True Stories: Aerobic Class
When Nona Black first set foot in an aerobics class five years ago, she never dreamed that she would end up teaching it. When her husband gave her a membership to the club where she now teaches, she weighed 220 pounds and was too Intimidated by the fitness instructors to go very often. “Aerobics was just too hard, too choreographed, too much,” she says.
Then she enlisted a friend to go with her, which helped her attendance. She also got a “new attitude.” She decided that “just because the instructor was yelling ‘push it!’ didn’t mean I had to.” Black attended regularly and modified the moves that she found too difficult. “Lo and behold, I lost the weight,” she says. After two years, one of the aerobics coordinators asked her if she would like to teach. Black was astonished. “I almost fell over in shock. Me? An instructor? One of those coordinated, energized, remember-everything people? I was flattered, scared, and excited.”
Since becoming certified as an aerobics instructor, Black has been teaching step classes, high- and low-impact floor aerobics, aqua aerobics, cardiovascular conditioning classes, and abdominal classes. “I love the people,” she says. “I especially love helping people who are heavy.”