Zumba Dancing: All the Rage

Fate has a funny way of exposing you to new things. The other night my daughter and her friends were off to what she thought was an introductory class on belly-dancing but what turned out to be a Zumba Dancing. I have only recently heard of Zumba dancing but still wasn't sure of what it was. Part dancing - part aerobics? I wasn't sure but soon found out that Zumba dancing is all the rage not only in Rochester, New York but apparently all across the United States and in particular many college towns in these parts and also abroad.

What it is

So my daughter comes home from her first Zumba class drenched to the gills. I thinking, "What the heck kind of belly-dancing are you doing??" She gives me the intel. No belly-dancing. Not sure what happened. Wrong location or something. But she is sold on Zumba dancing. And what's more she informed me that my and I were going to the next class! Aaaak!

Next thing I know I'm in the gym with 20 or 30 other women of different ages including my wife and daughter. Where are all the guys? Their loss. There are worse things in life! Anyway, I see now that Zumba dance is a combination of Latin dance and aerobics. With a backbeat of Latin dance and music, Zumba incorporates Meringue, Salsa, Mambo, Rumba, Flamenco, and I guess even a bit of a Hip Hop. It's all new to me and hey, it's not that complicated. I can tell you, I've done my share of aerobics or step and Zumba is more challenging than both.

Kind of Like Interval Training

Like I said, Zumba dance is a combination of dance and aerobics and similar to aerobics the music takes you through warm-up to peak intensity and back to a warm-down. A very unique form of interval training if I do say so myself. Doesn't seem to be too hard on the knees and I can see the potential for using small hand and/or weights in order to work even harder. I can see why this is so popular with students or anyone who is tied to their desks studying or working all day. Zumba classes are definitely cardio workouts. And as we all know, anything that gets the 'ol heart pumping is a good thing.

Learn While You Burn

After we wrapped our one-hour Zumba class and I was drying off, the instructor told us that we each probably burned an average of anywhere between 300-1000 calories in just one hour. Those are the kind of numbers I like to hear. Zumba dance is certainly a different workout than pumping iron. Zumba dance builds cardio-strength and tone muscles. And most definitely, as you learn the moves and steps and whatnot, the benefits of Zumba dancing will increase.

From a business stand-point it would be great if everyone was taking Zumba dance 5 times per week. But from a workout perspective I would think the true benefits come from using Zumba dance as a supplement to other activities.

I'm not going to give up pumping iron, but I can set the weights aside for some serious calorie-burning that I'm now convinced Zumba dance will provide.