Inside Slump

This is a whine post to a certain extent. I recognize that and own it. You don’t want to read it? Ok, move along to other peppy posts.

I’m not blah about working out, as it’s become an integral part of my life again. I’m not concerned about the eating, as it’s generally healthy and in check. The running is back on track, as outlined yesterday, now that I have a way to shower and get warmed up afterward. It’s an exercise video game thing.

Today is Zumba Fitness day. I put in my requisite time. But I’ve got to admit, just as we’re hitting weather that encourages inside video game exercising, I’m hitting a boredom blah place with the games. I like everything I’ve used thus far, but I need a new challenge. I’ve gone online looking for it, that magic game that’ll get me going again…I just can’t find it. Could it be that I’m missing some other kick butt workout? Is the magic sparkly game waiting to be discovered and used? If so, please PM me and let me know so that I can try it.

I had thought that I’d try another EASA2 21-day workout. But, ya know, they don’t feel challenging anymore. Perhaps their football series will work. Has anyone tried it? Is it as tough as or tougher than EASA2?

Image via WikipediaIn times like these, I generally go back to old faithful – Gamercize stepper with Lego Star Wars. This combo always works for me. And Star Wars keeps me entertained. My issue is that I’m into doing the sport, and want to pretend to be doing sport with the games. I guess I could play a sports game, like Madden, with the stepper, but that’d be playing SOMEONE ELSE playing a game.

I wonder if I’m missing something. Thoughts and suggestions?

Zumba Fitness Program

Many people have been asking me exactly what Zumba is like since I mentioned that I’d started using Zumba Fitness.  As I’ve mentioned before, it’s somewhat difficult to describe, as it offers dance moves I’ve never seen before. But that’s somewhat of a cop out.

At the end of a Sunday run recently, some friends asked me to show them one of the moves. The dance step I most often use for illustrative purposes I generally call “the Opah!” Anyone who’s been to a Greek, Jewish or Middle Eastern wedding knows this step. In fact, anyone who’s ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding knows it as well. Stand up straight. Put your arms in the air with your upper arms at a right angle to your body and with your forearms sticking straight up. Rotate your hands in to face your head and hold your fingers up. Now grapevine sideways slowly. That, my friends, is what I call “the Opah!”

I’m not sure what it’s actually called, and whether it has an official name in one or more languages. For purposes of Zumba and Zumba Fitness, it’s one of the dance moves used in every program. In Zumba, it’s generally done pretty quickly with a hip rotation pulling the entire body around in a circle at each end of the grapevine. But that is not all, my friends; oh no, that is not all.

I decided to describe how to get to my favorite workouts for you, as well as to give some idea of what awaits when you get there.

The Zumba Fitness disc opens like most with a Welcome splash page. Next you go to the Play page. You decide whether you want to join a party or do a class. I like the class. They then confirm your profile name. Then you choose which class you’d like to take. Options include 20 and 45 minute beginning, intermediate or advanced class. I always choose the 45 minute intermediate. At this point, the advanced Zumba classes intimidate me. Once you decide on what class you’d like to take, you then get to choose your program. The 45 minute intermediate class has many options. I generally use the first three. Once you’ve decided on the actual class, they ask what type of action, and I choose night club.

I thought about going through every dance unit with you, describing all of the dances in order, but realized that it might be overly comprehensive for a blog post. For our purposes, I’ll simply outline the slide warm up. It’s the first workout unit, is about four minutes long and includes rapid repeats of dance moves such as salsa, hip swivels, squats, charlie horses, grapevines and reaches during all of them.  By the end of this set, your body should be warmed up, you’ll most probably be sweating (profusely), and you’ll only feel acclimated if you’ve done the set before a number of times.

As I’ve said before, there’s something about Zumba that confuses the body and mind.  It is quite difficult to describe without showing the other person, and doing Zumba without music is a bit odd and ungainly outside of Brazil. That being said, it’s a heck of a lot of fun and worth the money and effort of doing it.

It’s bizarre and funny and a great workout and I highly recommend that you check out Zumba and Zumba Fitness.

Are you doing Zumba or Zumba Fitness? How do you find them?

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Zumba Fitness

There are so many places one can begin with Zumba Fitness, but I’ll start with one – it kicks my ass in a completely new way. It’s really not like much of anything I’ve tried before.

It’s the perfect complement to running, since running is all about moving forward with momentum, whereas Zumba is all about swishing side to side with obtainable sexiness. While most workouts involve forward/back action, Zumba mostly involves side to side action, which works new muscles and jiggles normally dormant jiggly bits, in original and interesting ways. To a large extent, you don’t know what’s coming with Zumba and once you’ve gotten there, the routine has moved on to something else.

It took me a while to cruise into it and just be one with the Zumba. At first, I thought I’d try out the “how to” instructional phase. That was interesting. Basically, the instructor says, let’s start slow with this, yes that’s right, lets add this, good…..and then it’s as though she’s been injected into a popcorn machine and begins bouncing all over the screen as though we’re supposed to as well. While I could not keep up, it was so hysterical that I began to laugh very loudly. It was absurd to think that I’d begin moving like that at that velocity that quickly. But even in the laughter, Zumba Fitness pulls you in, because it’s completely disarming. No one expects you to bounce around like a ping pong ball.

The point of this video game is working out and having fun. And once you give in to the rhythm and allow yourself to attempt the moves, it is a lot of fun. I caught myself thinking that this video game would be perfect for a college student or someone in their twenties, because it’s so freeing. But wait, this middle aged woman (me) was feeling the freedom and goin’ for it. Like a 20 year old.

The fact that the music is in Spanish also forces you to simply feel the music and let it move your body.  Thank God it’s a video game that I can do in my bedroom, as opposed to going through the hip grinding, salsa swaying, tush thrusting bits in front of people one doesn’t know, let alone people one does! The first few times I worked out with Zumba Fitness, I had to stop and recalibrate my butt, tummy and thighs. I kept losing the rhythm, because I’d never really experienced anything like it before. It’s kind of like Dirty Dancing and you’re Baby. No one really expects much of you, especially if you’re alone in your bedroom working out, but you can cut loose and have the time of your life.

There’s too much to write about Zumba Fitness, and Zumba in general, for one post, so I’ll end this post here and return with more discussion of the actual sequences and my takes on them in a later post. If you haven’t gotten it yet, do so now; you won’t regret it. It rocks.

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