Y-M-C-A

No, I’m not talking about the Village People…

We recently received an offer for a free three-day pass at the YMCA so Monday morning Mike and I rolled outta bed and went to the Y. For a water exercise class! Well, at Northshore YMCA they call it Shallow Water Aerobics and it runs from 9-10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and from 8-9am on Saturday.

It was our first visit to the local Y and it was pretty impressive with the weight room and all the cardio equipment. But we were interested in the pool. And it was nice. We have gone to other water exercise classes over the years and I must say I was surprised at the large number of people that turned out for this class – and more than one man was in the pool which is kind of unusual.

Our leader began by yelling out moves from up on the deck and soon enough she joined us in the water. Unfortunately, she had a problem with her iPod and during the whole class she stressed about not having music. The water was fairly warm, but not so much that it got uncomfortable. As with all exercise classes, you can work as hard as you want and Mike and I gave it our all. It was a little hard to understand our leader at times so we stayed close to her so at least we could see her moves in the water.

We noticed that a large group of people in the deep end of the pool weren’t paying attention and doing the exercises. Mike soon found out those people are referred to as “floaters” – they get in the pool, but they spend the hour socializing, not exercising…hahahaha…they probably tell their spouses that they’re headed to the pool for their exercise class – when they actually mean “exercising their mouths” class.

Before we knew it - it was 10:00 and we were done. The class was mostly calisthenics, not the complex dance moves I'm used to in water exercise. Nevertheless, it felt very good to stretch and bend in the warm water. We swam for just a bit and then headed for the whirlpool. Now that was hot! And the jets were strong. We relaxed there with some of the women from the class and then we were off to the showers. It was a great visit to the Y and we plan to go to the class again on Friday.