Well – I guess I’m on sort of a “fitness frenzy”. After my visit to Pure Barre a few weeks ago I was contacted by Dunwoody Curves owner Allan Slimming with an offer to come check out their program. Yes – he owns Curves and his last name is really “SLIMMING“. Well, “slimming” is exactly what I need, so I agreed to try Curves as long as I could bring my fitness “side-kick” Annemarie too!
I’m admittedly not much of an exerciser, other than my daily walks with George. However, I must mention I had some preconceived notions about Curves. I thought it was more or less for the “older crowd”…and was going to be an easy, shall I dare say, “lame” workout. Well, after Jillian Michaels more or less kicked both mine and Annemarie’s collective booties, I must admit I’ve changed my mind!
While we were huffing and puffing through the Curves circuit, Annemarie told me something important about how she lost all her baby weight after her last child…..”I lost 30 lbs and 30 inches in 3 months because of Curves!” That’s a significant piece of information don’t you think? She made me really start thinking about what Curves could do for me…..
Let me tell you how it works…..
Basically the room is one big open area with fitness equipment set up in a large circle. Between each piece of equipment is a square mat. The directions are to pick a machine to start with and work on that machine for 30 seconds. Then you “change stations” and step on the square mat or out in the circle area and do 30 seconds of cardiovascular exercise. Then you “change stations” and move to the next machine. If you go through the entire circuit twice then you’ve basically completed a 30 minute workout that included cardio and toning. You end by stretching for a few minutes and “Voila!” you’ve had an excellent 30 minute workout!
On Tuesday I went for training to learn how to use the machines. Yes, the crowd was women who are older than me and most were working at a slower pace during the cardio portion of the workout. I even met an adorable 80 year old woman who was literally doing a full out split during her stretching time. Yes, she is 80 and can do a SPLIT! Apparently she’s a Curves regular.
I went back with Annemarie on Wednesday for the Jillian Michaels “class” whereby you watch a video led session and Jillian tells you what to do for the cardio portion of the workout that you do for 30 seconds in between machines. I’m here to tell you she ain’t telling you to jog slowly in place on that square mat! She had us doing planks, and crazy clapping jumping jacks, and knee kicking, sideways hopping sort of stuff! Annemarie and I were flat WORN OUT after our little…not so lame….30 minute Curves workout.
I’m sore today but feeling good about finally trying to do something to get fit. Annemarie and I are strongly considering continuing our fitness frenzy at Curves on a regular basis. We have a few other places to check out first but I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up back at Curves real soon!
To sum it all up…I’m an insanely busy working mom that barely has time to take a shower every day. Adding a 30 minute workout to my routine seems very doable and I really feel like the 30 minute Curves circuit workout is fantastic! You can try it for a week for free if you want to!
Contact Curves Dunwoody and/or view their website
(Disclaimer- Annemarie and I went to this class as Allan’s guest but this article is not a paid advertisement.)
