While pop music fills the air with sound waves, roughly a dozen students and their instructor sent waves of their own rippling across the surface of the pool.

Using water noodles and foam barbells to provide resistance, the water aerobics class meets Monday through Thursday from 6-7 p.m. at the Hart Swimming Pool to perform non-impact exercises.

What makes this type of exercising special may seem obvious at first — the water. Beneath the surface, though, there’s more.

Besides helping participants stay cooler, the water plays a couple of important roles.

The first is that, compared to traditional exercises like running or weight training, water aerobics drastically reduce stress and impact on participants’ joints. It still provides enough resistance to work and tone muscles, said class instructor Kirsten Mason.

Dr. Gary Sena of Community Care in Rexburg enthusiastically supports water aerobics.

“There’s a lot of good benefits for rehabilitating or pregnant people …it takes so much weight off so many parts of the body,” Sena said.

Alissa Morris, a senior from Thousand Elks, Calif., used to teach normal aerobics classes; then she found out she was pregnant.

She now participates regularly in water aerobics both for the baby’s sake and her own. Water aerobics keep her heart rate at a level safe for the baby, and “I like the fact that you’re not sore afterwards,” Morris said.