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Light Duty - Curves Franchises Prosper With Easygoing Workouts

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Grant Kimberly Durand this: she's frank.

"Nobody likes to work out," says Durand, the owner of Curves in the Riverside section of East Providence. "But we have to."

So if you have to - and you really do have to, most people would agree -- why not choose a workout that's quick and inexpensive, one that's sort of like a playgroup for grown women?

Besides, it turns out that Curves is really a respectable way to get and stay in shape. Not to mention, have a better life.

"If I can keep a certain percentage of women out of a nursing home, that's my goal," Durand says.

GARY HEAVIN was certainly in the right place at the right time. When the college dropout and former health-club owner from Texas opened his first Curves For Women in 1992, people were just starting to realize how vital exercise is to good health.

By 1996, he had 44 Curves locations. By 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records named Curves the world's largest fitness-center franchise company.

Today there are 9,600 franchises and 4 million members worldwide. Thirty-six of those clubs and approximately 7,000 members are in Rhode Island.

In the book Curves, Heavin writes that the name "speaks volumes about our philosophy on health and fitness."

In other words, thin and muscular isn't the goal. Curvy and healthy is just fine.

"If somebody wants to be a body-builder, this isn't the place for them," says Stacey Mailhot of East Providence, as she sweats on the Curves circuit.

THE DRILL goes like this: you can arrive at Curves anytime and start your 30-minute workout. The company recommends coming three times a week, and doing some aerobic exercise, such as walking, on the off days.

Music with a fast, steady beat plays and the exercise machines are placed in a circle. You start by standing on a square and moving -- running in place, pulling a few dance moves or doing jumping jacks, for example.

Then you sit at any hydraulic resistance machine and push and pull it for 30 seconds, until the recorded voice of Gary Heavin's wife, Diane, says, "Change stations now."

Then it's off to another square to move for 30 seconds, then to the next machine for 30 seconds, and so on.

Most clubs have eight machines, and women do the circuit three times per workout. About every eight minutes, the voice tells the women to take their pulse to make sure they're exercising to their targeted heart-rate zone.

"They should be working hard enough so they want to get off that machine," Durand says.

THE CURVES MISSION statement is simply "strengthening women," says Becky Frusher, communications manager for Curves International. That means physically, mentally, socially and financially.

"It's a good living for a single woman," Durand says.

Ninety percent of the franchises are owned by women, Frusher says. Owners pay $39,900 for the franchise, plus a monthly fee that can range from $395 to $795. The franchise fee includes the exercise equipment, but owners must pay for rent and other essentials themselves.

Though membership costs vary according to plan and location, most women pay $29 a month and can work out at any Curves in the world.

Dr. Pat Chase, who practices internal medicine in Bristol and has been going to Curves for a year and a half, says she often runs into women she knows. She enjoys catching up with them while she works out, she says, and getting to know new people.

"We trade recipes as we do the circuit," Chase says of one of her new Curves buddies.

CURVES IS DESIGNED so "anyone can do it," says Debbie Hanson, owner of the Narragansett Curves. "If you can walk in, you can do the circuit."

Hanson says she has many members who never exercised before because they were intimidated by traditional gyms.

Carol Reuter of East Providence used to go to one of those, where prongs need to be pulled and weights dropped each time a new person used an exercise machine.

"Sometimes I'd forget how the machines worked and there'd be no one to help out," she says.

Members sometimes play games or raise money for charity.

Durand runs a game based on the TV show Lost. Women who don't come three times a week get "captured" by the other players. They must perform a task, such as hula-hooping in the middle of the room or bringing in a new member -- to remain on the "island."

Everyone who remains on the island will be eligible for a raffle prize at the end of the summer.

"It keeps women motivated," Durand says.

BUT DOES it work?

Jo-An Mello of East Providence says she has lost 66 pounds since coming to Curves two years ago. She also follows the Curves high- protein, low-carbohydrate diet guidelines and tries to eat lowfat food.

"I've been on a lot of diets and I've always gained it all back. On this one I haven't," says the 53-year-old grandmother and breast cancer survivor.

She loved the concept as soon as she walked in the door, she says.

"Everyone was there for the same reason. They were my age, and no one was in body suits."

She keeps coming because she's not bored, as she was when she walked on a treadmill alone at home.

"This is the first positive thing I've done in a long time," she says.

NOT EVERYONE comes to Curves to get smaller.

Denise Dragon has battled arthritis since she was 14. Her wrists and ankles have been surgically fused, her neck fused itself and she has plastic elbow and hand joints. Before joining Curves, she was "too skinny" because she had no muscle tone.

Now, the 47-year-old from East Providence says she has arm muscles she's never seen before. And she has less arthritis pain because muscle now eases wear on her joints.

