SURVIVAL OF THE FITNESS - The Zen of Water

Shell Tail Labs

• Mermaid Shelly sells everything imaginable for mers, including high-end custom tails • Let your vision become reality with a custom order mermaid tail. For the serious mermaid enthusiast, collector or those wanting to live their mermaid dreams...

• $450-1400

Siren Mermaid Tails

• Ella tail. Devil horned fluke. Dorsal fin on back and adjustable waist band. Includes Finis mermaid fin • Kids

• $140

Tails 4 U (email: MermaidAubery@gmail.com) • Not sure you can afford to buy a tail? Live outside the US? For $30 I will give you complete instructions on how to make your own basic tail. Want something more complicated? I can even do custom designs for you to sew!

• $140

The 2 Tails

• Shop in Mermaid Tails, to custom design your own tail with our wide selection of colors, sizes and materials. Find a mermaid top for your tail or a new bathing suit in Swimsuits. Browse through our Mermaid Accessories to find bracelets, necklaces and other fashion pieces exclusive to the 2Tails. • Kids & adults

• $90-150

Te Zen of Water Dancingby Joy de Vivre

Belly dancers and aqua aerobics enthusiasts tend to gush about the natural, soothing and non-jarring health benefits of their chosen mode of minimalimpact movement.

A far cry from entertainment created for male seduction and pleasure, middle eastern dance has its root in preparation of the female form for childbirth. Similarly, Tahitian and Maori dance practitioners have long advocated flowing circular movements of the hips as an aid in pregnancy, encouraging women to learn to move with their contractions instead of against them. The muscle strengthening that takes place helps in carrying the baby, protecting the back with increased abdominal strength. Posture and core stability are improved.

Water-based exercise too offers a non-jarring, nil-impact workout with fluid movements that strengthen and balance. It puts very little stress on weight-bearing joints and muscles, in great part, because of the fact that water buoyancy reduces a person's weight by up to 90 percent. The water serves as a natural form of resistance, keeping the possibility of injury to a minimum. Even better, exercising in water affords 12 times the resistance of working out 'against' air. This increases metabolism, which is invaluable in weight management.

Water Dance. Photo by Mlka Milkina

None of this comes as any sort of surprise to merwomen. Living in the water and

undulating as a means of propulsion, mers know the feel and value of using their core muscles and arms in a liquid environment. Not only is it an efficient