It's midday, and Linda Clark is doing water aerobics, paddling her arms and legs in a heated therapeutic pool at the Community YMCA on Maple Avenue. The bubbles from the pool ease the pain in her back, says Clark, who was hurt in a recent car accident. A computer assistant who works in the borough, she finds time to steal away for therapy during her lunch break.
Members have their choice of a range of activities from basketball to water aerobics.
When she first started working out, she says, she could only keep the dumbbells moving for five minutes. Now she has worked her way up to a quarter of an hour of continuous motion. Downstairs in the weight room, Roland Eckstein bench-presses about 120 pounds of free weights, then lets out a sigh, as sweat drips off the side of his face. Eckstein, a Middletown resident who works in Red Bank as a television marketing representative, says he exercises to keep up with his four children. It also helps me blow off some steam.