Pool Walking
Yes, that’s what the title says – pool walking. Have you heard about this? If you haven’t, I suggest you pay close attention. It’s the latest thing, relatively speaking. In other words, someone thought this up not too long ago, I actually have no idea when, and it caught on like wildfire. If you’re not familiar with the concept, I’ll tell you how it works. You get into a pool and stand in water that’s waist deep or, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, chest deep. Then you start walking. The idea behind it is this – the water resistance will supposedly enable you to both tone your muscles and give you a great cardiovascular workout. You’ll need to do this for at least 30 minutes to get the full benefit.
I knew none of this until the first day I tried it. I had decided that a little swimming might be good for me, so I made my way to a nearby recreation center that housed a large indoor pool. I went straight into the dressing room, threw on a bathing suit, and walked out into the pool area. I was met with a sight that was totally unexpected. I had thought that I would find a pool filled with people hard at work swimming laps from one end to the other. Instead, what I found was exactly 2 people swimming laps at the far end. Everybody else was at the other end in water up to their waists walking back and forth at what looked like a very casual pace.
I was at first confused by this until it dawned on me that it was their way of getting some exercise. I thought it looked a little silly, so I went to the far end to do some laps. By the time I had completed just one full lap, my heart was pounding so hard that I thought I might be on the verge of a myocardial infarction. That’s a heart attack. With great difficulty, I hoisted myself out of the pool and, breathing hard, collapsed into a chair and took a few minutes to recover. I was gravely out of shape. Time to head for the water walking end of the pool.
I got back in and began walking. I was OK at first, but after about 10 minutes I was getting a little bored. After about 20 minutes, it was becoming mind-numbingly boring. At the end of 30 minutes, I was half out of my mind with boredom. This was clearly a problem.
I should say at this point that if it it sounds like I’m mocking this form of exercise, I’m absolutely not. I’m sure that there are many people pool walking on a regular basis and benefiting greatly from it, so please don’t let me discourage you if you’re already doing it or if you’re thinking about giving it a try. I’m actually going to give it another go myself. I will, however, be sure to bring along a friend to talk to so that the time will go by a little faster, or maybe I’ll might bring some sort of waterproof electronic device that will enable me to listen to music or a podcast or something else that’s entertaining. Otherwise, if it’s possible to actually die of boredom, I might not survive it.