owners Andrew Myhre and Steve Longman — who expect to open within the next two weeks — will bring the same quality of their twenty-plus handcrafted treats and fresh waffle cones to Denver. Kindness Yoga also brings experience, with four other metro locations. You can expect to work out with special classes like the mind-cleansing Forrest Yoga and the physically challenging Outlaw Yoga — which is sure to inspire a craving for something cold and sweet.
3) Little Man Ice Cream
2620 16th Street
303-455-3811
Sol Shine
1501 Boulder Street
303-955-7743
The best excuse (if you need one) to get a cone of Mexican hot chocolate ice cream or blackberry-cardamom sorbet at this LoHi shop is after a vigorous empowerment vinyasa class at the nearby Sol Shine. This yoga studio and eco boutique offers three to six classes a day, including a weekday morning session at 9 a.m. that actually takes place outside — right behind Little Man. Unfortunately, that particular class ends before this Coney Island-inspired shop is open, but if you sign up for yoga after 11 a.m., you're good for a post-stretch treat.

2) Sweet Action Ice Cream
52 Broadway Street
303-282-4645
CorePower Yoga
277 Broadway
303-733-8040
As you stretch your arms up and into a half-moon pose during a class at CorePower Yoga, think about how nice it will be to later expand your mouth over a sweet, sweet cone from Sweet Action. The ice cream shop is only a few lunges away and makes the perfect comedown from this studio's hot yoga class, with flavors including Thai iced tea, raspberry chip and caramelized pear, all made with bona fide Colorado dairy. And, it turns out, all of these options pair perfectly with chair pose. 

1) Sweet Cow
3475 West 32nd Avenue
303-477-3269
Pure Barre Highlands
3420 West 32nd Avenue
720-366-6070
Get a scoop of this small-batch ice cream after you're done tucking, lifting and basically torturing your body into sculpted perfection at Pure Barre. If anything, you'll still be shaking so hard after that workout that you'll need a healthy does of mint chocolate chip, Dutch chocolate or cookies and cream to keep you going. Like Pure Barre, the environmentally conscious Sweet Cow has a few locations, but nowhere in the city are the two businesses so happily paired. 

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