Curves info in Shape Magazine
Monday, March 27th, 2006Does the Curves workout work?
Can you really get all the cardio and strength you need in the Curves for Women
30-minute exercise plan?
By Suzanne Schlosberg
Q: A friend just joined a Curves for Women gym and she loves it. However, I am
skeptical about a program that claims you can get a “complete aerobic and
strength-training workout in just 30 minutes.” Are three of these workouts a
week really enough for weight loss and toning? And just how effective are the
Curves hydraulic machines compared with traditional weight machines?
A: “Curves can be great for novices,” says Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D., chief
exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise. “It’s a very
comfortable, nonthreatening atmosphere.”
However, Bryant cautions, the Curves workout — a 30-minute machine circuit
interspersed with cardio activity such as marching in place — primarily offers
strength-training, rather than cardiovascular, benefits. “It’s a bit of an
overstatement to say you don’t need to supplement a Curves-type workout with
aerobic conditioning,” Bryant says. “Circuit training will cause improvements in
aerobic capabilities, but they tend to be rather small.”
Bryant recommends supplementing Curves workouts with three or four 30-minute
cardio sessions each week, whether brisk walking, jogging, or using a
cardiovascular machine such as an elliptical trainer or stair climber, to get
sufficient results.
Instead of utilizing a traditional weight stack for resistance, the Curves
machines have a series of pistons that create resistance by pumping fluid. The
stronger you are — and the more effort you exert — the more resistance the
machine automatically offers (up to a point), so you don’t have to make
adjustments to the machine. These hydraulic machines also differ from
traditional weight machines in that they work different muscle groups during the
lifting and the lowering phases. For instance, if you are doing a biceps curl on
a hydraulic machine, you will feel resistance in your biceps when you bend, or
curl, your arm, but when you return to the starting position by straightening
your arm, you will feel resistance in your triceps.
In each full repetition on a hydraulic machine, you target two different muscle
groups, which is very time-efficient. You’re also likely to experience less
muscle soreness than when using a machine with weight plates, since it is the
lowering phase, or the “eccentric” contraction, that causes most muscle
soreness. However, Bryant says, there’s a downside. With less of a challenge in
the eccentric phase, you won’t gain as much muscle strength and won’t see as
significant an improvement in bone health. Also, he cautions, “there comes a
point where the machine doesn’t provide enough resistance. Inside of six months,
you’ll probably need a greater challenge, such as a workout with free weights or
with machines that use weight plates.”
Suzanne Schlosberg is the author of Fitness for Travelers (Houghton Mifflin,
2002).