Sunday, August 9, 2009

Zumba!!!!!!!!!!!

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, this past week, I decided to branch out of my gym and kickboxing rut and try something new. For the past couple of years, every other month, I would go to the website of a local Dallas dance/pilates studio (www.movestudio.com) and browse through their list of classes thinking I would some day join. Well, last week, I did that and noticed that they had a one week trial for unlimted classes at $15 for the whole week and icing on cake, they also had a Zumba class. Now I'd tried Zumba once before but did not particularly enjoy it. It was held in a small martial arts gym with navy blue carpets in the exercise room. Seriously, who exercises on carpet? It lacked a lot of energy and so while I got a good workout, I wasn't particularly interested in going back.

Well, when I saw this studio had a Zumba class, I decided to check it out. If you haven't already heard about Zumba, it's a cardio dance routine that combines latin, reggae, hip hop, etc dance with fun, funky music. Check out this link for an example:



SO, last Sunday, I signed up for the one week trial and went to the studio. It was a calm, quiet, really zen studio which I immediately felt comfy in. This particular zumba class was held by a first time teacher. She said it would be a non-verbal class so we basically had to follow her cues which took some getting used to, particularly since she was sometimes off beat and my body was trying to do its own thing, but overall, I got an awesome workout and left sweaty and sore.

On Tuesday, I tried another Zumba class held by another instructor with a coworker I convinced to join me. That was mega fun. The music was great, she threw in some country line dancing, reggae, jive, etc, and her movements were spot on with the music so I will definately keep going back to that. Then on Thursday, I went for what was described as a Cardio Latin dance class which was taught by this big, burly man who immediately told us the dancing was modeled after Arthur Murray's dance classes. Needless to say, I spent the whole hour spinning around in circles trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. My coworker and I decided we didn't care too much for that one. It was very ballroomish and wasn't what I was looking for. Silver lining: I still got a good workout(and a few dizzy spells) just from trying to keep up.

Afterwards, on our way out, we noticed a hip-hop class ending. It looked like a lot of fun and my friend and I decided to stay for the next class which was hip-hop level 2. Whew! We were already sore and tired but decided to milk our one week trial. That class was HARD! It was highly choreographed and the tiny a$$ instructor wanted us doing floor work. At one point, I had the class cracking up because I told her I had to get off the floor piece by piece, not bouncing off it like she was doing. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who couldn't get on and off the floor like a limber teenage street dancer so she modified the moves. By the time we left that night at 9:30pm, all either of us wanted to do was go home, shower and sleep!!!!

So, I've decided to stick to just the Zumba. I'll go twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays. The classes are incredibly pricey but they are worth the extra workout and fun. After all, if I was to hire a personal trainer, I'd be paying at least $50/session and with this, I'm paying about $11/class so... I'm frugal(read: cheap) but I will just have to blindly go into this one and keep telling myself that the end justifies the means.

Anyone else try Zumba? What are your thoughts?

Till next time,
XoXo

Lara

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