Hi Kelly. I joined Curves at the end of March, and I absolutely love it. Mine was brand new at the time, so we only have 8 machines, and we do the circuit 3 times. You start on a "recovery board" where you, for example, march in place. When instructed to move onto the next station, you move to the machine directly to your left. You work out on it for 30 seconds, then onto the next recovery board. About every 7 minutes, the tape will prompt you to take your heartrate. With the cool-down stretches at the end, the entire workout takes 30 minutes, and I have found it working quite nicely for me so far. My first 2 months, I was going about 4 times a week, and while I tried to eat sensibly and drink lots of water, I lost about 7 pounds, and 11.75 inches in total. I've recently started journaling, and using WW points guides, and the weight is now coming off even faster.
The staff are awesome, and many of the patrons are very much people like me ... overweight, haven't exercised in a while, and looking for a nice simple program that's so enjoyable that you want to continue with it. And as you become more fit, you actually have to work really hard on both the machines and the recovery boards just to keep your heart rate in the proper range, so those who are in a lot better shape than I am still find it to be an excellent workout.
Mine is trialling a 7AM start time, so I've been going before work this past week and I've found that it's such a great fit into my schedule. Curves will usually give you a pass for a free trial week, and they will take all of your measurements, and take you through the circuit of machines so you know what you are doing.
I highly recommend checking it out
Keep us posted if you decide to try it.
Mary Liz
