Curves for women

Gina2004

Hi,

I have been thinking of joining the gym in September when the kids go back to school, and have been considering joining Curves. I live in the Dublin 15 area I have heard nothing but bad things about Curves...... from both people whom have worked for curves.... to actual people who have used it or are still using it in this area.

I believe that Curves is a franchise so these reports don't reflect on every curves, and according to the their marketing they sound good........(but of course they pay a lot of money to promote and wouldn't be the first time a consumer was mislead by advertisement.:D)

I wondered is there anyone out there who has used the curves gym in this area....is it as bad as all that? I have had reports of instructors belittling people who had difficulty in the Zumba class so a little off putting.......plus the owner is quite a large woman so doesn't instil much confidence.......:p

Hanley

Gina2004 wrote: »

Hi,

I have been thinking of joining the gym in September when the kids go back to school, and have been considering joining Curves. I live in the Dublin 15 area I have heard nothing but bad things about Curves...... from both people whom have worked for curves.... to actual people who have used it or are still using it in this area.

I believe that Curves is a franchise so these reports don't reflect on every curves, and according to the their marketing they sound good........(but of course they pay a lot of money to promote and wouldn't be the first time a consumer was mislead by advertisement.:D)

I wondered is there anyone out there who has used the curves gym in this area....is it as bad as all that? I have had reports of instructors belittling people who had difficulty in the Zumba class so a little off putting.......plus the owner is quite a large woman so doesn't instil much confidence.......:p

It REALLY sounds like you just want to join curves and need someone to give ya a good reason in spite of overwhelming evidence that it's a bad idea?!

Larou

I am a former member of the joke known as curves. I had such a bad experience with curves in Castleknock. I joined a while ago and was hoping to lose weight and tone up in a lady friendly gym and found quite the opposite. Firstly I found the whole setup to be very americanised and fake from the irritating phrase that the receptionist is forced to say to the obese franchise owner who runs the gym.

I found the circuit to be not very beneficial and I barely broke a sweat while doing it. That may be bacause the instructors keep talking to you and distracting you from your workout. Perhaps its a tactic to make you stay there longer and do a real workout instead of this silly idea that they sell of a 30 minute workout. I also found that the instructors talk down to you and have a way of making you feel inadequate rather than encouraging you and motivating you like an instructor should.

Since leaving curves they have continued to take money from my account and I had to cancel the direct debit. I have had to call them about 100 times to to try to get my money back. When talking to the owner I found her rude and abraisive and could get no satisfactory answer from her about getting my money back. It seems to me that they are all about the money and taking it from you rather than providing a working service to its members.

Take my advice join a REAL gym!!

Gina2004

Well I really am trying to illiminate biases before I make a decision. I do like to fully explore my options before deciding on a course of action.....seems all I'm hearing is negative so I'm thinking of perhaps not joining....the 30 mins workout seemed like a convienient idea but after speaking with real fitness instructors it seems it isn't enough unless you are quite big and have lived quite a seditary lifestyle previously.......:-/

Gina2004

Yikes!!!! seems this gym is a no go then!

jokettle

I used Curves for a couple of months after damaging ligaments in my ankle, so I used it as a Gym-Lite! I got surprisingly good results, in that I lost a fair few inches all over after about 8-10 weeks. I was incredibly happy with that as I thought my injury would prevent me from staying in shape (I was on crutches for a good while).

However, after that initial loss, I plateaued and lost nothing more. Doing the circuit more than twice had no benefit either, as you can't add weights to those machines, just keep doing reps at the same level (at least, that's my understanding. I'm open to correction on that one).

So, it was fine as a kind of stop-gap, but no comparison to an actual gym. Plus none of them have showers, which is hugely off-putting!

Bottom line: don't bother, join a proper gym.

LKBeenit

I had a positive experience with Curves which was mainly because I found it a great stepping stone to a real gym after too long away from any kind of fitness regime. I found the fact that I knew I would be finished the circuit in 30mins a good motivator. My local Curves had the Curves Smart system which meant that the resistance changed on the machines as I progressed so that kept me challenged. I spent one year there - lost a bit of weight and certainly centimeters from waist, arms and legs. If you're coming from a low base re. fitness like I was, then the structure of Curves might suit you for a short while, otherwise avoid.

allyJay

I wouldn't touch them myself, stick to tae bo, my friend went i think for the social aspect as she is a size ten and a marathon runner and they told her she was overweight and that most of it was not muscle weight (how they knew is beyound me).. she has since been told by an ex staff member that they are told to loop the tape around their tumb while measuring and that the scales are set a bit over.Interestingly one of my own sisters joined last week and was distraught when they weighed her as a stone heavier than she is on her own scale...naturally she thinks her own scales are faulty...

by the by, why would the fact that a gym is own by a larger lady put you off, not all people are naturally slim, for all you know the lady has a medical problem or god forbid is happy, healthy and accepts her body as it is.

RacoonQueen

I give a similar response every time I spot a curves post. Worked there for a year when I was in college, was a decent way for me to get experience teaching classes and the like while waiting for my qualifications to come through. Couldn't have used the system myself, would have had no benefits for me.

Anyway, Curves serves it's purpose - and they don't market themselves as a 'gym' they call themselves a 'fitness and weight loss centre'. Some people don't want to lift weights or use treadmills and for them the system works fine. I saw a number of people lose a lot of weight and inches while I worked there, they probably would have lost more and quicker in a real gym, but they wouldn't have used one so the fact that a real gym is better is immaterial - so curves is the perfect fit for a certain type of person/personality. Then you have the people who go, do their workout, don't break a sweat and go for tea and cake afterwards, same with any gym. If you're committed to it and changing your diet, you will lose weight, your fitness will increase if you're relatively sedentary beforehand. You won't see the same scale of results you'll get from the cardio equipment, weights and pool etc you'll get in a gym. The system has a lot of shortcomings if you're after serious results, but if you just want to lose a bit of weight and aren't comfortable in a gym setting then it is brilliant and a lot of people would use it as an introduction to a 'proper' gym. Disgracefully expensive though...

Annoyed the crap out of me when I started and they kept making me go out and talk to people to 'motivate' them. I'd be telling people to fudge off if they came up to me to chat about the weather while I was in the gym. :rolleyes:

misscpmfan

Omg this thread is super old but what the hell lol, believe it or not I had a great time in Curves when I was there back in 2012.
Keep in mind I went 3 times and week and walked for an hour on the days in didn't go.
I lost so much weight that my dad thought I was secretly taking diet pills.
Nothing in my diet changed although I wasn't a drinker then. I ate everything I do now. Mostly chips, barely any veg and usual crap but in small doses and not too late. Gotta say though to get that circuit to work you really have to push yourself like an absolute psycho till you feel sick while doing it.
Joining tomorrow again.

Transform

wow this post feels like so 1990s

Oryx

Its like a wayback machine.

Lets move on.