FADS & FASHIONS

The Times of India, Mumbai / Friday, May 20, 2005

28

Fitness Without Frills

Gender Trender / A popular chain offers spartan outlets, with no mirrors, showers or locker rooms. And no men

Three or more times a week, millions of women visit Curves outlets and work out for about half an hour. They spend 30 seconds on each of 12 strength-building resistance machines interspersed by 30 seconds of aerobic activity (stationary jogging, marching or walking) to keep heart rates high. Two complete circuits, done to musical tapes that signal each station change, take 25 minutes, plus 5 minutes to cool down and stretch. It’s a time interval that many find they can comfortably fit into their lives. And there is a social component at most centres, with friends chatting about subjects from recipes to politics.

Once a month, the participants have the option to be weighed and measured, and nutritional guidance is available for those who want it.

A 14-week Curves-sponsored study at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, suggests those who stick with the exercise program and follow a balanced reduced-calorie diet can lose weight and maintain the loss. The results may not be typical, Still, for women previously sedentary or minimally active, any progress toward fitness is significant whether or not they lose much, if any, weight.

NYT News Service.

With the surgeon general urging Americans to do at least 30 minutes a day of moderately vigorous exercise to improve their health, and with some 60% of adults doing little or none, a program attractive enough to prompt millions of otherwise sedentary women to get out and “just do it” certainly seems worthy of praise.

Considering the rapid growth of Curves, a privately owned no-frills fitness company that claims more than 8,000 franchises here and abroad, the concept is a winner. There is now one Curves outlet for every two McDonald’s in this country, and in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where two researchers recently studied what the program’s participants can expect to achieve, the ratio is reversed: two Curves for every one McD’s.

Curves outlets are spartan, nothing like high-end fitness salons that can be off-putting to the less-than-fit and too costly to the economically stretched. There are no mirrors, showers or locker rooms. And no men. The organisation does not seek to attract highly competitive fitness buffs who may intimidate an out-of-shape woman in her 50’s or 60’s.