So 2011 is upon us, and as usual, as the New Year came around, I made a few New Year’s resolutions. One of which, crops up every year- “Get fit”. It’s more like keep fit really because I wouldn’t say I’m unfit, but things have changed since being at school.At school I took for granted how much exercise we were made to do. We’d have P.E twice a week as well as compulsory after school sports pretty much every day; so we’d kept fit without even realising it. Now however, I have to make the effort myself and when you’re busy, it’s hard to fit it in...Or it just gets put off! Sometimes I wish I still had someone making me do the exercise!
It’s not like I didn’t enjoy the exercise, but it was easier back then because we had to do it, now you have to motivate yourself and make it part of your schedule; rather than it being in it already.
Plus the fact I miss the benefits of exercise, it makes you feel good, you get fitter and not forgetting- it’s a stress buster.
So this is the year I decided to go ahead and stick to my new year’s resolution- to keep up the exercise regularly, as opposed to the odd jog now and again. It could only benefit me right? I thought, I if I don’t do it now, when will I ever do it?
So it was settled, I was to make exercise a key part of my lifestyle again and I was determined to do it whilst I was motivated to do it.
I discovered a few of my friends felt the same so I rounded up the troops and we put a fitness plan in to place. We decided that we’d have to keep up the exercise at least once a week, whatever it was.
I was tempted to join the gym properly, I’d always gone there on and off at home but since I am in Southampton most of the time because of Uni, there didn’t seem much point in joining it when I wouldn’t be there for the whole year. Plus it’s expensive and as a humble student these days, I have to save the pennies.
I was always interested in joining a new class though, so when one of my friends recommended Zumba, I was intrigued...
I had heard that Zumba was the up and coming exercise of the moment and that it was fun too, so what better class to join?!
I had no idea what it was exactly though but I soon found out it was a mixture of Latin dance and various other dance moves combined with aerobics using Latin and international music. Apparently, it originated from an aerobics dancer, when he forgot his usual music and ended up using the only music he had with him for his class- Latin. He then added a few new moves in and voila!
I didn’t really know what to expect and as we began our first class, and we began slowly swaying to Latin music, I started to think that we’d never get a full on workout out of this. But then the pace picked up and oh how I was proved wrong.
Before we knew it, we were doing high leg kicks, hip winding, fast paced dancing steps and a whole load of booty shaking too!
It really did have every type of dance move in it and once you get past the point of caring what you look like doing some of the unusual moves, you can really get into it and you end up working up a sweat! Our class is made up of all ages too and it’s always full, my friends and I are the youngest there but we’re not the only ones doing the body shaking!
I’m on my third class now and it never fails to give me a challenge when it comes to fitness, plus I enjoy it and it doesn’t necessarily feel like exercise, it’s more like dancing. Be warned though, you will ache the next day, at least after the first session, its powerful stuff!
I would recommend it to anyone, that’s if you haven’t heard about it already, because it seems to be taking the world by storm at the moment! So if you’re looking for something different that still pushes you, go for Zumba. You may even enjoy yourself whilst you’re at it too... I’d be surprised if you didn’t!
Miss V x
