how is this possible? (good news, not bad)

I'm already seeing results after less than two weeks at a new gym! I could swear that my arms are less jiggly and more defined - is that my imagination? What I know isn't my imagination that I noticed this morning is that I no longer have the little roll over top the sides of my jeans and my tummy appears to be flatter (even though its my time of the month!) How is this possible? Not that I'm complaining - it's just, well, 4 months at Curves Smart 3 days a week and on most off days an hour of jogging/walking plus doing weight watchers and no results - nada - no inch loss, no weight loss, nothing! Now all of the sudden I'm seeing definition where I had none before and now I'm starting to look pretty good

I just started going to a new gym a week ago Monday - I've been there about 6 times and done my usual jogging/walking at home on most of the off days. I do a pretty short cardio session (or long warm up) of about 20 - 25 minutes either on the treadmill or on the eliptical and then I do one muscle group (upper body twice, arms once, legs once, abs about 3 times until I pulled a muscle) - since the trainer has been teaching me what to do the sessions have lasted over an hour but when I do them on my own they are about 25 - 30 minutes. I told him my goal was to do the most I possibly could in the shortest amount of time possible and get as quick results as possible as I'm getting married in September. He gave me about 4 exercises for each muscle group. I've also been concentrating over the same amount of time at the new gym on trying to eat more protein - I'm still having the snacks that I like, I'm just making an effort to get more protein -snacking on almonds, cheese, etc.

So, is it possible that the 4 months at Curves "prepped" me or laid the groundwork and now, because of the strength training its showing up? Or is it the increased protein, or both? Or is it just the fact that I'm doing something different now and my body is freaking out (in a good way).

So wait, you're saying the exercises he gave you are using weights, right?  That's why -- weight training is essential for fat loss! If you never used them before, that's where this is coming from.  It's not your imagination -- lifting weights rules!

 

Also, if you've been logging your calories and watching what you eat and eating the right amount of calories, that could have a great effect. :)

Yes, I should have been a little more clear…  I’m using a combination of machines and free weights – all the upper body exercises are done on machines (rows, presses, and something called The Gravitron – heh – that I do counterweighted pull-ups and dips on).  The arm exercises are pretty traditional, tricep press, bicep lift and some free weight exercises for my deltoids.  The leg exercises are walking lunges with 10 lb weights in each hand (this is how I think I set myself up for a pulled abdominal muscle – I know I was using my abs to do the lunges, I could feel it and I think I probably exhausted my ab muscles and then hopped on the torture device I posted in another thread about), adducter and abducter machine and toe raises for my calfs.  The ab exercises are all machines – the one I pulled my ab muscle on is a torture device called the precore v-crunch – I’m staying off that thing for a few weeks, then I do a crunch machine for my upper abs, a torso twist for the obliques and then I do a stability ball exercise for my lower back.  That’s about it – 4 exercises per muscle group (we treat upper body and arms separately) – he gave me a few additional exercises to rehab my rotator cuff, which I think I injured on one of the machines at Curves, and to strengthen my wrists/forearms as I make jewelry and do a lot of stuff on the computer and had a lot of pain last year.

I’ve been logging my calories since mid-April and before that I’ve been doing Weight Watchers since September of 2003 (that’s how I lost most of the 98 lbs I lost) but in the Summer of 2006 I had a death in the family and I put on about 5 lbs and then I started working (when I hadn’t had a job in several years) and put on another 5.  My entire life changed and I wasn’t able to set up my diet/exercise routine the same way that I did it to lose the weight initially and have since been fumbling around basically gaining and losing 5 of those pounds, never letting myself go over that but never seeming to be able to get past the 5 lbs.  So, in the late Fall I started Curves and went back to Weight Watcher meetings and then in January I started doing Curves Smart and tried to step up the WW to no avail, this is why I’m so excited that “all of a sudden” out of nowhere I am seeing major results in such a short time but I’m not doing anything unhealthy, giving up foods that I like or spending half the day at the gym! 

 Yup, this is why weight training rocks - two weeks to visible results. It's not your imagination, it's your changed workout.

