Aquatic exercise equipment gets serious.(Newsroom)

Once upon a time a group of little old ladies with shower caps on their heads and empty milk cartons in their grasp eased into the water and created a new wave of exercise.

Today, the shower caps may remain, but the milk cartons have evolved from shapely hand equipment to sleek, stainless steel machines. And aquatic exercisers aren't just old women anymore--they're men, and pregnant women, and former runners whose knees could no longer handle the pavement, as well as the everyday exercise-seeker.

"Water aerobics is not thought of as just for wimps," said Jim Seeley, a certified aquatic exercise instructor for the Fairfax County Park Authority in Fairfax County, Va. "It's a serious exercise modality."

Just as the exercise has gotten serious, so has the equipment.

More than just polystyrene barbells bobbing tip and down in the pool and colorful noodles spread atop the water like confetti, different exercise equipment now has modernized, modified, contoured and reshaped to fit the aquatic environment.

Today's "free-weight" polystyrene dumbbells are created with new shapes and contours in the handles, making them easier to grasp for people with different-sized hands, including children.

Those colorful "noodles," or long polystyrene tubes (also called "woggles" in Australia and "logs" in other places), have been streamlined for different exercise purposes. They vary in thickness and color, depending on whether they're used for water yoga or water aerobics.