Strength In Numbers: Women Find Community at Curves

Core to human nature is the longing to be connected. This desire is manifest in different ways—the urge to unite with a higher power, the desire to bond with or protect our natural environment, or the need for a community of people who care about us. The hunger and thirst for connection is woven into our spirits.
 
A group of women are connected between 6:00 and 7:00 each morning in the most unlikely of places—the Curves Fitness Club in Green Hills.
 
The women all know each other’s names and notice if someone arrives earlier or later than usual. When someone’s husband is in the hospital, they know it. When a fellow exerciser is moving an older parent into assisted living, the early morning Curves community is there to listen. When the Lion’s Head location of Curves closed and women from that club migrated to Green Hills, it was a matter of weeks before it was just one bigger circle of six o’clock sisters. They talk about the Titans, the Chicago Cubs, politics, theology, their children, their core values and last night’s vote on Dancing With the Stars.
 
Central to the community is Elsie. She started exercising when her children left the nest. At age 50, her gift to herself was running five miles. Today, at age 82, she moves from machine to machine (the Curves exercise circuit) just to keep her limbs going and her muscles moving. Elsie has visited Curves over 1,300 times and comes as much for the camaraderie as the exercise.
 
Elsie regales the sweating crowd with stories of the “old folks” on Senior Days at Kroger. Narratives about her vegan, musician grandson—a student at Belmont—are always crowd pleasers; she’s very proud of him. When Elsie’s husband O.L., who is now 90 years old, was battling cancer, the Curves community stood with her. They also knew that when O.L. started eating again, he had a craving for McDonald’s sausage biscuits. They knew that when he returned to yacht racing, he was under strict orders not to stand up in the boat.
 
One morning, Elsie mentioned something about her mother’s Hamilton wristwatch and how it hadn’t worked for years. A Curves friend asked if she could see it and if Elsie might let her explore its repair. Several months later, she returned with the watch in perfect working order. In the box was a list of each spring and gear that needed replacing, and where they had found each part. Elsie gave the watch to her daughter, so the cycle of generosity continues.
 
Women come to Curves for different reasons—to lose weight, to get fit, or to just keep their limbs going and their muscles moving. What they get each morning, even before the sun rises, is a community where spirits are lifted and hearts are made strong.
As Elsie says, “Staying healthy is my commitment to myself, but I couldn’t do it by myself.”