Glorified Water Aerobics

So I decided that in addition to running, I need to do some sort of of other type of exercise once or twice a week. I saw an ad for a class at the Santa Monica College pool called “Deep Water Workout” on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and thought it could be a good fit because water workouts are easier on your joints, etc after all the running I'm doing during the week.

Now, for some reason, to me, the word deep implies tough. Not sure why. Maybe it is because they offer both a Shallow and a Deep water workout, so I thought- Ok, the deep water workout will be the tougher of the 2- I’ll give that a shot. And because I’m a SM resident, it’s only $4 per class. What a steal! Parking at SMC is notoriously tough, but if you purchase a workout pass (good for $10 classes,) you also get a parking pass. Good deal all the way around.

So Tuesday I race home from work, throw on a bathing suit, and head over to SMC. The class starts at 7pm SHARP, and at about 6:50 I left my flashers on while I parked in a loading zone and ran over to the booth where you buy your ticket to get into the pool. There are several folks in front of me, but I manage to get my pass purchased, my photo taken (for the pass,) and have run back to my car with my new parking pass in my hands by 6:57. I park and scurry on over to the deep end. There are 2 bins that people seem to be grabbing things in as I pass- some sort of water weights and some sort of flotation belt-thingy. So I grab mine and continue on to the pool. As I round the corner, I see that there are already quite a few folks in the pool, and I notice a common denominator among the attendants...let’s just say I am the youngest person in attendance by at least 15 years, and the median age of the class is probably twice my age at the least! And not one single dude in the pool- all ladies.

That being said, I actually did get a decent work out- it was one of those “it is what you make of it” kind of a things. And the ladies were really sweet and helpful- I made a friend with one named Maureen who demonstrated the moves to me because most of those ladies go to class every day, 6 days a week, and have been going probably for years, so they don’t need the demonstrations. It was a bit of a learning curve. But it was pretty fun, and I think I’ll go back. Why not? I paid for 10 classes, after all, and I think I spiced things up quite a bit!