Talk about reaching new heights. Upper Limits was recently named one of the “Seven Most Innovative Gyms in the World” by Smithsonian magazine, ranking alongside high-tech, high-intensity clubs in New York, Singapore and Australia.

“As its nickname, ‘The Prairie State,’ suggests, Illinois is lacking in the mountains department. So its climbing enthusiasts have to get creative with the resources the state does have. To wit: lots of grain silos,” wrote the magazine’s editors. “At Upper Limits in Bloomington, climbers tackle the 65-foot-high walls of once-abandoned grain silos near the city’s railroad tracks. In the creative reuse department, this gets a gold star.”