Zumba!

Yesterday I attended my first Zumba class. For those of you who aren't familiar with Zumba, it's a cardio workout based on dance steps and music, mainly from Latin America. During the hour-long workout, we danced to salsa, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, samba and hip-hop. It was smooth. It was hard-hitting. It was sweaty. It was shoulder-shaking, hip-swinging, shimmy-shaking fun!


If anything, I'm surprised that it has taken me this long to try a Zumba class. I've always loved dancing salsa and merengue. Heck, I've always loved dancing. I was one of those kids who started ballet at an early age. I quit ballet when I was about ten, but rediscovered jazz dance about four years later, and for the next decade dance was a huge part of my life. But it got pushed into the background somehow, and after graduate school, work, marriage and babyhood, that girl who loved to dance seemed like almost another person.

Now I'm trying to get her back. I don't think it will be difficult; as soon as I heard the music I was ready to go. The moves were easy to follow, even though my body didn't perform them exactly the way I wanted. It was surprising to realize I was out of breath after just twenty minutes. In the past, I could have literally danced all night. Yesterday, I had to tone down my enthusiasm to make sure I could last the whole hour . And it was surprising to realize that I needed so many parts of my body to do the moves properly: my ankles, my back muscles, my stomach muscles. When I danced regularly, I didn't even notice; today, those aching parts are forcing me to take notice. But it's a good ache, because it means that parts of my body that have been asleep for so long are waking up.

This is not a life-changing event. It's not like I'm throwing myself back into dance full-time. Zumba isn't even a dance class. It's just an exercise class, and for now, at least, I'm only signed up for it once a week. But it's a start. Already I'm looking forward to the next class.

Hmmm... maybe it is a life-changing event. Maybe.



Speaking of health and fitness, check out these health and fitness blogging programs I'm involved with right now:
* Jimmy Dean "Better Breakfast, Better You" on BlogHer
* YoPlait YoCrunch giveaway on Bonggamom Finds
* Arctic Ease giveaway on Bonggamom Finds
* #CoolwrapsFitness Twitter Party tomorrow, Jan. 13 at 7PM CST