Wednesday, October 8
Being a little apprehensive of attending this new Zumba class, particularly after A’s tirades from last week, even though I had a free guest class card, it was difficult to motivate myself to put the workout gear together and go. As I approached the club entrance, I hesitated and started to turn around. I really did not want to encounter A and her embarrassing comments again. I stopped, looked around, and not seeing hide nor hair of her, tentatively entered, handing my readied card to the attendant. While she hemmed and hawed as to whether the card allowed me to attend the new Zumba class while seeking advice from others around her, and before I was able to become uncomfortable, Nick appeared out of seemingly nowhere, enthusiastically welcomed me, and pronounced very authoritively that I was to attend this Zumba class. This made me feel very special, and probably set the mood for the ensuing class. An excellent PR man.
As the Kickoff session for this club…..a team of 4 instructors on the stage, each to take control of a different aspect of this new ‘craze’ sweeping the nation. First given was a brief introduction as to ‘Zumba’s’ origins…basically it is an improvision by an fitness instruction who ‘forgot his track music’ for his class, and ‘made do’ with dance moves to some Latin-music tapes he had retrieved from his car.
Perhaps because this was a new class to the fitness club, and also new to the instructors, they spent more time on demo moves ensuring the overflowing class ‘got it’, before moving on to the next segment. This allowed more of us to become comfortable with the moves before having to do them ‘double time’, or ‘real time’ as in a club atmosphere.
Straight for an hour, with few quick breaks (for a needed gulp of water and to wipe off streaming sweat), the class was over before you knew it! Very lively, with each instructor dancing to their ‘own beat’ (fitness level)– which I found very encouraging in that some of the more aerobic steps I am unable to do. But this time I did not feel awkward, because not all the ‘team’ was doing the more energetic steps either, so I felt that I fit in just fine this time. Basic moves, which were well demonstrated, everyone mastered fairly easily. So this really was like being on a dance floor with everyone doing the same ‘dance’, but with different flourishes. Definitely a party atmosphere as touted, with everyone having a lot of fun complete with periodic catcalls and yelps of delight.
From a fitness workout standpoint, I worked up more of a sweat in this class than in any of the other classes I have attended to date. But I was not winded, nor red-faced as I have been in some of the other classes where I also worked hard. And I was one pound lighter on the scale afterwards!
For a class that was very hard to motivate myself to get up and attend after a 5-day layoff, it is one that I would look forward to participating in 2 to 3 times a week! Especially if it is lead by a ‘team’ of instructors varying the style and fitness level moves to better accommodate all of us, making the ‘party’ less intimidating and much more fun overall.
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Tags: dance craze, dance exercise, latin dance exercise, latin-music dance fitness, party dance fitness, Zumba