Huzzah! Had my blood pressure checked on Friday. It’s back down to 110/62, my normal level.
Life is calming down, and I love it. I made it to all my karate classes last week, and though I was sore from all the exercise, it still felt good to get back to the routine. I also finally made it back to the Y for water aerobics. Normally I do shallow water aerobics on Fridays, but there have been some schedule changes and now on Fridays they’re doing a deep water aerobics class. I’d never done that before and wasn’t sure I’d care for it. The only deep water classes I’d seen had been led by an instructor who took things very slowly, very casually. It looked more like people bobbing about aimlessly in the deep end of the pool than actual exercise.
Not this past Friday’s class though! The instructor who led the class is someone I’ve worked out with before. She’s very energetic, to say the least, and she got everybody into the pool and moving fast. We were pumping our arms and kicking our legs so hard the pool looked like it was boiling. I was already feeling tired half-way through the class and by the end, it felt as though my bones had been melted right out of my body. Getting out of the pool after an hour of kicking and paddling and treading water was probably the hardest thing I’d done all week. I almost thought the life guard was going to have to haul out winch and pull me out of the pool, then carry me to the hot tub and dump me in!
Needless to say, after a workout like that, I will be going back for more deep water aerobics. I need that kind of intense exercise. I need an activity that will work every muscle in my body. With deep water aerobics, I’m spending as much energy just trying to stay upright in the pool as I am doing the actual exercises, so my core muscles are getting a solid workout along with my arms and legs.
On Monday, I’ll go back for shallow water aerobics, since I’ve got a friend who expressed an interest in attending then. I’ll save Wednesdays for karate practice, which will probably work better since that will be between days I do karate class. In any event, I have a feeling I’m going to be very buff after a few weeks of this schedule. Or very tired. Or maybe both. That’s not a bad thing though.
Muscle mass is good for losing weight, in the long run. More hungry cells needing calories.
Although its hard, water aerobics sounds like fun.
Paul,
It is a lot of fun, and easy on my knees which is really important to me. My knees take a lot of beating from other high impact activities, like karate. The water aerobics lets me strengthen the leg muscles that support my knees without doing further harm!
Plus I just really like to splash around in the pool ;D