Zumba
I tried the craze yesterday. Yes, I know it’s been around for years but yesterday was the first day I tried Zumba.
What did I think? It was okay. I think I need to try it again to really know if I like it or not. It was a strange experience. Let me explain.
I walked in to the group exercise room and it was PACKED with women. They were all in groups chatting and I was an outsider-TOTALLY expected and not a big deal. Many of them had scarves on their waists like this:
I went looking for the scarf, thinking that it was something provided by the class (sort of like the bar in Body Pump or the step in Step Class). Apparently, all of those women had bought those scarves and brought them to class.
Class starts and the SUPER in shape instructor tells us that she is a sub but that she is SO excited to be subbing and that she loves Zumba. Zumba changed her life. She started doing Zumba in September 2009 and has lost 70 pounds since then. The first 45 of which came off by January 2010. She did Zumba 3 times a week. Now she loves it so much that she decided to become an instructor. I’m thinking “COOL! That’s awesome!”
We get started and the first 2 songs I have a huge smile on my face. This was FUN!
Then I start noticing that really what I’m doing is really silly dance moves that I do when I’m trying to dance silly. This is a great example of how I felt:
Then I notice that I’m getting really confused and the teacher is pretty confused and the rest of the class is pretty confused. Then I noticed that really the teacher isn’t a very good dancer. In fact, she’s a really BAD dancer. I think that she was a new instructor, she was a little nervous and probably is a GREAT student of Zumba but maybe not the best INSTRUCTOR for Zumba. So yeah….I think it could be really fun and a good-ish workout BUT I need to go the regular instructor and see if my experience is any different.
Spinning and Body Pump are definitely better workouts for me but they are different. I do enjoy dancing so this would be fun to incorporate into my work out from time to time.
I enjoyed how enthusiastic the instructor was. I enjoyed how everyone in the class was enthusiastic and cheered after every song.
I did not enjoy how confusing it was. I did not enjoy doing the sprinkler 
I did not enjoy that the class was only 45 minutes. I also wish that I had gotten a better workout.
The highlight of the class? The 60 year old man in the class (the ONLY man in the class) who had short shorts on and had his own moves which included MANY high kicks. He kept a smile on my face the ENTIRE time.