 Note that you see most of the results from any workout plan in the first 6-8 weeks while your body's struggling to adapt to the unfamiliar strain, and results typically slow down thereafter. Which leads to the common practice of changing your program every now and then - for the really advanced trainee, every 3-6 weeks, but beginners need more motor skill practice on the basics so changing programs every 8-12 weeks is better.

 Also note that you're doing squats, lunges and deadlifts your core takes enough of a beating that direct ab work isn't really neccesary. As you've noted, your abs have to work like mad to stabilise your body during moves like lunges, squats and deadlifts and this will do more to develop real core strength than any isolation or direct ab work ever will. (see for example Olympic coach Charles Poliquin's Question of Strength: September)

wow melkor!  Thanks!  That's great info about the abs in particular... at least I know that when I do those walking lunges I should probably not do the ab workout.  I pulled my ab muscle on Monday and yesterday I wasn't feeling a thing at all so I did a little stretching and experimented with a few moves to see if my ab muscle would hurt and it didn't but this morning I woke up with a little bit of a sore ab muscle so I probably tried it too quickly.  I'm laying off the ab workout (even floor crunches) entirely for a week at least!

Also really valuable info that I should change my workout in about 8 - 12 weeks...

Thanks again, and thanks to you and madetoshine for confirming that I am not imagining things.  If I had known I would get these results I would have started training a loooooooong time ago for SURE!  Now that 90 minutes that I used to spend jogging/walking/calisthenics while I was losing the 98 lbs seems like such overkill!

It's great to hear Curves really works cause I'm thinking about getting a membership there and I don't want to waste time and not get good results.

maianajewel....I'm at curves now and have been for quite awhile...I think its a great thing for beginers...I think once I lose a large majority of my weight and want to start toning up, I'll have to get a membership to a regular gym! I guess that's the track you've taken...

kodibnb...you get back what you put into it....like i said above I think its good for a beginner with a lot of weight to lose...

 Curves, work?

Well...

4 months at Curves Smart 3 days a week and on most off days an hour of jogging/walking plus doing weight watchers and no results - nada - no inch loss, no weight loss, nothing!

Compared to

I'm already seeing results after less than two weeks at a new gym!... I've been there about 6 times..

So I don't know how you'd get that "Curves work" from what Maia wrote.

 Mind you, a few posters here have had results with Curves, but the majority of experiences reflect Maia's. This is because making Curves into a really good workout requires more work and focus than a regular gym - so you can have great results if you're really dedicated to pushing yourself while you're there. Which isn't really compatible with the advertising and spokesmodels who say "it's so easy it doesn't feel like a workout at all!" - which would be because it isn't one.

 Usually when it comes to working out you get out of it exactly what you put into it in terms of effort, but Curves requires a lot more of you in terms of mental efforts and dedication than a regular gym. Just ask CelluliteDelight :)

Original Post by melkor:

Curves, work?

Well...

4 months at Curves Smart 3 days a week and on most off days an hour of jogging/walking plus doing weight watchers and no results - nada - no inch loss, no weight loss, nothing!

Compared to

I'm already seeing results after less than two weeks at a new gym!... I've been there about 6 times..

So I don't know how you'd get that "Curves work" from what Maia wrote.

Mind you, a few posters here have had results with Curves, but the majority of experiences reflect Maia's. This is because making Curves into a really good workout requires more work and focus than a regular gym - so you can have great results if you're really dedicated to pushing yourself while you're there. Which isn't really compatible with the advertising and spokesmodels who say "it's so easy it doesn't feel like a workout at all!" - which would be because it isn't one.

Usually when it comes to working out you get out of it exactly what you put into it in terms of effort, but Curves requires a lot more of you in terms of mental efforts and dedication than a regular gym. Just ask CelluliteDelight :)

I havent experienced that really..I mean like I said you get what you put into it....how it that different than any other gym experience...I guess I just don't get what the difference is...you can half ass at a regular gym too...Curves is pretty mental-effort-free

Of course what I see the REAL purpose of Curves is so that middle aged women can yack for half an hour without the hubby or kiddies :D oh and so some of us can get work outs..hahaha

 Oh, you can half-ass anything, but Curves is defective by design, as opposed to a regular gym where you will in theory get a proper workout if you do it as instructed.

