People lose weight with Zumba ’cause it’s cardio crack

May 20, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

What is Zumba?

When I started seeing all these hundred-plus weight loss stories, I initially thought it was some drug.

With an eyeroll and a right click of the “X” residing in the northeastern section of my screen, I dismissed these testimonials, initially. But the more I heard about it (from actual humans I knew), the more my intrigue was piqued. A dance class you go to… and the weight just… melts off?

Like it did for all of these chicks?

It made me wonder: what sets Zumba apart from other forms of cardio cavorting?

And the only logical conclusion I can draw is that it’s addictive. For all the following reasons:

First, the moves are doable. I remember trying out for the dance team in high school, getting frustrated midway through the first day, and calling it quits. With, Zumba, the body movin’ routine’s way easier. While other workouts might leave you more vexed than sweaty, this one’s simple enough to follow along with – yet still get that sense of accomplishment that you’ve actually ascertained something that requires that whole mind and body, somatic-think synching. At the same time, the choreography’s constantly altering just enough to keep it new. That way, you don’t get uber bored and end up with your only brawn being in your jaw’s yawning muscles. Knowing that a fun challenge awaits you is far more motivating than monotonous gym drudgery.

And that – constant changeup and repetition – helps build coordination born confidence. I went through this same thing with martial arts. There’s this thing called trapping, where you hafta to use your left and right arms simultaneously to block and punch and do other nutty maneuvers. When Bruce Lee did it, it looked super cool – like a manual magic trick done with Houdini hands. When I did it, though, it looked like a failed game of patty cakes culminating in a ball of arm yarn with my training partner. The shiz isn’t easy. But my instructors told me the same thing the Zumba gurus tell their dancers: keep trying, keep coming back, and you’ll get it. Sure enough, it worked for me. And sure enough, my hate-hate relache with coordination morphed into a love-hate one. And, seeing as that applies to all kinds of mind-to-meat-puppet pastimes, you can expect exactly that result whether playing twinkle fingers or twinkle toes. That kinda confidence builder keeps you coming back. And no one cares that you look like an azz in the interim, ’cause they’ve all been there too. They just wanna see you see the inevitable transformation that’ll come like it does when you’re diligent with anything.

(‘parently, I’m not the only one who compares dance class to fighting…)

And speaking of toes – yours can move at their own pace. Much like you’ll see in yoga classes, there’s always room for modifications if you’re a novice to this brand of body wigglin’. Sure, you might be working toward a nice booty, but boot camp this is not. Zumba’s about having fun. And if you’re not going at your own pace or pausing when you need to, then you’re doing it wrong. So, knowing that you’re not in competition makes you wanna stay the course.

But you know how you know if you’re doing it – or any fun workout – right? Once you’re done. The second I depart the dojo, I either feel like staging a global coup d’etat and crowning myself czar of earth (whereupon Starbucks would obviously be erected every five miles across the planet)… or I feel like folding inward like an awkward dying butterfly. And marinating in my own shame. There is no in between for me. It’s all about where my head was at, and how well I listened to my body during class. Even on days when the link between my mind and muscles were truculent, I found that if I could laugh about it, that actually broke the mental block and made me do better. The same goes for Zumba. If you’re letting it be the fun fitness release you signed up for, then then former feeling will befall you. And having a bunch’ve humans there for the same reason – to have fun – helps dissolve any of that self consciousness you might’ve had when you walked in. And for many, that’s a far better segue into exercise than the isolating sentiment of entering Equinox and feeling like the Sweatford Wives across the way are issuing you the stink eye.

“You know you’re doing that wrong, right?”
“But… I haven’t even started yet…”

All that said, you don’t drop pounds just from dropping it like it’s hot. That’s why it’s imperative to remember that you’ve gotta match a habitually healthy diet with this blissful fitness routine you’ve begun. That’s if you wanna get healthy and lose weight. See, people often forget that the physical stuff’s like a fine wine you pair with your entree of chronically consumed feel-good food. But, the more I read these Zumba success stories, the more I’m seeing that making those superior selections when it comes to healthy edibles gets easier the moment you get to moving. And that actually makes sense, given the studies that show how hunger hormones lower after aerobics of any kind and that endorphins diminish cravings for crappy food. The fact that you’d obvi get both’ve those things in a cardio twerk class that’s as intense as it is lighthearted and social makes it the ideal eat-tweaker and cardio cocktail.

So, my verdict is: don’t wait to wiggle.

Sign up for this thing and see if Zumba can Roomba style clean up the fitness facet of your life.