Working out is more than just a daily routine to some. It’s fun, exciting and sexy. It’s the new trend of breaking out into a sweat. It is Zumba.
According to energiezumba.com, “Beto” Perez, a celebrity fitness trainer, stumbled upon the concept of Latin-inspired fitness in his native country of Colombia in the mid 1990’s.
Perez realized one day that he had forgot his aerobics music and his only option was to grab whatever tapes he had in his car, which were traditional Latin salsa and merengue music. He was challenged to improvise a whole class using non-traditional aerobics music. After the last-minute improvisation, Zumba the fitness program, was born.
“I like zumba because it uses rhythm. It’s more like you’re able to dance and use your body parts like curves and your attitude, helps express yourself, relieves stress,” said Shanell Jackson, a TJC Fitness major.
Zumba is not a dance class. It is a dance-based aerobic fitness class. Even though it is basically an exercise, people will still be learning the four basic rhythms based on simplified dance steps such as the cha cha and salsa, mixed with a bit of mambo, flamenco, rumba and calypso.
“I love it. I like that it’s not exactly a particular dance as much as it is used for workout purposes,” said Cordy Collins, a TJC Dance major. “It’s usually a lot of younger people that want to dance around to up-tempo stuff.”
In 1999 after Beto’s success in Colombia, he brought the class over to the United States where he was approached by entrepreneurs Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion to create a global company based on the Zumba fitness philosophy.
According energiezumba.com, there are two types of Zumba; Zumba basic fitness and the Golden Zumba fitness. Zumba Basic is the primary type of workout routine that provides the basic movements and exercises to stay lean and trim. Zumba Gold is specifically created to help individuals who may not be capable of following Zumba Basic. This is a special type of workout that focuses more on individuals, physically incapacitated people, true beginners and senior citizens.
“It’s a great workout. It’s a lot of cardio. I’ve average between 600 to 700 calories burned per class. It’s just a lot of fun. It’s a great way to exercise,” said Jennifer Lewis, personal trainer/and/Zumba instructor at Anytime Fitness in Lindale. “You’re dancing so you don’t really feel like your exercising, like it’s work. It’s just more fun.”
According to zumbadance.us, the fitness program Zumba can provide benefits such as fat loss. This workout is a good approach to burn fat. An individual can burn about 1,000 calories during a single Zumba workout.
“Zumba is very positive, fun and mind-freeing,” said Jackson.
According to energiezumba.com, people who do Zumba achieve long-term benefits while experiencing an absolute blast in one exhilarating hour of caloric-burning, heart-racing, muscle-pumping, body-energizing movements meant to engage and captivate for life.
“A good time,” said Lewis. “I want them to get some exercise and get some cardio in but [having] fun is the most important thing.”
