Aqua Aerobics: Get The Whole Family Involved
Remember how Tom Sawyer got the other kids to paint the fence for him? He acted so absorbed in what he was doing that they wanted in on the action. Well, that’s how I got my family involved in aqua aerobics. I didn’t order my boys to work out with me, I just let them get intrigued. My husband was more of a challenge.
Just doing my routine. I spend a lot of time in our back yard family pool working out. I was doing one of my favorite exercises, where I step with high knees to work my legs. I asked the boys to run around me in the water, to create a current. It would help challenge my core while I was doing the workout. They loved it – they ran and laughed and swam around me, and I got extra work out of the exercise. Here are some great resources with more ideas for water exercise:
•Water Aerobics and Water Fitness Exercises
•My Ultimate Guide To Aqua Aerobics
•7 Water Exercise Routines
Treading water. Now I knew the boys were interested in what I was doing. The next time I started to work out in the water, they were playing Marco Polo with a couple of their friends. I went to the deep end of the pool and began to tread water, which is a great cardio workout. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by boys treading water (they all know how to swim) to see who could stay the longest. I finished my exercise and they were still going, and I had to be the judge to announce the winner.
Not enough workout for me. My husband is a competitive runner, and though he never said anything, I got the sense he didn’t think water workouts were a strong enough exercise option for him. One day I was loading the boys into the car, and he asked where we were going. I told him we were headed to the indoor pool at the community center, to go aqua jogging. It was summer, too hot to do anything outside, but the lap lanes were open. The boys had now gotten into pool jogging. He got a puzzled look on his face, then asked if he could go. I told him sure, he was welcome to join us. I shared a lane with my younger son, and my husband shared a lane with my other son. I had told my husband to wear some old sneakers, because the bottom of the pool can be rough. He said he might run for a couple of miles in the water. I just smiled and nodded.
Hey, this is work! My boys and I knew the routine, so when we got to the pool, we took off down a lap lane, walking up and down in a good running posture. Because of the resistance provided by the water, you have to lean a little to push yourself along. There is a great meditative effect with this work, because you’re surrounded by water and feel really light because of buoyancy. There’s not a whole lot of sound – just the gentle splashing of swimmers. The boys and I were jogging along when my husband turned to me at the end of a lane and said “Hey, this is a pretty good workout!” I smiled and nodded in agreement. He stopped much sooner than the couple of miles he was going to knock out, and by the end, he was pretty tired and had a whole new appreciation for aqua aerobics.
If I had suggested water workouts, my family would have turned up their noses. But that’s why Tom Sawyer got the fence painted for him – once they made it their own idea, my family loved aqua aerobics.
Kaitlin Gardner started AnApplePerDay.com to further her passion for a family friendly, green living lifestyle. She is married to her college sweetheart and lives in Pennsylvania. She and her husband enjoy going for long hikes, to get out and enjoy nature. She is working on her first book about ways to live an eco-friendly, healthy, natural life.
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