I tried something new today - water aerobics! Our gym offers it in their saltwater pool - very nice! I've been thinking about going many times, but haven't had the courage until this morning! There are so many unknowns to trying something new.... usually once I do it - it's great! Most of my concerns are never realized, and all is good! As usual, this was the case!
I was up early taking Grady to the airport, and when I got back to the house, I had pretty well talked myself into going to water aerobics! Like I said, I have been thinking about doing it for about 6 months now, and I definately need to add some form of exercise into my life. I came home and put my swimsuit on, with clothes over it. Packed my gym bag. Sat down at the computer to check email, and almost talked myself out of going... tons to do today! I could just sit here at the computer and get stuff done, yadda, yadda, yadda.... all those great little excuses I come up with. My legs aren't shaved. What if....??? what? I didn't even have any what if's, but I used them anyway. Finally, I said - that's enough! I'm going! About 20 min before class I headed out the door!
Got to the gym, found a locker and put my bag and clothes in it. Used the bathroom. Looked for anything else I could do to procrastinate... but there was nothing. So I headed out - with my towel and my Perfect Water, and walked toward the pool On the way out of the locker room, I saw a lady in a swim suit, and sure enough she was heading there too! Turns out she comes 6 days a week! Wow! She gave me a quick run down of what happens, introduced me to the teacher, showed me where to stand and helped me get my bearings!
Then we got started. You know what? It wasn't scary at all. There were actually quite a few people - about 20 or so - and the pool was pretty full! It's a good size pool, but you stand chest high in the water, most of the people were toward the middle. The ladies ranged in ages, shapes and sizes. Short, tall, slender, very obese, and everything in between! Oh yeah - there was a guy too! Late 30's, beginning to bald, nice smile. Interestingly enough - my first reaction when I saw him in the pool was "pervert." As soon as I thought it, I wondered where in the world that came from? Just because he was in a water aerobics class full of ladies with big breasts all jumping up and down in the water didn't mean that that was what he was there for. But I do have to say - I was a bit self conscious as I was jumping up and down and my boobs were doing the same. I wasn't quite deep enough in the water (now I know) and when you jump in the water - everything moves!
Let's talk about that for a minute. When you are in the water, fat floats. Not a big deal, all is normal. Until I started jumping up and down. Everything changed at that moment. My body was jumping up and down, and my fat was jumping up and down - but at different times! My breasts, belly and upper buttocks had a life of their own! Now if you've never felt the fat on the top of your butt flop around.... you have obviously never been overweight and doing water aerobics! Mind you, I've danced at my current weight - and my boobs and belly jiggle around, but never the top of my butt! And I've jumped up and down in the pool and the ocean, but again, the top of my butt has never moved like that before. It was the oddest sensation to feel my upper butt disembodied but still attached! Crazy!
Fortunately we didn't jump around too long, and all of my body parts got back in sync with each other! Then we got out the "dumbbells!" I'm not sure what they are made of - but they float, and offer incredible resistance! I actually had to rest about 1/2 way through the weight part! My shoulders were soooo tired!
There is something else odd about doing aerobics in water.... it's very difficult to move to the beat of the music. The music was meant for exercising OUT of the water, so to keep up with it IN the water was quite a challenge. Every once in a while I could get it to jive, but most of the time I was multiple beats off! But then again, so was everyone else... as far as I could tell. It's pretty hard to tell what others are doing in the water - you can't really see what's going on under there with the water moving around so much! I just concentrated on making it a good workout for me, instead of wondering how my neighbor was doing. Much better strategy in my book!
All in all, this was a fantastic workout! I was amazed at how much intensity I was getting - without really breaking a sweat, and having FUN! The ladies encouraged me to come back again, which of course I will! :o) I'm looking forward to going again Thursday! I can't believe it took me so long to try it!
By the way - as I was driving out of the parking lot, I saw the man who was in class with us... putting his toddler son into his car! So he's probably not a pervert, but perhaps needs to exercise in a non-impact way! :o) I'm sure I'll find out more as time goes on!
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