Ditching the Work Out

Traditional work outs don’t work out for me. Easily bored, I find it hard to stay interested in running on a treadmill or biking in one place. Where’s the fun? How am I supposed to be excited and motivated to go to the gym every day, listen to the same songs on my iPod and run, staring at the wall, going absolutely nowhere?

The official Zumba ® slogan is, “Ditch the work out. Join the party!” Okay, well if you insist. I have no problem leaving the treadmill to stare at the wall all by itself.

Zumba is defined as combining Latin and international music in dance routines featuring aerobic and fitness interval training done to fast and slow rhythms. The word itself is Spanish slang for “to move fast and have fun.”

I LOVE everything about zumba. I get to shimmy and shake while I jump and squat. An elevated heart rate, a leg workout, and some serious sweat all accompany a great zumba class. The best part is I actually get excited to go! After a stressful day of classes and homework, going to a work out I enjoy and want to do is refreshing and energizing. Zumba gets me pumped up to go finish assignments and puts me in a better mood. I must be a sight to see when I’m walking back from the gym dancing and singing.

Zumba classes fit in to my schedule two or three times a week, and I will never turn an extra class down. We are five weeks into the semester, so I’ve attended plenty of zumba classes. There has been enough zumba in my life that I’m starting to memorize the routines. For some songs, I don’t even need to watch the instructor anymore. She puts the music on and I just dance. Having the routines memorized benefits me because instead of focusing on what I should be doing, I can focus on doing it better. I can jump more, lift my knees higher, and I’m working on perfecting my squats. Now, I get a better workout from my favorite class.

Now I feel like dancing! I’ll just put on my zumba playlist….

Obsessed much?

The actual routine we do to 'Prrrum'... although we might not be as intense: