Ladies Workout Express & Lady of America Review

 

Ladies Workout Express is a nationwide health club organization that includes the Lady of America, Lady of America Fitness for Women, Workout Express and Health Clubs of America facilities. The concept of these clubs is 30 minute circuit training workout on specially designed equipment, in an all-female enviroment. In the clubs you'll find hydraulic machines with ten resistance settings for different fitness levels.

The workout circuit itself is a combination of weight training and cardio, which LWE claims works every major muscle group in the body - with many of the machines working two muscle groups at simultaneously. The circuit should be uniterrupted, but there are rest and recovery stations included in the circuit. LWE touts the fact that its equipment is fashioned with two hydraulic-pistons instead of the typical one - allowing twice the workout performance of their competitors (say, Curves.) They claim that you will not reach a plateau your workout - as you might at, say, Curves, due to the adjustability of the equipment. Additionally, because you're working multiple muscle groups at once, your workout takes half the time as a traditional one would.

Our take? Exercise is the key to weight loss, to fitness, and ultimately to good health - so we can't knock what LWE is trying to do here. Their program is suitable for all ages and all fitness levels, and the all-female environment is (should be) unintimidating and make for a more comfortable experience for a lot of women. Is 30 minutes a day enough exercise? Do you really get "twice the workout" in "half the time" with LWE's special equipment? Is it better than Curves? The answers to those questions fall into a little more gray area. But 30 minutes of exercise is far better than no minutes. Getting into the gym (any gym) and getting moving is always going to be a good thing - for your weight, for your health and for your mind.

One thing we must note we really like from Ladies Workout Express: The FitTeen Program. In acknowledgement of the childhood obesity epidemic and putting its money where its mouth is, LWE offers teenage girl members - ages 13-17 - a summer program where they can work out free of charge at their club from June 1 through September 1, 2009. For girls who - for whatever reason - don't/can't/won't get exercise through sports or other outdoor activities - this is a good offer.