1 month of Curves

Today marked my forth straight week working out at Curves. I have already felt positive results. My weight hasn't exactly gone down, but they tell me that is normal as I build muscle since muscle weighs more than fat. The two things I have noticed most is my clothes are beginning to feel more comfortable and I have more energy.

I've actually been going during lunch, because I sometimes have activities after work and I don't want to cut my exercise short or risk skipping it all together. Of course going at lunch has its own set of problems. I started coming into work at least 1/2 hour earlier because my lunch time is now an hour and I used to only get 1/2 hour. It is easy to get up earlier since the sun is coming up earl er now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up when winter comes again.

They have a little "Smart Key" that you put into each piece of equipment and it tracks your workout. Then you can plug it into their computer and view the results of your last 10 workouts. It shows things like how many calories you burn, what spots on your body need more work, how well you do on each piece of equipment, etc. My results show that I've been progressing everyday.

Another feature of the "Smart Key" is it increases your "goals" as you progress. You get so many points as you workout. It increases the number of points you should get so it challenges you to do more streneous workouts. There is a little pad on each piece of equpment that shows how many reps you do and the energy level you are exerting. Some even calculate your heart rate. When you first start out it doesn't require a huge amount of energy to get the point credits. As you progress it starts requiring more energy go get credit. That way it increases your workout as you progress. Its really pretty cool.

Exercise

I'm not one who likes to exercise. I have too many aches and pains and they seem to only get worse when I exercise. I'm basically a lazy person.

However, I know I need to do something; because, I'm out of control. I have several friends that belong to Curves, a fitness center designed specifically for women. I've proved I can't seem to diet and exercise on my own so I finally decided I needed to get help. There is a Curves on my way home from work so I decided to give it a try. They gave me a FREE week to try it out.

I stopped in after work last Monday. They have 16 different hydraulic pieces of equipment that work various parts of your body. I expected to really hurt on Tuesday, but it didn't happen. They place the equipment in a circle (or rectangle depending on the room) around the room and have little resting pads between each equipment. You spend a total of 30 seconds on each piece of equipment and then move to the resting pad for 30 seconds and then the next piece of equipment. You go around the room twice and then spend about 5 minutes stretching to end your 30 minute workout. It is amazing how fast it goes. They play upbeat music and have a prompt that tells you when to change stations. Each station works a different muscle or body part. Because you change so often you don't get really tired or stress any muscle. You get your heart rate up for a good cardio workout and the hydraulics give you the resistance for a good strength workout too. I actually felt rejuvinated after my workouts. I went everyday last week and decided to join the program. I'm very excited.

It is also fun. There are other ladies working out with you and the conversation is fun and entertaining. You quickly become friends. By the end of the week the regulars were greeting me by name. They have a good support system that helps keep you motivated. I may just make this work this time. I'll keep you posted on my progress.