“Molly's Fitness Follies: Aqua aerobics is splashy fun ... - New Orleans Times-Picayune”

Molly's Fitness Follies: Aqua aerobics is splashy fun ... - New Orleans Times-Picayune

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 04:54 PM PDT

Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By Molly Reid, The Times-Picayune

June 04, 2010, 10:08AM

MollyArt[1].JPG View full sizeTONY O. CHAMPAGNE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEWorking out in the pool is cool, which is not to say it's easy. MOLLY'S FITNESS FOLLIES: The first in an occasional series of features by staff writer Molly Reid rating the various exercise classes available at health clubs throughout the area.

THE CLASS: Aqua aerobics

DIFFICULTY: Adapts to all skill levels, although serious swimmers may find it less than challenging.

FITNESS PERKS: Opens the joints, hips especially; light to moderate cardio; tones all over, arms and legs especially.

TAKE IT IF: You want to add something different to your cardio/toning routine; you don't like getting sweaty; you like splashing.

Aqua aerobics is up there with speed-walking and clogging when it comes to easy-to-mock fitness activities, but after trying out a class recently at New Orleans Athletic Club, I am here to say: Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Having done a couple of classes elsewhere years ago, I knew not to expect a cakewalk. Still, I stepped into the NOAC's indoor pool feeling like the next hour would be a welcome break from my usual regimen of high-impact cardio and toning.

It was certainly a change from high impact — try low- to no-impact — but it was no break.

The instructor, a jovial woman named Annette Watt, told me the exercises could be modified to suit fitness beginners all the way up to experienced swimmers. She should know, since she started doing aqua aerobics when, one Fourth of July and weighing 230 pounds, she realized she didn't have the strength to lift herself out of a pool.

"It scared me," she said. "The next week, I was in a fitness class."

Water aerobics also helped her lose her "Katrina weight," she said. "Now, well, I'm no supermodel, but I don't weigh 230 pounds."

A classmate showed me the various sizes of floatable hand weights and foam noodles that we would use as props. "If you want more of a challenge, use the bigger ones," she said. She also suggested wearing a foam belt instead of a noodle for the deep-water exercises. I took the vest and the heavier props, assuming I'd naturally need the extra challenge.

We started in the shallow end, doing basic barre-style leg raises against the side of the pool and using our noodles hooked under the ankle for resistance. I got maybe one-and-a-half raises before the noodle slid out of place and popped up, prompting me to awkwardly reach to fix it, subsequently lose my balance and fall sideways with my head under water and my feet sticking out.

"Try the smaller noodle," Watt said with the slightest hint of satisfaction.

I did, and was able to focus on how the buoyancy of the water naturally improved my posture, loosened up my hip joints and helped me anchor the leg-raise movement in my lower abs.

Watt worked up some light cardio for us with different running-jumping movements back and forth across the pool. As someone who reverts to childlike splashing and bouncing pretty much anytime she's in a pool, I had to laugh. I particularly liked leaping through the water ballet-style, the resistance of the water making the leaps harder and slower than expected, as in a dream.

Speaking of bouncing: Ladies, make sure you wear a swimsuit with ample upper-body coverage. I wore a low-cut ballet leotard, and let's just say I learned that a one-piece suit does not necessarily guarantee protection from Janet Jackson-style wardrobe malfunctions.

The class was comprised of women ranging in age from their mid-30s to 60s or early 70s. Unsurprisingly, there were no men, although Watt said some have drifted in and out through the years. She remembered fondly the Japanese man visiting New Orleans who joined the class and provided some memorable eye candy.

"He was gorgeous!" she said. "And you know, when we were finished, he got out and said, 'That was harder than I expected!'"

That's exactly what I was thinking when Watt had us do a series of coordinated strength-training movements with names such as "the Eggbeater," which consisted of floating in the deep water and raising both legs up and around while bringing the arms down and around. Struggling to keep my legs straight and pointed while raising them using only my core muscles, I developed a new respect for synchronized swimmers, whose noseplugs and manic smiles belie the tremendous skill and strength required to execute even the simplest moves.

As Watt alternated vigorous, noodle-assisted water treading for cardio with strength-building exercises, I began to imagine my classmates and I as similarly underappreciated athletes-in-training, a thought that juxtaposed perfectly with the group of men attacking boxing bags above us on the mezzanine. While their workout had the veneer of macho aggression, ours carried the disarming appearance of meditative, childlike splashing.

Watt seemed to relish bouncing the playfulness of the movements against the challenge of the exercises. She explained a move called the Otter with the precision of personal trainer, instructing us to float flat on our backs and use our oblique muscles to spiral onto our stomachs. After the set-up came the punchline:

"Think otterly thoughts," she deadpanned. "Otterly thoughts."

After the class was over, I felt refreshed and oddly aware of all my leg muscles. A pleasant flow of endorphins indicated that the workout had indeed challenged my body, and I felt the beginnings of an ache in my legs and back that would remind me, for several days after, never to underestimate water aerobics again.

•••••••

Staff writer Molly Reid can be reached at mreid@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3448. Comment and read more at nola.com/health.

Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Health Aerobics Cardio

Friday, June 4, 2010