Super confused by the Zumba at my gym?!

HakunaMatata519

I tried out a Zumba class at my mom's gym and loved it. I felt like I was following a fun, but challenging choreographed dance that was different to each song. Most of the songs I knew and got me pumped up. I found Zumba at my local gym (military gym) and it's totally different. The Monday instructor played only a couple songs I knew and had us doing almost aerobics style moves and a ton of the same "moves" in each song. And by moves I basically mean stepping from side to side or clapping our hands. Tonight's instructor played NO songs I knew. They were all African or Salsa inspired which is fine, whatever, but she has us doing a ton of jumping, jumping jacks and straight up squats. There was hardly any dancing at all!!!

I thought Zumba was DANCE?! My mom's instructor told her they are given new music every so often and they get to pick from two routines for each song. I felt like my 2 instructors were practically making it up as they went along... I thought there would be consistency.

Any input? The first girl I hardly got a workout, the second girl kicked our butt pretty good but I found myself looking at the clock because I was bored. Unlike the first class I took where the hour ZOOMED by because I was constantly guessing and having fun.

gmallan

As someone who has done Zumba with 15+ different instructors I can say that there is ALOT of variation between them.

Some obvioulsy have no dance backgroud whatsoever and seem to suck all the fun out of it - these classes seem to be favoured by middle aged ladies with no rythm (just an observation ) In my opinion they should just stick to teaching aerobic classes because what they do isn't zumba and they are basically just using the name to get people in.

Instructors with a dance background are my favourites and in this catagory they seem to fall two ways - those who do a more Latin-inspired zumba and those who do a hip hop-inspired zumba. Both are fun but I like the hip hop one

I'm not sure what exactly the rules are with the instructors and sticking with the songs but in my experience there can be a lot of licence to use different/old music and I've seen some very different choreography in the same songs. Some instructors even pick there own music and choreograph themselves for the odd song

Leather_N_Lace

I have my certification to teach Zumba and we can either choreograph our songs or use the same choreography as someone else. They prefer us to have a mix of hip hop and multicultural music.. The warm-up should and can be the only thing that isn't completely choreographed.. It is just to get your body moving... I like to do box steps and arm pumps and squats just to get the heart rate up a bit... I personally like to mix some aerobics with dance into my moves.. (squats, lunges, jumps - while shaking the booty )
I have been to several myself and they are all different in the way they teach.. I teach in an open class where I welcome feedback from those attending.. I mostly cater to those new to Zumba so I want to make the experience as fun and exciting as possible.

jlahorn

Yep, I've had at least a dozen different instructors, and they're all different. I like most styles: lots of latin, hip hop, African, swing, Motown, 80s - all kinds of stuff mixed in. I actually like a lot of the more athletic classes. After you've been doing it a while, the dancey stuff gets WAY too easy. I think my favorite instructors are the ones whose choreography gives you high- and low-intensity options, and/or the ones who don't mind if you ignore the shoulder shimmies and do something harder.

chandanista

I joke that I can travel the world through Zumba. I've had 4 instructors so far, every one of them has been different. One is very hip-hop, another takes influence through India moves (oh do the arms hurt after), another is very Latin America-based, and the last loved using African moves. All of them incorporate squats, abs and at least a few lunges at some point during the class.

I've also noticed the repetitive steps songs are usually broken out when someone new is in class, I assume so they can feel the delight in knowing what's happening next all through the song. Some people are naturally klutzy (umm, me) and knowing what steps are next really does help.