Review: a skeptic goes to Zumba

Photo: a collection of bafflingly-dressed Zumba dancers

Zumba fitness has risen to towering levels of popularity in the last year or so. Described by Zumba themselves as “an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party” (catchy), the brand has classes running in over 125 countries with more than 12 million people in attendance. If attending a weekly class just isn’t enough to satisfy your Zumba addiction, or you’d rather exercise in the comfort of your living room, you can also purchase Zumba dance games for the Wii and Xbox Kinect. It’s safe to say that a lot of people have been bitten by the Zumba bug.

Since I started working on my fitness, I have always been wary and sceptical of exercise fads. I know that novelty workouts like Zumba have the potential to get people to exercise who otherwise wouldn’t be doing any at all, and I think that’s great. However, incorporating an exercise routine into your daily life long-term is a challenge and I think faddy workouts carry the danger of the initial novelty wearing off before you have maximised your fitness potential. Additionally, I find the fact that Zumba is a money-spinning brand a little off-putting. If your priority is marketing and selling a brand, how do I know you have my best (fitness) interests at heart?

(I’ll also freely admit that my reluctance to explore novelty exercise classes like Zumba has a lot to do with the fact that I tend to steer clear of anything that everyone is doing/watching/reading/listening to because I’m stubborn and don’t like feeling pressured to get involved in something just because of hype! Yes, I know that’s a silly reason.)

So, with all that in mind, I’ve been quite content with the cardio/resistance workout I have developed for myself and attending the odd cardio or toning class (spin and BLT are two of my favourites, or circuits if I really want to punish myself) and have never felt the urge to branch out into the field of “dance fitness parties”. However, my gym recently announced that it would be holding a couple of Zumba taster sessions with the potential to run a full course, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to get over my initial reluctance and try it out.

My class was an hour long and there were six or seven of us, led by an enthusiastic barefoot instructor who launched into the first routine immediately without any introduction or demonstration of the moves. I don’t know whether this is typical of Zumba having never attended classes elsewhere, but the idea seemed to be to simply throw yourself in and follow the instructor as best you could. I think everyone felt a bit silly at first and I’d say it’s fairly essential if you’re thinking of trying it that you are capable of laughing at yourself and not getting embarrassed, because you WILL look a bit stupid. Fortunately so will everyone else.

If I’m honest, I didn’t really take to it, and I think part of the reason for that is that the class was so small it was impossible to get lost in a big crowd of other people dancing (like in the adverts), and in a group as small as that you tend to feel a bit exposed. Which wouldn’t have been such an issue if I hadn’t spent a great deal of the class sort of suspended mid-movement with a look of bafflement on my face as I tried to keep up with the instructor and master dance moves I had no idea how to perform. Let me tell you, standing around looking confused isn’t the best calorie-burner. I wasn’t alone, either – with the exception of one or two seasoned Zumba-goers everyone was in the same boat.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to push yourself when exercising and I like classes that challenge me, but when they’re SO challenging that I spend a lot of time doing nothing at all while I try and figure out what the hell is going on, I feel a bit like I’ve wasted my time. I think I would have gotten a lot more out of the class if the instructor had spent some time at the beginning outlining a few of the moves and building up the pace slowly. I was not born with an innate ability to salsa dance, I need to be shown how to move my feet so I don’t end up shuffling unsteadily sideways like a camp, uncoordinated crab. Was it fun? Yes, and with a few more people in attendance I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more. Would I go again? Possibly, but only if I felt like I had spent a reasonable amount of time that week doing some decent cardio, because I didn’t feel like I got that from my first Zumba experience.


Have you ever tried Zumba? Or do you go regularly? What do you think of it?