As part of the #festivalof50, I was curious to find out what aqua aerobics is like – can you believe I got to the age of 50 without ever trying it?!
Setting out bright and early one morning was a great idea – I was in the pool and moving before my body knew what had hit it, so it didn’t have time to protest 😉 .
I arrived at 7.30, a little early as it turned out – the class wasn’t set to begin til 7.45. But there were already other middle aged mamas like me waiting around, and as women tend to do, we got chatting. Turns out I wasn’t the only first-timer, which was a relief!
The indoor pool was only waist high, and heated slightly so getting in wasn’t a rude shock to my system.
Once the instructor arrived she soon put us through our paces. Of course she had an amazing body – heck, I hope mine ends up like that if I stick at this aqua aerobics lark! I looked at the clock and couldn’t believe it was almost eight already – wow, how had half an hour passed! This wasn’t so bad after all …
And then it hit me – we didn’t actually start til 7.45am (insert emoji face with tears streaming down cheeks!). After another eternity I happened to look at the clock again and only another 5 minutes had gone by. In other words, don’t let the water fool you – this is actually hard work.
What is Aqua Aerobics Like?
We did lunges, jumps, squats, kicks, stretches, jogging, cycling, and stepping exercises all while in the water.
In fact by the end of the session I was quite hot and perspiring, despite being in a pool.
If your last experience of any type of exercise class was high school phys ed, then no need to fear, you don’t get yelled at for slacking off, or not doing it properly. Because your body is pretty well hidden by the water, nobody can tell if you’re not doing the exercises right (always a worry for me – I am sooo uncoordinated), or are just faffing about.
I will admit – I might have faffed a little – sure you get more out of it if you put more into it, but I was *there* – I figured that was a great start!
The other women (and one or two men) were mostly older, and really friendly, telling me about the deep water classes, explaining exercises to me (oh dear maybe it was obvious I had no clue what I was doing), and inviting me to attend another session …
I wasn’t even sore the next day! So Miss 20 and I returned the next evening for the deep water aqua aerobics class, which was made up of mostly younger women.
Deep Water Aqua Aerobics
Again, it was fun at the time – but this time I was in agony only a couple of hours afterwards. Using my arms so much had triggered the bursitis in my shoulder and I barely slept that night, despite using heat rub, a hot wheat pack, and taking paracetamol. We were out of ibruprofen which is what I usually take for this sort of pain, so hubster popped out to get me some first thing the next morning and at last I was able to get some relief.
Miss 20 on the other hand reported that she slept like a baby (humpf!).
I’ve now bought a pass for the next month – but will be sticking to the indoor pool classes from now on …
Are you an aqua aerobics fan? Deep or shallow water?!
Linking up with Denyse Whelan for Life This Week.