So I Tried Zumba Again

I'm sure you're all familiar with Zumba, the Latin dance-based exercise phenomenon that has been sweeping the nation for like 5 years now.  Apparently some trends are slow to come to suburban Chicago, though, so the Zumba craze is just starting to heat up at my gym. 

Case in point: There are now two Zumba classes offered at the gym, and there is now a specific Zumba-only instructor teaching one of them. 

But two years ago, Zumba was kind of like a pilot program at the gym.  As such, they held Zumba classes Friday nights in October, to try to gauge the interest level of the gymgoers where Zumba was concerned.  

So, Carolyn and I went to the test Zumba classes back in October of 2009.  I wanted to love Zumba.  I'd heard words like awesome and fun bandied about in relation to Zumba, and I'd hoped it would be one of those exercise classes where it's like you don't even know you're exercising. 

But I just couldn't get into Zumba.  It seemed to require a sort of rhythmic movement of your midsection that I was just not capable of.  I have absolutely zero sense of rhythm, and I hate to dance.  The only way I can get over my self-consciousness while dancing is to drink a lot of alcohol, and I decided at my last dancing-based excursion (Sparklecorn at BlogHer) that I'm just not willing to drink that much anymore. 

And, of course, I don't really make it a practice to drink before going to the gym. 

So I just decided that Zumba wasn't for me.  I added it to my list of Things Other People Love That I Don't Like, which is a list that, as I've said before, includes the movie Goonies and hazelnut coffee. 

I therefore resigned myself to a Zumba-free workout regimen.  And blah, blah, blah, time marched on, and yadda, yadda, yadda I did some other stuff. 

And then last week I got to talking about Zumba with my friends Jessie and Claudine, who have been going to Zumba for awhile now.  Somehow I ended up agreeing to try Zumba again.  I figured, new season, new workout endeavors and all that.  And isn't there something about building new synapses in your brain every time you try something new? 

Unfortunately, the day after I agreed to retry Zumba, the new workout schedule came out at the gym.  Zumba was still there, but a different instructor was taking over.  And that instructor was Darlene.  Darlene is one of those loud, sassy workout instructors who some people love and some people hate. 

I have to admit to falling into the latter camp, and here's why:

A couple of years ago, I took a weight-lifting class with Darlene.  The woman was constantly singling me out in front of the class to criticize my form.  I kept my sense of humor about it, because after all I was new to the class.  That was until Darlene asked me to stand up in front of the class, face everybody else, and practice my squatting technique so that my booty--possibly Darlene's favorite word in the English language--rubbed up against the mirror while I squatted.  I felt like I was dry-humping a wall. 

So, I mostly avoided Dry-Hump Darlene's classes from there on out.  I feel the need to point out that the woman is mostly a nice person, always saying hello to me, and even complimenting me recently on my weight loss.  And my friends swore she was a good Zumba instructor.  And since I do try to keep my word, I went to Zumba this morning as promised.

I am reluctant to admit this, but I really liked it.  Darlene's a little too spirited and loud-mouthed for a weight-lifting class, but Zumba kind of fits her.  Her strength over the other Zumba instructor was that she really kept the class moving, and at a faster speed you don't have time to feel bad that you missed a move because you're already on to the next one. 

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the Zumba class was a lot larger than it was two years ago, so I could easily hide in the back of the class.  (I know nobody's looking at you in a fitness class anyway, but it's nice to have the reassurance that you're being obscured by the crowd.) 

Another advantage that a Friday-morning class has over a Friday-night class is that most of the participants are retired people and stay-at-home moms (or work-at-home moms or PT work-outside-the-home moms or whatever), and they don't make me feel as bad about my poor salsa-dancing skills like the professional Zumba artists who came to party at the gym Friday nights (presumably before hitting the clubs). 

So, hooray for new experiences.  I can feel those new synapses forming now. 

Oh, and by the way, it was not so fun that I forgot I was exercising.  I'm convinced that nothing is that fun.