Aerobics Guidelines

I feel compelled to respond to “New Aerobics Guidelines Announced by Women’s Health Care Specialists” (by Allan Parachini, May 6). I own my own fitness consulting company, AMYZING FITNESS, and have been teaching aerobics in the public and private sectors for six years. I feel the need to speak for the people in my classes (and myself) who have taken classes for three, four, even five years and have never fallen into the category of “injury-plagued aerobics student.”

Quite to the contrary, the greater majority have enjoyed the benefits of enhanced cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, improved strength and tone, increased flexibility and overall positive polishing of their own self- and body images.

Why don’t the rewards of a healthy life style make the headlines? It’s tough to quantify all the patients the podiatrists and orthopedists never see, the ones whose annual physicals yield improved marks every year.

I would like to believe that we can each choose to learn the basics of form, posture and good technique that will allow us each to take responsibility for our own bodies (and learn to slow down or stop if need be). There is so much good information available, I hope that we can evolve out of the darkness of blindly following orders that do not feel appropriate for ourselves. If we would only listen, our bodies will feed back “everything we’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask.”

AMY NELSON

Los Angeles