Meet and Greet Monday: Zumba

When my good friend Shawna invited me to join her for a Zumba-thon a little over a year ago, she didn’t know she’d be changing my life.

This Zumba-thon took place at the Mustang Community Center, and we shook our booties for two hours straight. Even though I had done little in the way of exercise for months prior and was exhausted by the end, I loved every minute. The next day I joined the gym and began taking Zumba classes four times a week. Thus began my love affair with the exercise craze known as Zumba.

I had just gotten out of a relationship and needed something besides TV to occupy my time so I wouldn’t sit on my couch all evening, eating ice cream out of the carton and feeling sorry for myself. Zumba was just what I needed. Zumba gives me energy, confidence, and loads of laughs. There are always many laughs when Shawna and I try to outdo each other, do our booty dips when stretching, and, let's be honest, just look at each other. Our hips sure don't lie, so we have a good ol' time every class. When those fun-filled forty-five minutes are up, I’m drenched in sweat, barely able to walk...and want to do it all over again. 

I’ve never been the type of person whose day isn’t complete without hours spent pumping iron or a twenty-mile run. I’m not built for running (I’ll admit it: I run like a girl), and I don’t know how to use the machines at the gym. Zumba, then, is right up my alley. This Latin and hip-hop-based exercise is so much fun that it doesn’t even feel like work. It’s like a dance party. But you really do work…hard. In the classes I take, we work our core by shaking our hips like nobody’s business. Our legs get in on the action too with the salsa, cumbia, and merengue moves we do, along with the occasional killer lunges. And we’ve also been doing Zumba toning in our Tuesday/Thursday class, so our arms get quite the workout as well. I’m not the best hip shaker out there, but it’s so much fun to try. And even if you can’t get the moves down quite right, as long as you’re shakin’ it like a saltshaker, you’re good. 

Although I mentioned that I am by no means a gym rat, I do miss Zumba when I have to skip a few days. I miss the feeling I get when I exercise (that feeling that the calories in the bowl of ice cream I'm about to devour are cancelled out by the calories I burned Zumba-ing), but I also miss the people in my classes. I’ve gotten to know some of my fellow hip-shakers, as well as my instructors, and I love dancing with them every week.

If I get too nostalgic, though, I can always just turn on the radio, because there’s a good chance that one of our hip-hop songs will be on and I can get my Zumba on in the comfort of my own home or car or desk chair. I can't listen to "Like a G6" without at least mentally doing the butterfly, and it's hard to keep from literally droppin' it low in public when I hear "Drop It Low."

Not only do I now exercise four times a week, but I also feel better about myself and am more active in general. I have Shawna and Zumba to thank for my newfound self-confidence and my sweet new dance moves.

Shawna and I about to battle!