Last night I decided to try out an aquacise class. We have a real nice facility in the next town over that my family belongs to, and it includes a gym and swimming pools. I also take yoga there, which I’ll write about another time. I have read that exercising in the water is good for people with fibromyalgia, and since classes are included in my monthly fee at the gym I made up my mind to go.
At first I was afraid I was the only one there, as the four or five other participants showed up a little late, a little later, and the last one a lot later. It didn’t seem to matter; everyone was welcomed enthusiastically at whatever time they managed to arrive. Most had swim shoes or swim sneakers as well as webbed gloves. They had some gloves I was able to borrow, and the instructor suggested I try the class a few times before investing in the shoes.
One of the women was talking about having had botox in her neck for her fibromyalgia. Has anyone heard of that before? I piped right up and said that I, too, have fibromyalgia. The instructor had invited me to come to a Thursday night class in the deep pool, but after she learned that I have fibro she suddenly uninvited me. She said the deep pool is cold water and that it wouldn’t be good for me after all.
We did a lot of stuff and it was a harder workout than I anticipated, although I managed to keep up with everyone and not feel completely out of my league. We seemed to work on the abdominal muscles almost the entire hour, and of course we did a lot of work with our arms. We used the noodles in different ways—straddling them and keeping our legs out 90 degrees in front of us while doing breast stroke one way and reversing it coming back, wrapping it around our backs and sitting back in the water with knees bent as though sitting in a chair then opening and closing the legs for more abdominal workouts. We bent the noodle into pretzels and then used them as resistance under the water to push up and down with our arms.
The end of class felt nice, stretching out a little bit to finish up. My neck was a little sore and stiff from holding it up, but once my abs get stronger I think that will improve. I went home feeling pretty good about myself. There’s another class with a different instructor on Saturday morning at 8:15 and I think I’ll try it out.
At about 11:00 PM (class was from 6:00-7:00) my arms were in such pain I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. At midnight I took a hot bath to try to relieve the stress, but maybe that isn’t a good thing to do…? When I was younger I used to dance a lot, and I know that hot baths always soothed sore muscles for me then. At 1:00 AM I finally took my Gabapentin which I had stopped taking because I was blaming it for causing me to gain weight. At 2:00 AM I took an Aleve, too. The last I checked the time before falling asleep was 2:30 AM, and when I woke up in the morning my arms felt much better.
I was supposed to go into the office to work today, but instead decided to make it one of my work from home days. I can work from home three days a week, and it’s wonderful to have that flexibility. Besides, it rained all day and I was so tired. I napped during my lunch hour, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that in the office!
Tonight I’m going to my usual Wednesday night yoga from 7:30-8:45. It’s a great class at a good speed. The instructor knows I have issues with my lower back and that I have fibro, so if she goes into something too advanced I feel fine curtailing my activities and sinking back into a nice child’s pose or cobbler’s pose to rest. But yoga is another post. Maybe Saturday I won’t use the gloves at aquacise…I’m thinking the resistance they created was more than my puny arms can handle right at first. But I’m excited about the possibilities of water exercise, because the class is offered Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings from 6:00-7:00, as well as Saturday mornings. I’ll try to go to yoga Wed. and Sunday and do aquacise two times a week, too.
