#108 You're Never too Old to Move Like You're Young

I'm in love. Yep. With Zumba. Zumba isn't a he, or a she for that matter. Zumba is a one-hour exercise dance class that incorporates Latin rhythms. The music goes from fast to slower and back to fast again, but never slow enough to let your heart rest too long. The teacher incorporates resistance training and body sculpting while your body burns calories. During one class, my instructor wore a pedometer and calorie counter. After class, we all went up to read the calorie counter; she had burned 700 calories. Honest engine! I leave the class dripping sweat and exhausted, but feeling great! Watch this video... it's almost as much fun as actually taking the class.



Zumba is a lot about the hips and butt moving, swaying, gyrating.... well you get the picture. When I first started taking Zumba, my hips just didn't want to listen to my brain. This disconnect between my hips and head was frustrating. However, it did make me understand [better] my husband's responses to some of those yoga moves I would try to have him do -- he would groan and say, "my back just doesn't move like that!".

I took my 14 year old daughter to a Zumba class with me a couple of months ago. We had a ball, but truthfully, I was a little self conscious. Some of the moves, well, a daughter just shouldn't see her mother's hips move like that. Many of the moves are "youthful", and when I see myself trying to do them in the mirror, I realize how old I am. It's just that grinding your hips front and back while throwing your chest out and arms back aren't dance moves that I did as a younger person. I'm very comfortable doing "oldies moves" like the Charleston and the Twist, but these newer gyrations make me blush. My daughter, not knowing the moves that I had been learning over the previous months said jokingly [sort of] during class, "Mom, I don't think you should be doing that in public".

What's great, though, is that I've found an exercise regime that I love, and one that I also look forward to doing. Unlike weight training, in which I always felt great after the hour workout, I didn't always love doing it. With Zumba, I look forward to each class. I even went onto http://www.zumba.com/, put in my zip code, and found all the classes being taught within a 5 mile radius of my house. I haven't met a teacher or a class yet that I haven't liked.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that you're never too old to move like you're young. Enjoy the video below. I think she would be an asset in my Zumba class.




Quote of the Day: "Love is doing small things with great love." Mother Teresa