As part of Weight Watchers brand new Activate Your Autumn campaign they asked me to try out a totally new sort of exercise for me and head out to try a Dance exercise class.
The campaign is aimed at helping people shake off their lethargy, boost their energy and embrace a more vibrant life style as a start or to maintain a healthy plan.
Obviously there are all sorts of dance exercise classes out there, but as one of the biggest exercise crazes in the world, I decided it was time I tried out Zumba.
I’ll be completely honest. I wasn’t expecting to like it. My only experience of Zumba to date was as the warm up for Race for Life Twilight in 2013 and it wasn’t fun, I had no clue what was going on and I don’t like to made to make whooping noises, thanks.
Still, I roped 3 friends into keeping me company, dug out my brightest leggings and headed off to my nearest Zumba session at 6:30pm on a Monday night. Excuse the grainy photo, it was taken at twilight, the worst time in the world for photographs, but I felt my attempt at Zumba brightness ought to be documented.
What followed next, I was astonished to discover, was actually a lot of fun!
The routines the instructor followed were obviously mostly the same each week. There was a group of regulars who clearly knew all the steps, but not everyone was intimidatingly co-ordinated and there was a reassuring amount of slightly confused faces at points. The moves weren’t overly complex, and once you’d got the hang of them they tended to repeat a few times so by the end of the song you pretty much felt like you were TOTALLY NAILING THE MOVES.
So it was super fun, but was it a good workout? Well, I think that depends. You very much get out what you put into it. You could walk through the steps, or you could really throw your all into it and get a lot of bouncing and high energy in there and it would be a completely different workout. That, I think is part of the appeal of Zumba, it works whatever your current fitness level might be.
For me, while I was certainly sweaty it wasn’t the hardest cardio workout I’ve ever done. It was, however, probably one of the most fun.
You can find a Zumba class near you at Zumba.com
