Zum Zum Zumba!!!

Have gone and enrolled in Zumba classes lately..... they were on offer at a Spa/Gym facility nearby in my young friend Parul's building (Beverly Towers!!!) in Doha. Was mulling about it for a while.... my friend Munu (Anuradha) Barua's words ring out in my head -" its great fun, even if we look a bit silly jumping around the place, but who cares,  everyone has a blast...."  

Have taken 4 classes so far....and I must say it is nice to shake the legs and arms to the beat of latino music. 

Way back when I used to do aerobics, initially in the 90s, while following the Oz Aerobics team on Star TV, and later at aerobics classes in a gym in Guwahati. I remember that even though I had to will myself to drive across town to the class, I would feel very good after it was over and I had melted into a sweaty puddle.... I quite enjoyed leaping about to the beat of music. Along the way, I had dropped out - the knees began to creak a bit and our instructor (Sir, we called him, as he was a trained PE teacher at Guwahati University) also stopped coming, probaby because of dwindling interest and lack of space to hold the classes.

Zumba class reminds me a little of those days....the music, the group and the instructor are v different. Affiya Gordon, our instructor has an amazing body and a butt that has a life of its own..... she gets us going with a selection of music from her iPad (a far cry from the same old cassette played by Sir in Guwahati)....and before you know it, you are swinging along to the salsa esque beat .....and thinking of Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and the like.....

I did wake up the morning after the first class with a bit of a headache and groaning knees..... probably overdid it and jangled my spine and knees in the process....since then I have been moving at my own pace - albeit a little slower and wobblier than Affiya and many of the younger classmates.... luckily there are a few middle aged women like me in the class - and that gives me the courage and confidence to keep moving.....

I have also realised that I probably have a bit of a problem with eye hand coordination....this is compounded by the fact that I have been leading a pretty sedentary life for the past few years.....and so I have this inertia of motion that prevents me from joining the beat speedily....I find myself waving the wrong arm or shaking the wrong leg and am often sheepishly stopping to correct myself and rejoin the gang on the right beat.... 

I googled Zumba earlier today to learn that this new fitness with fun phenomenon actually happened by accident, when an instructor called Beto forgot his aerobics kit one day and decided to conduct his class using his own personal selection of salsa and merengue music and everyone had such fun that lo and behold 'zumba' was born!

Its become quite the rage and there are all kinds of formal arrangements, trainings etc on offer....I also saw a rather nice video about Zumba called The Biggest Loser, Buddy gets Zumbalicious and this has inspired me to keep on dancing my way to a slimmer me.....although its hard to watch my bulges jiggle in the mirror in front of me as I "....shake my body, do the 'brazil..., salsa, drink the caipirinia, and go to the party....", I think the bulges are getting smaller .....Yay!!!.!!!