Zumba

A couple of months ago, I got sick and slept like crazy. I'm talking from 7pm to 5am or more. My coworker convinced me to go to a doctor. I wasn't thrilled but knew I needed to. While there I had to breathe into a tube to determine my lung capacity. I couldn't blow very hard (hello, I'm sick!), so he told me to exercise. Since it was still cold out, I didn't really do much. Just sit-ups while watching TV. After the cold came the rain, and after the rain the unbearable heat, so I didn't do much running/walking. I'm good at coming up with excuses.

A couple of weeks ago the teachers at Alta came up with a department competition with pedometers. I did this a couple of summers ago while working at BYU. I thought I would be walking a ton since I am constantly walking around my room, upstairs, downstairs and all around. Turns out I'm only walking about 5,000 steps per day. Since you're supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day, I needed to do something.

Tim started class last week. He has some online classes and one class on campus. Since he has less than an hour from the time he gets off work to the time class starts, I drive him to class, then go home and wait for him to finish class. I decided I could be so much more productive if I go to a gym and workout while he is in class. Since I'm going to start grad school in two weeks, I thought I'd look into working out at UVU, but they just have discounts to other places (at least that I could see).

So, Friday after I got off of work, I went to UVU to get my student ID, then I went to the Orem Fitness Center to get a pass. And, today, I went to my first class, Zumba. I woke up with enough time to eat and get there this morning. Wow. I was feeling the burn in the first 10 minutes. I am so out of shape! Not to mention uncoordinated! Zumba is a dance-type aerobics class. You sashay, shimmy, and just dance. It was overall really fun, once I could figure out the routine of the steps.

I went to the Zumba class instead of Yoga due in part to the new FCCLA officers. This week we planned out our activities for next year. One of our activities was an exercise class. They all said Zumba was really fun. So I wanted to try it out and see what the buzz was all about. Well, I sure did find the buzz! I've never sweat or drank so much in such a short amount of time! I did get over 5,000 steps from one 1-hour class! Woo hoo!

Here is a video of a Zumba class. Yes, we do yell and clap. You are constantly moving your hips while dancing. This instructor was a lot more stationary that my instructor. I never had both feet flat on the floor for longer than a quarter of a second. There was a wide variety of ages, from teenagers to women in their 60s. There was even one man in the class.
Here is another video that really shows the energy and some of the moves. The music is really fun, too.