Well as some of you know I have joined the YWCA's aqua-cise classes to keep this heart healing and building collaterals. The instructor suggested if we found the exercises easy to take off our flotation belts and really tread water as we exercised. So I did...Not to bad I thought. All went fairly well till we had to use the Noodles. Long, skinny floating tubes of foam in case one is unaware of what a Noodle is.
From that point on I felt like I was experiencing training at the Cirque de Soliel... OH MY GOODNESS!
First we had to sit on it like it was a trapeze and kick out our legs. Just keeping my not so miniature butt on this skinny piece of foam was like wrestling a python. Not that I have done much of that recently. There was no controlling this squirmy foam thing....by the time I managed to bring it under submission, the new command was now stand on it...one foot at a time. Can anyone see where this is going??
Now no one was having issues with their Noodle. Perhaps mine was defective. People were moving into each suggested position with serenity and grace. While I was one big churning water mess with an occasionally rocketing Noodle.
The next instruction was to take the Noodle, sit on it and curl the ends under the knees. Now grit and fortitude had kicked in and I was not going to let this piece of foam beat me down. I managed to finally get it tucked behind my knees and sit on it all at the same time. All was good...till I realized I couldn't just sit there in my moment of Noodle victory. I now had to move.
She asked us to do alternate arm lifts and simultaneously kick both legs together in... out.... in....out pointing and flexing our feet at the same time. So I began to lift the arms (which were apparently ballasts for me that maintained my upright position) There I was flipping upside down with no way of stopping myself. Let's just say I was not poetry in motion. I ended up in a position only Esther Willams would have appreciated in her synchronized swimming routine.
So as all my pride sank to the depths of where my head once was. I surfaced and duly noted my recovery was not pretty nor did my "ungrace" escape the notice of others.
Thankfully the instructor had moved on to the cool down exercises.
Mermaid I am Not. Spuds