 If you follow what the official Curves instructions for a workout says on the other hand, you won't - you have to deviate from what the instructors teach you to make it a 'real' workout.

 If you push yourself mercilessly on the stations and run in place on the recovery mats to keep your heart rate elevated it can be a good workout - that's what the posters who had some success with Curves did. But to really be pushing yourself that hard every workout requires a lot more mental discipline and effort than to just go into the regular gym and lift some iron - even a half-assed lifting workout has some benefit, whereas to reap any benefit from Curves you need to be on top of your game all the time.

 If you do that, it can probably be a good place to start,and you can make it work for you longer than the initial 4-8 weeks before adaptation sets in and you plateu completely as far as physical developement goes.

 Is that a real common way to do things there?

 I'm not as opposed to the chain or the concept as Spirochete is, to choose a not-so-random example. But I do think that women in general should perhaps think twice about giving money to Gary Heavin, considering that he contributes heavily to the forced-pregnancy lobby and other anti-women causes.

I see what your saying now....Im tired :P

I am one of the ones who gives 110% at the Curves...running/jumping/kicking/punching/wha tever on the mats and really pushing my self otherwise...so maybe my view is a little jaded...but really thats what the instructors tell us to do, keep our heart rates up...probably once every two weeks I have a less than perfect work out though...but it hasn't seemed to matter...thats usually when I really just don't feel like doing anything.

of course I've seen the same women there over and over again not doing much, not losing weight...a majority in fact...just yacking..hence the joke I made earlier....seems like a waste of $ but whatever :)

Also, like I said earlier, I think its good for people just starting out...with a significant weight loss ahead of them...its a lot less...uh...intimidating...than a regular gym...I don't find myself dreading going...I also said I'd probably have to find a real gym to tone up appropriately when the time comes (using real weights too haha)....the curves machines just don't seem like enough...but for now..I'm good to go.

On a personally note, I couldn't really truely care less what the owner or whatever does/thinks...I go to work out, not for political reasons..I don't care or want to argue about that.

Honestly, if its working, great...if it doesn't work for you...thats fine with me....sorry for the hijack OP...I just get a little defensive when people attack something that works for some people for no reason but that its different than what works for them...

It was actually a thread on this forum that made me take a longer look at what I was doing.  I was one of those ones at Curves who would push myself pretty hard - the whole concept of "Curves Smart" is that the computer remembers you and your last work out and gives you a target every time you work out so you are always working harder every time.  One of the frustrating factors is that the computer would just keep setting the targets higher - which meant more reps and, I don't care how hard I work, it's just not physically possible for me to do a rep in correct form more than a certain number of times in 30 seconds - so I would continuously be bumped from "intermediate" to "beginner", which was demoralizing. 

The most demoralizing thing however, as I stated above, was the fact (as melkor reiterated) that after 4 months of being religious about my Curves Smart workout, along with the 2-3 extra days of jogging/walking 45 - 90 minutes, plus being pretty strict with myself with doing Weight Watchers and no results really to speak of.  In month 3 I had lost a little bit of my body fat percentage, a couple of lbs, a 1/4 inch here, a 1/2 inch there but in month 4 I was right back where I started!  Same weight, same body fat percentage, same BMI, same measurements!  Very frustrating!  That was when some of the comments made here about Curves started to sink in and I began to consider trying a gym.

Now, after only 8 workouts over 2 weeks and just bumping up my protein a bit (conscientiously choosing protein over a carb - or in addition to - more often) I am noticing less arm jiggle and less of a roll over the sides of my jeans.  When I was looking in the mirror doing seated arm rows I felt like I really looked smaller through my ribcage and waist.  I haven't taken measurements and my weight hasn't seemed to really go up or down so I don't have measurable results yet, but I am definitely seeing a difference - sometimes even day to day!