Curves Franchise

I am not a current or former owner of a Curves franchise, so I am not commenting on how they treat their franchisees. They would fall into the same category as other master franchisors, see other sections on this site to find out more. However I am a personal trainer and qualified to comment on the workout.

The main problem with a Curves franchise or Contours franchise is that they are run by people who know very little or nothing about health and fitness. The corporate office for each has no personal trainers or exercise physiologists. They both state on their websites that you need NO fitness, exercise or business experience to own a Curves franchise. The majority of owners have no fitness qualifications, so are not qualified to give proper exercise guidance. Contours has an advantage in the actual workout as they use real weights that train muscles in both directions and does produce better results – still there are many limitations.

Curves on the other hand uses hydraulics which 1) Makes it easy to cheat 2) Does not train muscles in both directions – to replicate real life movements

Neither system trains the body’s balancing and stabilising muscles. Neither Curves or Contours is recognised by FIA (Fitness NSW) or by Fitness Australia. All REAL gyms and any quality personal trainer will have full accreditation with these organisations. Ask them if they have accreditation, and then ask them why not – that should amuse you for a few minutes. Both systems involve members going round in a circuit, it is good for beginners, the elderly and less mobile.

Results are more of a reflection of the individual not the system, so some younger fit people have done well in these systems but it is temporary. The human body is an amazing piece of machinery that adapts quickly to the stresses placed upon it. To make fitness improvements you need progressive resistance and variety in your workouts, something that a Contours franchise is very limited in. A Curves franchise is even worse as it offers almost no progressive resistance. So in the long term going round and round in circles doing the exact same routine stops working quickly and gets incredibly boring. People don’t want to go to the gym anyway, Curves and Contours Express are incredibly monotonous, so makes it easy to stay away. Did I mention Contours and Contours Express are the same?

If you want to own a gym, forget franchises, even the small 30 minute workout ones that make it supposedly easy to get into a fitness business. Become a personal trainer, get accredited and work in a real gym where you will have access to all types of equipment, furthermore the clientele you will be working with there will actually want to be there, unlike the Contours and Curves where the people join - stay excited for a month and spend the next 11 months of their membership trying to work out how to get out of it.

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