What’s the new craze Zumba® that everybody’s talking about?

Contributed by Nicola Sanders.
Regional Director, USA Sport Group.

Zumba® is an exhilarating, exciting, easy to follow dance inspired fitness workout that incorporates Latin and salsa dance moves to international pop music; it’s guaranteed to blow you away!

Zumba® has exploded onto the adult fitness scene since its inception in 2001 and has quickly become the world’s most successful and addictive dance-fitness program. Combining music and dance seems to invigorate those of all shapes, sizes, ages and cultures. Zumba® combines fast and slow rhythms with cardio dance moves to ensure that the class is both fun and effective for every participant.

Zumba® is a total body workout and its fitness methods touches on nearly every joint and muscle.  Classes are choreographed to enable intervals of high intensity movements and music where participants energy expenditure is at a maximum to increase fat burn. Incorporating the principles of interval training means that attending an hour long Zumba® class can lead you to burn up to 800 calories, try and find another work-out to match that calorie burn that’s actually fun!

Are you new to Zumba® and a little apprehensive to jump in? Don’t be, what’s so fantastic about Zumba® is how easy it is to get started. There’s no great learning curve, participants can simply fit right into a class and follow along with the instructor.

Zumba® classes are also an amazing stress reliever. The music is lively and the mood during a Zumba® class is always upbeat. Zumba® enables participants to lose themselves in the movements; it’s a fantastic way to lose your inhibitions and really let loose and enjoy the class in a relaxed, but energized environment.

If you are aiming to get fit, relieve stress, improve self confidence, improve co-ordination, develop your leadership skills, or simply want to dance away in a party like environment - then Zumba® is the group fitness choice for you!

See also Zumbatomic® - Zumba® for kids!