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News and knees
Apr. 27th, 2025 05:45 amI can finally announce our big change to the Everett water fitness lineup publicly! On Tuesday, May 6th, I'll teach our new deep water fitness class for the first time, and I'm so excited to do it.
For deep water classes, participants strap on a flotation belt so they can float effortlessly in water that's deep enough that their feet won't touch the bottom. That means I'll be off in a different corner of the natatorium by the platforms swimmers dive off of at the start of a race. In a normal class, I stand on the pool deck and participants stand in the water, which means I can demonstrate all the moves with nothing more than a stool. Over in the deep pool, they'll all be floating, but I can't. Unfortunately! So for that class, I'll put on the headset microphone so I can overcome the limitations of dry land with descriptions.
This helps overcome one of the shortcomings of my regular class, which is that I don't normally do a lot of core strength exercises. Instructors who are in the pool with the participants often do a lot of crunches and shooter moves with them, but I discovered right away when I started teaching that nobody really wanted to watch me try to do crunches on a stool while they did them in the water. I never worried about it too much since most people work with several instructors each week and get a variety of workouts. And I ask for feedback constantly and get lots of great comments directly and also via the branch.
But with this new class, I can devote a full 15 minutes each to aerobics, dumbbell training, and core strength! Another big change is the music. Since I'll be talking a lot, I decided to go with electronic music with fewer lyrics. And I won't be changing the playlist every week like I do in my regular class. It just doesn't make much sense to narrow down the scope of what I'm playing and then try to find tons of music within those genres. Check out the first playlist.
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Yesterday I picked up Melissa and Jason at their house to give them a ride to the Lynnwood Transit Center so they could take the light rail to the airport. When light rail service to the airport launched, it originated in the transit tunnel in Seattle and ended at the airport. They've only expanded one more stop south of the airport, but it comes all the way up to Lynnwood, which is one city south of Everett. Pretty neat! There's an additional line in Redmond and Bellevue that I just learned about, I'm definitely curious how busy it is and who uses it. The orignal line will eventually come all the way to Everett, but these things take time.
Anyway, Melissa and Jason decided to take the light rail rather than drive and pay to park, which I think is great. They asked for a ride since there's no telling whether any Ubers will be available when you open the app at 4:30 am. I get up early anyway and they gave me enough money to fill up my tank and have some left over, so it's a win for everyone involved. I mainly mentioned it because when I pulled out the dog seatbelts and wiped the back seat, I leaned wrong and nearly hurt my right knee, which isn't even the knee I've had a problem with!
After I got back and had some breakfast, I decided to go for a walk. My first walk in ages because before I hurt my knee I decided I wasn't really into inclement weather walking any more. Though I forgot to turn my app on, I know the walk was about 3.5 miles. There was just a little soreness after and when I woke up this morning, I couldn't even tell I'd gone for a long walk yesterday. That's fantastic progress.
For deep water classes, participants strap on a flotation belt so they can float effortlessly in water that's deep enough that their feet won't touch the bottom. That means I'll be off in a different corner of the natatorium by the platforms swimmers dive off of at the start of a race. In a normal class, I stand on the pool deck and participants stand in the water, which means I can demonstrate all the moves with nothing more than a stool. Over in the deep pool, they'll all be floating, but I can't. Unfortunately! So for that class, I'll put on the headset microphone so I can overcome the limitations of dry land with descriptions.
This helps overcome one of the shortcomings of my regular class, which is that I don't normally do a lot of core strength exercises. Instructors who are in the pool with the participants often do a lot of crunches and shooter moves with them, but I discovered right away when I started teaching that nobody really wanted to watch me try to do crunches on a stool while they did them in the water. I never worried about it too much since most people work with several instructors each week and get a variety of workouts. And I ask for feedback constantly and get lots of great comments directly and also via the branch.
But with this new class, I can devote a full 15 minutes each to aerobics, dumbbell training, and core strength! Another big change is the music. Since I'll be talking a lot, I decided to go with electronic music with fewer lyrics. And I won't be changing the playlist every week like I do in my regular class. It just doesn't make much sense to narrow down the scope of what I'm playing and then try to find tons of music within those genres. Check out the first playlist.
------
Yesterday I picked up Melissa and Jason at their house to give them a ride to the Lynnwood Transit Center so they could take the light rail to the airport. When light rail service to the airport launched, it originated in the transit tunnel in Seattle and ended at the airport. They've only expanded one more stop south of the airport, but it comes all the way up to Lynnwood, which is one city south of Everett. Pretty neat! There's an additional line in Redmond and Bellevue that I just learned about, I'm definitely curious how busy it is and who uses it. The orignal line will eventually come all the way to Everett, but these things take time.
Anyway, Melissa and Jason decided to take the light rail rather than drive and pay to park, which I think is great. They asked for a ride since there's no telling whether any Ubers will be available when you open the app at 4:30 am. I get up early anyway and they gave me enough money to fill up my tank and have some left over, so it's a win for everyone involved. I mainly mentioned it because when I pulled out the dog seatbelts and wiped the back seat, I leaned wrong and nearly hurt my right knee, which isn't even the knee I've had a problem with!
After I got back and had some breakfast, I decided to go for a walk. My first walk in ages because before I hurt my knee I decided I wasn't really into inclement weather walking any more. Though I forgot to turn my app on, I know the walk was about 3.5 miles. There was just a little soreness after and when I woke up this morning, I couldn't even tell I'd gone for a long walk yesterday. That's fantastic progress.
