Aqua fitness is not necessary good for one's health

Picked up a sheet of paper dropped off at the front door announcing that aqua fitness is offered once again in the pool in the first week in June. At the top of the sheet is a photo of the group of participants, hands in air and big smiles on their faces. At least they resemble smiles. Actually, they look like they're having a good time but this could be because the session is over. Ask me about it - I know - having taken it two summers ago with Ms Aqua Fitness Cruella Deville. That's not her real name, obviously, but let's just say that she is a very avid, enthusiastic instructor who really enjoys barking out orders and leave it at that. Her workout includes the use of small weights on feet and hands plus other torturous twists, bends and jerks but for me it's either one or the other and not both, or pain is the result and I'm not into pain. Ms AQdeV, however, could be.

The pool is heated to a temperature ranging anywhere from 79-85 degrees fahrenheit, with emphasis on the higher end numbers. It all depends on whether people using the pool find the water on the coolish side and how many complaints are registered. It could be 95 degrees air tempeature in a blazing sun with no wind but the pool must be above 80 degrees or people complain. But I digress.


The aqua fitness participants seem to enjoy MAQdeV commands and she does count well in two languages, french and english. There is a lot of social chat and interaction between and during the actual exercising focusing on the temperature of the water, always good for a 10 minute opener to where people vacationed during the winter. Perhaps it's a means in which to ignore the pain. Who knows. The icing on the proverbial cake for me was working out in the rain. One would assume that the lessons would be cancelled in heavy rain but this wasn't a good enough reason to cancel. Twice I showed up for aqua under grey, threatening skies in the hope that the sun would emerge, only to have the sky open up with the end result being a torrential downpour. Even more dumb is that five of us stayed and exercised for the entire hour, even though we couldn't see MAQdeV's face. In retrospect, it was probably a blessing.

So I'm passing on her offer but the memory of our encounter remains whenever I hear those infamous words, "five...four...three...two...one." The pain has gone but the memory lingers on.