Star-Journbal Editor
Spectacular sunsets like the one dropping behind the wheat stubble west of Hillsboro also are promised to you on the front covers of travel brochures from Key West, to Malibu, and Waikiki.
Inside the travel brochures, you can read about the vacation of your dreams:
Feel warm waters, hear gently lapping waves. Make friends who share your zeal for living.
Enjoy spa facilities and exercise classes taught by an instructor who's always happy to see you.
You'll have so much fun, you'll forget you're exercising!
We guarantee a vacation experience that will relax and restore you, body, mind, and soul.
Millions of women will travel thousands of miles and max out their credit cards this summer in search of vacation moments like these. But a fortunate few don't need to look inside a brochure, or break their budgets. They've found vacation bliss a few blocks from home by taking the water aerobics class at Hillsboro Family Aquatics Center. They're getting all this, and change back from a five-dollar bill.
It's just after eight o'clock in the evening, and eight women from their 20s to 70s are up to their necks in pool paradise, aerobic exercising to the music of the Pointer Sisters, "Tonight's the night we're going to make it happen. Tonight we'll put all other things aside
The smiling exercise instructor behind the Foster Grants is Vicky Mohn who has been leading classes like this one for 30 years, the last 16 years in Hillsboro. Mohn removes her shades as the sun sets over the wheat stubble west of town. It's just as beautiful here as Mallory Square or anywhere.
"We have thoroughly enjoyed these sunsets," she said. "I think the ladies really enjoy the idea of ending the day this way. It's a wonderful way to exercise."
The golden combination of camaraderie, calorie burning, spectacular sunsets, and a brand new aquatics center has made it easy for Mohn to attract and keep women involved in the class, sponsored by the Hillsboro Recreation Commission.
The hour-long "vacations" are held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through July. The equipment needed for water aerobics is limited to a swimsuit and water shoes.
Water barbells are provided for those who want to make the exercises more difficult.
No pre-registration is required. The cost is $4 per session.
The routines are designed to improve the strength, tone, flexibility, and endurance of skeletal muscles by using large movements of the arms and legs against the water's resistance, Mohn said. Kinder and gentler than land-based aerobics, water aerobics is easier to learn and not as hard on the joints, Mohn said. At the same time, water provides more resistance than air. So, in a typical 45-minute water aerobics class, a participant can burn more than 500 calories.
The ripple effect of all this is an enjoyable experience that people want to experience again and again.
"It's an exercise that leaves you feeling refreshed," Mohn said.
A person who hasn't been active often drops out of a traditional exercise program because they can't keep it up, Mohn added.
"They wake up stiff and sore," she said. "The wonderful thing about water aerobics is that you can jump into an hour routine and you'll go home and you'll notice that you've worked because you'll have a tingling sensation in your muscles, but you don't go home stiff and sore."
The reasons why these women participate in the program are as varied as their physical needs and personal tastes. It might be the exercise, but it could be the friendship, or the fresh air.
Perhaps it's a need to get away for just a little while.
To write postcards from the edge, of town.
The rhythmic movements used in water aerobics can have a positive effect on physical as well as mental well-being, which is one reason why Sarah Morey of Hillsboro makes it a priority. She drives a lot in her job with the Farm Service Agency, which produces stress, she said. She makes a special effort to make it to class because, she says, it's her time.
"My husband had to take care of my two boys this evening," she said. "I've done this a couple of times a week for the last three or four weeks. There's a lot of stress relief, a lot of winding down."
In addition to relieving mental and emotional stress, Mohn said water aerobics also reduces the amount of stress that exercise puts on the body. Water adds extra support for participants with back or knee problems. Moving in water allows a participant to land softly so that weight-bearing joints are spared the repeated jolts that come with jogging and exercising on land.
Since water is 12 times more resistant than air, a movement done in the water is 12 times harder than on land. The individual is in control of increasing or decreasing this resistance. The harder you push against the water, the harder the water will push back.
Betty Thomas walks six miles a week, lifts weights, and enjoys Pilates. Water aerobics is both relaxing and effective because she can determine the amount of energy she wants to expend.
"It's so relaxing, the stress is gone," said Thomas, who retired from Tabor College after 19 years as assistant to the college president. "Sometimes I'm a little sore, but that depends on how hard I work."
For Esther Pankratz, coming to water aerobics class is like visiting Siloam Springs. After working on her feet all day for 16 years as a nurse, she developed arthritis in her feet. After discovering the wonders of water exercise four years ago, she's still able to work part-time at Hillsboro Community Medical Center.
"In the water I can step lighter and I still do basically the same things I would if I were doing regular aerobics," Pankratz said. "The next day is good, and I usually sleep well that night."
As the women left the pool and returned to their homes, Mohn was confident they would return.
"I always say the program sells itself," she said. "If you can get them here once, chances are you can keep them coming back."
