Zumba

Ok, so you’ve got your diet plan, fitness gear and running shoes sorted – all you need now is a heart pumping, calorie burning workout to get you sizzling for summer. Routine press ups and lunges are a thing of the past. Enter Zumba!

Zumba is the latest dance fitness craze to hit gym studios and dance workshops alike. Fresh from the streets of Colombia, Zumba fuses Latin based danced routines such as salsa, merengue and reggaeton to bring a fun filled approach to exercise. Zumba was developed in 2001, but has recently seen commercial appeal with weekly sold out classes in over 110,000 locations across more than 125 countries worldwide. It’s also the first branded fitness program to launch a video game on all three major gaming platforms: Wii, Xbox, and PS3.

With catchy soundtracks such as Caipirinha and Trendalicious, Zumba’s fun and sexy flavour is bound to leave you feeling exhilarated! Celebrity stars such as Jennifer Lopez, 41, Emma Watson, 21 and Eastenders star Natalie Cassidy, 28, are all fans of Zumba. Natalie recently raved on Loose Women that she does a Zumba class every Monday night with a class of around 50 women! “I feel like I’m going out…it’s my night out”.

I decided to try out Zumba for myself, so I brought a friend down to the local gym with me for several weeks. I have to say it was brilliant! Classes lasted around 50-60 minutes, including warm downs and stretches. Although mostly female dominated, Zumba appeals to both men and women. It was great to see a mix of different age groups, from teens to elders, shake their stuff on the studio floor. The music tracks were slightly longer than the average song track, which definitely made a difference to our workout. There is something exotic and fun about Zumba, it has the girls' night/party factor about it – which is the main appeal. Our instructor claimed that one class can help to burn up to a whopping 600 calories!

Zumba is definitely for the young at heart, but its intensity is not to be underestimated. By the end of the class, I felt like I had run a marathon! The best thing about Zumba is that you don’t have to be a professional dancer or know the routines. You just have to allow yourself to let go and have fun. For those of you who want to get fit but dread the thought of crowded studios, Zumba is also available on DVD, as well as the Wii, Xbox and PS3 video games. So there’s no more excuses ladies, get those dancing shoes on and get those hips shaking – you’ll soon burn calories quicker than you can say fiesta!

To find a Zumba class in your local area visit Zumba.com

Content provided by LiLi Julian
All images sourced from convention.zumba.com and zumbasaskatoon.com