This is a story about my hunt for the ultimate winter exercise class.

Why? Well, the temperature had dropped. Winter had well and truly set in here in Melbourne. The only thing I could brainstorm to get myself fit and keep myself dry? Some form of indoor exercise class.

Inspired by a magazine feature on the art of aerial silks, I signed up for an introductory offer at a small Melbourne studio and found myself a week later in my first ‘fly gym’ class.

A fancy name for aerial yoga, the class was held in a pink lit up studio with foam mat floors and sling hammocks hanging from the ceiling.

It was held by an ex-dancer who made everything look easy and graceful. But it wasn’t — easy, that is. Or graceful. Let’s just say, I felt like the most inflexible person on the planet. Or at least in that pink lit up aerial studio.

With my limbs aching the next day and my confidence shot, I decided to give it another go. So I went to a beginner aerial silks open day at the same studio.

If you don’t know, aerial silks is where two wide sashes of fabric hang from the ceiling and you learn how to wrap the fabric around yourself in different ways to do tricks. Basically, it’s like circus classes for beginners.

Sounds fun, right?

The good news was that everyone was at beginner level on that open day. The bad news? Well, for a start — it hurt. The silk wrapped around your foot in a ‘foot lock’ position put all your weight onto your one foot. And the silk fabric was wrapped tight!

Then there was the trust factor. In order to actually do the exercises you needed to trust yourself enough to do them. I learnt pretty quickly that I had an issue with trust.

I decided the aerial silks weren’t for me, but with time still left to use my intro pass, I went to a stretch technique class. Sounds tame enough, right? Well, it wasn’t learning how to wrap your body in fabric sashes, but it was about stretching in time to music, and yes, I think you guessed it — I realised I wasn’t very ‘good’ at that either.

Lying on my yoga mat looking up a the pink lights I decided that I’d given the aerial silk thing enough of a try.

So I moved on. And a week later I found myself in a spin class. Except, it wasn’t just any spin class. Of course, I had to try the newest craze — rhythm based spin classes held in a dark room that was painted black and music so loud and pumping you could mistake it for a nightclub.

Except, it wasn’t a nightclub. It was a hot and sweaty spin studio way too early on a Sunday morning. I made it through the class, but decided I wouldn’t be back, despite them spelling my name right on my locker.

Legs like jelly, I stumbled out of the spin studio, went home and continued googling. I knew there had to be an exercise class I enjoyed — somewhere. I just needed to find it.

How could I give up now? I was already so invested in my search.

The good news is that today I think I finally found it.

I booked a casual HIIT aqua aerobics class for a Sunday morning (again, way too early), and if I backed out I would forfeit my money. So I went.

I love anything to do with water, and moving around doing kicks and jumps and punches in the water was fun. It didn’t take a lot of coordination, I didn’t feel out of my depth (figuratively and literally) and I realised I was actually good at it.

So there you go. That’s my story of hunting for the perfect winter exercise class. There must be something about the number 3. I mean, Goldilocks and all? Who knows? But for now, you can find me in the pool where I belong.