What is Zumba and what can I expect in a class?

What is Zumba and its origins?

Zumba is a dance-based fitness programme, designed to be flexible and accessible to all. It’s about being active while having fun.

Its origins are in 1990’s Columbia, which is the home country of the founder of Zumba, Beto, a fitness instructor with a dance background. Beto combined these two practices to create the earliest forms of Zumba in his fitness classes. Later, when he moved to America, he met with his founding partners, and together they built the phenomenon that became Zumba as we know it today.

With the Columbian roots of Zumba comes the strong influence of Latin American music and dance styles, with the foundational styles being Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia and Reggaeton. Additional music and dance styles have been added to the repertoire over the decades, including pop, Bollywood and country, amongst others.

What makes a Zumba class Zumba?

Every Zumba class should have a warmup, cool down and a mid-section that incorporates a wide range of music genres and dance styles with a varied pace that mixes high intensity with regular chances to draw breath and recover. The class should give you a workout that feels more like a dance party. It should be fun, energising and rewarding.

Each instructor will have their own pace and style. And equally you can dial up or down your workout. Want more – pick up the pace with more exaggerated moves, bounce it out and add more energy. Need a gentler pace or to draw breath more frequently? Then step it out, either the whole class or sections as you prefer.

No two Zumba classes will be alike, Zumba instructors are not required to follow set choreography or tracks, they can mix and match and be playful to develop their own style.

What can you expect at a Zen Fitness Zumba class?

I am probably what would be called a ‘mid intensity’ Zumba instructor. I use traditional Zumba tracks from the ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) library. I don’t follow the latest Choreography releases (yet, that may come).

I stick to the same choreography each term, enabling my attendees to learn and become familiar with the tracks. I either fully or partially update my routines on a term-by-term basis.

My ethos is that it should be fun to attend my class, and you should work to the pace that suits you. I don’t mind if people get mixed up – I do! Can’t quite figure out all the moves, find yourself going in the wrong direction, not sure where your arms go? No problem. So long as you are having fun, try to avoid colliding into someone else, and leave feeling like you had a good workout and had fun, then in my book that’s a win.

I don’t expect perfection. Progress and development toward your own personal fitness goals is all that matters to make me feel I’ve been successful in delivering my classes. I hope you decide to give it a try and enjoy it.