Dance as exercise

 

A couple of weeks ago, my mom asked me if I wanted to join a Zumba class with her. My reaction was, “What the hell is that?” My mom refused to tell me, saying that I would have to wait and find out. I needed to start exercising, because I may be skinny now, but that would change soon enough. But for me, working out is just boring. So I went online and did a little research before throwing myself into it.  In a nutshell, Zumba is a mixture of Latin dance and those exercise moves that we all hate so much such as lunges, ect. “The Zumba program fuses hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a one-of-a-kind fitness program that will blow you away” (http://www.zumba.com/us/about /)  

 So I decided to give it a shot. After all, who was it hurting? They had classes down at our naval base for only $ 3.50 a class, so my mom and I headed down there to try it out. The gym was filled with a mixture of people, both people who were experienced, and those who barely had any experience with exercise, let alone Zumba. There were people from my age all the way into their sixties. And each one of the people there was able to participate, because each move was easily adjustable.

 Before each song, the instructor taught us each of the moves that we would be performing, and none of them were that hard. And if you couldn’t do a certain move, it was easily adjustable to your fitness level, which was nice. There was a wide range of movements, from belly dancing moves such as shimmying to lunges and even some ballroom dance moves. This made it a fun and very interesting performance. All the moves flowed together and didn’t look out of place.

 From the beginning of the class, I could tell I was going to have fun. Everyone in the room was smiling and laughing, and the instructor greeted us with a smile. As we began, everyone immediately jumped into it and started enjoying themselves, and I did, too. I didn’t feel like I was working out. At the end, I told my mom I was going to do it again, every week. And not because I felt I had to. But because I wanted to. It was a very enjoyable experience, and I know for a fact that I am not the only one who thought so. Everyone in the room looked like they were having fun, which made for an overall positive environment.

 I would definitely recommend Zumba to anyone who is looking for a fun way to lose weight and get in shape. It is easy to follow, and very fun. You’ll want to keep doing it, and won’t have to force yourself to go to the classes. I will definitely be keeping it up, and hopefully I can convince others to do the same.