When someone says the words, “Water Aerobics,” you probably picture someone wearing a floral, one-piece bathing suit with silver hair peaking out from under a swim cap bobbing along in the shallow end of the pool.

With promises of cardiovascular benefits and low impact on joints, what senior citizen wouldn’t want to be part of that type of exercise? But honestly even for a 20-something like myself, it is a lot harder than you think. With the water taking on half your body weight, you can exercise longer and you have resistance that you don’t have above water. There also are all kinds of special workout tools that you get to use to exercise (like wade boards, foam weights, exercise bands, etc.) as well as routines that create more resistance.

I’ve been attending a water aerobics class twice a week for the past month at the local YMCA and can attest to its benefits and difficulty. Not only have I lost weight, but I physically feel better and more fit (aka I feel less like a beached whale and more like an active whale). The instructor, Kathy, is a bubble of happy energy, but don’t let that fool you. She tries to kill me on a regular basis. She doesn’t care if you’re young, old, in shape, or a popsicle, she just wants you to keep moving. In fact, in one class she said it at least thirteen times.

When Kathy brings her small, blue radio along with her favorite dance tunes, the only thing you can do is hope that you don’t die. Last week, I actually asked the lifeguards if they could save me if I started drowning. I thought I was going to croak after Kathy’s routine. My face was as red as a tomato, my lungs were on fire and let’s not forget the jello-like feeling of my overused muscles. She tends to work the class the hardest when she has music. I’ve started hoping for music because it makes for an amusing class.

My fellow water bobblers (Kathy is always telling us she wants us to be bobble heads, which means we are really working out hence the nickname bobblers) are very interesting group. There are a few regulars and some occasional bobblers who make me laugh as much as I sweat in that class. Kathy alone is a hoot. Each class, someone always asks me what exercise we’re supposed to be doing because they couldn’t hear Kathy or everyone’s giggling profusely because we’ve created such hectic waves we can’t stand to even do the routine. Overall, the class is fun and a great way for me to exercise.

I’m going to sign off with the motto of the class, “What happens under the water, stays under the water.”

-AM

Read more about water aerobics here.