Early morning aerobics offer fitness routine alternative

Can’t find time to workout during your workday? Water aerobics instructor Leslie Richards holds a class every week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:45 a.m. solely to fit a working-person’s schedule.

Richards has been an instructor for the water aerobics class at the Cheyenne County Community Center for six years and the class runs all year long, except during the month of December.

Classes are held at the Holiday Inn in Sidney, according to Richards.

The instructor said she dove into the world of water-aerobics when her children were little and she lived in Chappell. Richards said she enrolled in a class there but they used an outdoor pool so the class was only held during the summer months.

She then decided to start going to classes in Sidney that were then held at the Days Inn and has been working out in the water ever since.

Richards said that people of all ages are welcome to come to the classes, although in the past usually ages teen to 60 have attended.

About only two or three people come on the usual to her class but the pool can fit up to six class participants Richards said and she hopes for more to set their alarms earlier and come out.

If a participant doesn’t have a swimsuit, she said that shorts and a tank top are fine as well, and class members usually bring their own towels.

The workout includes in water jumping jacks, twists, jogging in place, lunges, cross-country skiing mimic exercises and crunches.

But this type of workout feels different than if one were to attempt it on land, according to Richards.

“You don’t even feel like you are exercising,” she said. “It’s different - you don’t get tired, you don’t even feel it. You can do all the stuff that you usually do in regular aerobics and you don’t sweat obviously, you’re in water.”

Richards said that this class is not an intense cardio workout, but still works on all areas of the body.

“It’s hard to work out that hard in the water. You don’t get quite the movement you do when working out on land. When you swim, the lap swimming would be more cardio, but that isn’t required. You can do that before or after the class,” she said.

“But we still try and workout the whole body. Lunges if you do them right help with your waist, as well as the twisting. The “Rabbit” is kind of like a crunch and kicking works out leg muscles. The resistance you get from the water is good for it all,” the instructor said.

The class cools down with stretches, she said.

Richards said that one noted deterrent is that people can’t swim.

“People say but I can’t swim. You don’t have to swim. You can swim laps if you want to but you don’t have to,” she said. “None of the water is below five feet deep. You are still standing on the bottom; we don’t even have to get our hair wet.”

The class incorporates pool foam noodles in the workout regularly and the noodles are provided by the center. Richards said that they are used for things like kicking and bicycle exercises.

The instructor said that one huge benefit of working out in the water is how much easier it is on participant’s joints.

“I love doing it; it is so much easier on your joints and your back, and everything. It’s not the biggest weight loss exercise but it’s really good for stretching and keeping you limber. You don’t have any weight. All the buoyancy takes all the weight off,” she said.

Not only is it good for taking weight off of your joints it also can help with rehabilitation processes, she said.

“It’s really good therapy if you’ve had surgery and you need to work on something like your knees or back. I have had disc surgery on my lower back and I used this afterwards and I can feel a lot of the stretches in my lower back,” Richards said. “People that have had knee surgery come in to keep their knees going. It’s very good for a therapeutic thing.”

Richards said that the water is usually 84 degrees and not very cold. Steps lead into the pool for those who might find a ladder entry difficult and she said that there are showers and bathrooms to change at the pool for those rushing off to work.

To join her class it costs community center members nothing while for nonmembers it is $5 a class or a 10-punch pass or monthly pass rate.

“I think that everybody should come out and try it at least once. It’s fun,” Richards said. Richards said that she hopes the new pool being developed will make it possible for a afternoon or evening water aerobics class in the future.