Curves

“Looking for some hot stuff, baby, this evening! Looking for some hot stuff, baby, tonight….” The song pounds out of Curves’ stereo system interrupted every 30 seconds by a friendly female voice announcing it’s time to switch circuits. The walls of the gym are decorated with a profound purple and acid green and a mural of a joyous group of women getting themselves pumped up about exercise. Oh yeah. I glance around at the other women, most of whom are in their 40’s or 50’s, working the Curves magic to loose the extra pounds.

In between the Curves machines, little aerobic pads await the jumping, marching moves that we women make to keep out heart rate up. I prefer kick boxing moves. In between the frantic meringue beats, occasional Madonna, and frequent salsa beats, I throw a jab, cross, uppercut. It wouldn’t do to let my kick boxing skills fall below par.

The Curves concept revolves around a 30 minute circuit on aerobic blocks and hydraulic machines. The faster you do sets on the machines, the harder it is. Then, since stretching is 19% of results, off the women go to loosen their warmed-up muscles.

Most women do two rounds of the circuit before retiring to stretch. Thirty minutes of cardio and they’re done. I can’t justify only spending thirty minutes on the organized activity. Instead, I walk to the gym, spend 45 minutes in exercise and an additional 15-20 on abs, glutes, pecs, biceps, triceps, etc. before continuing my merry way back out into the Guatemalan day.

Who would have guessed I would go to Curves?