My Curves Experience

As I entered, the room was buzzing with the friendly chatter of many elderly women, loud music, and the constant every thirty-second direction to change stations. Around the perimeter were a series of eight exercise machine stations alternating with eight square wooden boards. I had entered a Curves workout studio for the first time.

The Curves company says it is possible to work every major muscle group and burn up to five hundred calories in just thirty minutes with its strength training, cardio, and stretching program. So I was eager to find out just what Curves was about. And when I got there I realized there must be something to the claim. The room was packed.

Though I’ve been working with weight machines for many years at my own gym, none of the machines in the Curves circuit looked familiar. Instead they looked like simplified machines meant to produce the same effects I was used to. As a result they were quite easy for me to use. I got on, got moving while, in most cases, from a seated position, and got up when it was time to change.

However, I felt the thirty-second limit didn’t give me enough time to perform enough repetitions. And it looked like others felt the same way because some people stayed at their stations longer than the allotted time. Some also opted to skip getting on the little wooded boards placed on either side of the exercise machine where we were supposed to get a little cardio routine going: fast or slow stepping, jogging, kicking, performing jumping jacks, or whatever in place. I opted to do a little jogging in place – after all, I felt I could do just about anything for only thirty seconds at a time.

The person who brought me to Curves gave me pointers about how to use the equipment, and she showed me by her own behavior that it was okay to skip the cardio boards. Since I’m always open to adding more steps to my pedometer, I wasn’t having any of it. I had already taken an hour walk, and I still welcomed the cardio time at Curves.

From what I could see from the Curves clientele, this is an exercise program well suited for women of all ages – and sizes. I met some well-rounded forty and fifty year olds and a lovely thin eight-five year old woman who definitely followed the adage: work at your own pace. She modified her moves on the machines and did a very abbreviated side step on the cardio boards. And no one bothered her to do anything more.

After I completed the circuit two times around as is customary, I took a twenty-minute core class. I found that the most challenging and beneficial of all the exercises I had completed in the prior thirty minutes. While sitting or lying on a Yoga mat and using a lightweight ball, our young instructor took us through planks and bridges and abdomen and leg exercises all meant to whittle down our waists and stomachs. My abs felt sore for two days afterward. Curves also offers Zumba, meal plans, and private coaching.

However, when all is said and done, I have not decided to convert my exercise regime to the Curves program. I like going to my gym most mornings and doing forty-five minutes of cardio either on the treadmill or elliptical trainer. I also like taking weekly Pilates and Spinning classes and exercising with weights twice week. One thing I do plan to add is a fifteen-minute core class, held once a week on Saturday mornings. That way I can keep on working on whittling down my waist and stomach. Or am I just being a dreamer? At my age taking inches off any part of my body is no easy task. But it’s certainly good get down on the floor and try.

Madeline is the author of Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide (Dream of Things) and Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press). She co-edits The Great American Poetry Show anthology series and wrote the poetry for The Emerging Goddessphotography book. See more at http://www.MadelineSharples.com