Fitness blog: Entry 7 Aqua fit

I was a little apprehensive about Aqua fit. I have never done anything like it before and I imagined the class would be full of old women, so I decided to bring an experienced friend along to show me the ropes.

When I was little I used to hate swimming. I remember my mum driving me to my swimming lessons at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood and I think I used to cry the whole way there and begged her to take me home.

I have got over that fear now, but whenever I walk into public swimming pools it seems to come rushing back, so when I walked into the Highgrove pool I did start to feel a little nervous. I think it's that overpowering smell of chlorine.

I'm so glad I had someone with me!

We spotted a group of women sitting on the side of the pool and after checking we were in the right place we sat down and waited. Oh, I forgot to mention, I also hate swimming costumes. The only time I ever go swimming is on holidays and I always wear bikinis. Therefore, I had to borrow one of my mum's costumes that, by the looks of it, was bought back in the dark ages. Great start eh?

The instructor came along and a group of about 15 women all piled in to the shallow end of the pool. We did quite a few exercises to warm up. You forget just how hard it is to do perfectly normal and easy exercises in water. Firstly, it's hard to stand still because of all the waves everyone else is making and, secondly, because the water is pushing against you, you feel about three times your actual weight.

We then got given underwater dumbbells. This made the exercises even harder because we had to push against the water with a bigger surface area, continuously. It killed my triceps.

After a few exercises with those, we were given those foam tubes that help you float. We used them to do similar exercises to the first part of the class, and then finally some stretching off.

The class was only 45 minutes so I wouldn't say it was hard work. My triceps and quadriceps did take a bit of a beating though, but I can safely say I wasn't aching the next day.

It was a very fun class, full of laughs, and my friend seemed to enjoy it. However, I doubt I will go back because it's just not really challenging enough for me and I don't think I got that much out of it. It also means I don't have to wear a swimming costume again!

My next challenge is Energy kick at Queensmead.