Zumba Workouts: Great For Exercise And Weight Loss!
Zumba is a fitness program that was created by Beto Perez in his native country of Columbia.
Beto Perez is the creator of Zumba and director of the national Zumba master trainer team. He is a professional dancer and the former choreographer for Shakira and other high profile celebrities. -- IDEA Health & Fitness Association
Today there are 25,000 Zumba instructors in 40 different countries. That's how much the Zumba phenomenon has spread! Plus there are an estimated 4 million Zumba enthusiasts.
What Is Zumba Like?
Zumba workouts feature Latin inspired dance routines, coupled with interval and resistance training.
The idea is to take the work out of workout and make exercising fun.
In many cases, people taking Zumba classes forget they are even working out!
Zumba is a great choice for exercise if you are trying to lose weight, because it uses cardio intervals mixed with resistance intervals -- both of which are critical to losing weight and toning your body.
Most Zumba classes last approximately an hour and can incorporate Latin dance steps from such popular dances as:
- the merengue
- salsa
- mambo
- calypso
- cha-cha
- flamenco
- rumba
Some instructors have even included belly dancing and hip hop, so Zumba has begun to take on an international flavor as each teacher adds their own special steps to the Zumba workouts that they teach.
How To Start Zumba
Here are 2 full-length Zumba exercise routines to help you get started doing Zumba workouts:
This is a great nearly hour long Zumba exercise video that you can do yourself while watching it online. The cool thing about this one is that it has the founder of Zumba, Beto Perez, in it!
Here's another full-length Zumba workout video that you can watch online. The only downsides to this one are it's in Spanish, and you can't watch the whole video unless you download Veoh's web player. Other than that, it looks like a very fun video. Truthfully, you can probably follow the steps without understanding the language, but understanding Spanish would help in the event that the teacher gives special instructions.
Whether you decide to take Zumba classes, watch Zumba videos online, or buy Zumba DVDs for working out at home... doctors, people trying to lose weight, and Zumba instructors all agree that Zumba is a great way to have fun while you're losing weight and getting healthy!
Yes, Zumba is cool, in Holland it is becoming the number 1 aerobic work out! Realy fun to do.