Peace, Love, Zumba

Latin rhythms and merengue blast from the boom box as I try to follow the perky daycare worker by day, Zumba instructor by night! On the back of her shirt is written, "Peace, Love, Zumba!" This is THE new fitness craze so I had to try it. Beto Perez created it in the mid-90s while he was an aerobics instructor in Columbia. He moved to the US and by 2002 had developed Zumba training programs, Zumba fitness. These days there is Zumba Basics 1 and 2, Zumba Gold, Zumba Aqua Training, Zumba Toning and Zumbatomic. You can buy Zumba shoes, hats, exercise pants, key chains......I enjoyed the workout even though I was bumping into other physically and musically challenged women flailing about. I thought Zumba would be wildly different from any other fitness class I had taken, but it wasn't. It is really just good old high/low impact aerobics with a few dance moves thrown in and snappy, Latin music blasting in the background. At least it was a pretty good way to get a 50 minute workout without having to ride the boring elliptical machine!