"I used to be all bones," she says. "I look a lot better and I feel a lot better."

At first, Durand, the owner of the East Providence Curves, questioned whether the workout could rival the running and horseback riding she'd done in the past.

But her sister had lost 43 pounds by doing the Curves routine, so she decided to give it a try after an injury kept her from her regular exercise regime.

"I could not believe the workout those machines would give me," Durand, 42, says.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN researchers found that the 30-minute Curves workout burns an average of 184 calories, similar to walking 4 mph for 30 minutes on a flat treadmill. The researchers call it a "low-to-moderate"-intensity workout that won't do much for people who are already active.

"But for those who have been sedentary, Curves is just what they needed," says researcher Kristin Greany.

One caveat, the researchers say, is that some people could just be going though the motions. "The benefit you get is directly proportional to the amount of effort you put into it," says John Porcari, who also worked on the study.

Deb Riebe, a professor of exercise science at URI, says a workout like Curves is "effective," though not as good for weight loss as a more aerobic form of exercise.

"It's very good for people who say they have no time to exercise," she says. "And that's the number-one reason people do not exercise."

She says exercise is key to maintaining weight loss, but wonders whether just doing the Curves workout really accounts for all the dramatic losses many members claim.

"There have to be dietary changes as well," she says.

"But maybe," she says, the workouts are producing the inspiration to make them."

Dr. Vincent Pera, director of the weight-management program at Miriam Hospital, agrees that for weight loss, cardiovascular -- or aerobic -- exercise is better. He hopes a workout like Curves can lead to that.

"Whatever you can do to open the door, to get exercise started, is a good thing," Pera says.

* * *

Fitness buffs can work up a sweat at Curves

I am an exercise snob. I'm in fairly good shape from irregular bouts of running, bicycling and yoga, and I don't think an exercise class is worth the time unless it leaves me soaked in sweat.

I thought Curves was for wussies - until I went there.

Shelley Pray, owner of the downtown Providence Curves, taught me how to use the machines. Her club, one of the few open at midday, caters to working women on their lunch breaks. The circuit was crowded with women of all ages, from young mothers burning off pregnancy weight to stylish 60-somethings looking to tone triceps.

Pray explained that the machines make a hissing sound if they're used properly. Mine didn't always hiss, meaning I could have been working harder or more efficiently.

The segments go quickly. As soon as I got into an exercise, it was time to move again. I noticed that when one woman is slow to get off a machine, it costs the next one a few repetitions because everything's so tightly timed.

At the end, my pulse rate revealed that I was working at 80- percent intensity. And I was definitely sweating, so much so that I would have liked a shower. Curves discourages them, Pray said, because that would add too much time to its promised 30-minute workout.

-- Susan Kushner Resnick

* * *

Men, too, can find a place for a quick fitness circuit

Women aren't the only ones willing to pay for a place to work out quickly and without worrying about how they look doing it.

The Blitz 20-minute Total Fitness For Men and Cuts Fitness for Men fitness chains are male equivalents of Curves.

Scott Simon started The Blitz in 2002 after women in the Curves franchises he owned complained that there was nothing similar for men. So he crafted a 20-minute circuit program of hydraulic resistance machines and punching bags. A boxing ring encloses the circuit.

"Something happens when they jump into the ring, and after 20 minutes they're like Muhammad Ali," he says. "Guys like to hit things."

The company is based in Tampa, Fla., and there are more than 200 The Blitz franchises. The only New England club is in Connecticut.

Simon says most The Blitz clients are formerly sedentary men who are "time-starved." They range from 30 to 65 years old.

Most men who frequent Cuts Fitness For Men haven't worked out in a while either.

They're guys who don't feel comfortable in a traditional gym," says Steven Haase, managing director of Cuts. "They don't want to be around muscle heads."

Cuts, based in New Jersey, opened in 2003. It now has 185 clubs open or pending in 30 states, including several in Massachusetts.

Cuts doesn't offer boxing equipment. Instead, men alternate steppers, spinning bikes, rowers and elliptical trainers while doing a hydraulic circuit.

- Susan Kushner Resnick

* * *

Kimberly Durand, owner of the Curves located in East Providence's Riverside section, says no one likes to exercise. But she says the 30-minute circuit offered at her business is one way for women to take first steps towards fitness.

JOURNAL PHOTOS / SANDOR BODO

* * *

Jo-An Mello, 53, of East Providence, says she has lost 66 pounds since coming to Curves two years ago. She also follows the exercise chain's high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet guidelines and tries to eat low-fat food.

JOURNAL PHOTO / SANDOR BODO

* * *

Women do the circuit at the Curves in downtown Providence, making three laps around a ring of exercise stations and changing stations on cue.

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO / SANDOR BODO

Source: Providence Journal

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