Tell me about your Zumba experiences

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Jdismybug1
Jdismybug1 Posts: 443 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Good afternoon everyone!
Right now I'm doing Insanity. I am starting week 3 tomorrow.
Today being a rest day I ended up looking up Zumba on YouTube. I tried to keep up with videos, it's harder than it looks for me. I'm very uncoordinated in dance type situations.
I'm just curious what everyone's experiences were? Did you like it? Did you feel uncoordinated with fast paced classes/videos?
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Replies

  • WendyLeigh1119
    WendyLeigh1119 Posts: 495 Member
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    I take Zumba in person/class and also used to be a dancer. I'm still at total spazz at Zumba. But so is everyone else. It's fun and time flies dancing and trying to follow the moves... and suddenly the 60 minutes is over and you've burned 400 or more calories! I look forward to my Zumba days, even though I will probably never stop sucking at it.
  • kimothy38
    kimothy38 Posts: 840 Member
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    I absolutely hated zumba when I first started, I so did not feel like a sexy mama flailing about to salsa music. Then I changed classes to a more hip hop type one and I love, love, love it. I have the attention span of Dory so get lost easily sometimes. I stand at the front so I can't see everyone else behind stuffing it up. I joined the gym purely for zumba classes because the instructor is so dang good.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »
    I take Zumba in person/class and also used to be a dancer. I'm still at total spazz at Zumba. But so is everyone else. It's fun and time flies dancing and trying to follow the moves... and suddenly the 60 minutes is over and you've burned 400 or more calories! I look forward to my Zumba days, even though I will probably never stop sucking at it.

    I've done Zumba, and seen they types of workouts they do. 400+ calories would be a huge stretch, and that's if you are going at it HARD. It's more likely you are in the 250 range. Sorry to be the wet blanket. If you do want to be more accurate in calorie burns, though, I'd recommend investing in an HRM. It's the only way to get truly accurate calorie burns.

    To answer your question OP, I would say that Zumba is definitely a step DOWN from Insanity in terms of intensity, calorie burns and overall quality of workout. Zumba can be fun if dancing is your thing, but honestly unless you're JUST starting to work out, it's not going to give you much bang for your time. Add it to your routine if you like it, but don't replace your Insanity with it. JMO.
  • Jdismybug1
    Jdismybug1 Posts: 443 Member
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    AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »
    WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »
    I take Zumba in person/class and also used to be a dancer. I'm still at total spazz at Zumba. But so is everyone else. It's fun and time flies dancing and trying to follow the moves... and suddenly the 60 minutes is over and you've burned 400 or more calories! I look forward to my Zumba days, even though I will probably never stop sucking at it.

    I've done Zumba, and seen they types of workouts they do. 400+ calories would be a huge stretch, and that's if you are going at it HARD. It's more likely you are in the 250 range. Sorry to be the wet blanket. If you do want to be more accurate in calorie burns, though, I'd recommend investing in an HRM. It's the only way to get truly accurate calorie burns.

    To answer your question OP, I would say that Zumba is definitely a step DOWN from Insanity in terms of intensity, calorie burns and overall quality of workout. Zumba can be fun if dancing is your thing, but honestly unless you're JUST starting to work out, it's not going to give you much bang for your time. Add it to your routine if you like it, but don't replace your Insanity with it. JMO.

    Thank you! I'm going to finish insanity first. I did insanity a few years ago with terrific results.
    I've exercised on and off throughout my adult life.
    I'm interested in Zumba mostly because it seems fun. I've been interested in dance since I can remember, just not very agile when it comes to dancing.
  • Jdismybug1
    Jdismybug1 Posts: 443 Member
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    WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »
    I do wear a heart rate monitor 24-7. Thanks for the opinion, though. I know my calorie burns are accurate by my weight loss, as well.

    Zumba burns anywhere from 350 to 600 calories per hour. And intensity has little to do with any particular class. It's about individual effort. The Instructor is a big part, too. But burn is dependent on if *you personally* are throwing every limb, muscle, and move into it. The person next to you might be going through the same moves... but keeping it low intensity. I also don't know what the OP weighs, so I wasn't trying to calculate her actual calories

    I took Insanity Live. It was really boring for me, so no more of that. But I love the Les Mills classes and particularly Body Pump and Body Combat. I also take PiYo, Pilates, Kettlebell HIIT, Body Flow, Zumba Mash Up (Zumba with weights), Aqua Zumba, and Boot Camp. Basically, if classes are happening, I take them.

    Zumba is a great workout and definitely fun. I see no reason to not recommend variety, as it's the best way to truly condition your body's strength, stability, cardio health, and flexibility.

    I'm 5'2 and 144 lbs. my HRM told me I burned 157 calories for 18 minutes.
  • firef1y72
    firef1y72 Posts: 1,579 Member
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    AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »

    I've done Zumba, and seen they types of workouts they do. 400+ calories would be a huge stretch, and that's if you are going at it HARD. It's more likely you are in the 250 range. Sorry to be the wet blanket. If you do want to be more accurate in calorie burns, though, I'd recommend investing in an HRM. It's the only way to get truly accurate calorie burns.

    To answer your question OP, I would say that Zumba is definitely a step DOWN from Insanity in terms of intensity, calorie burns and overall quality of workout. Zumba can be fun if dancing is your thing, but honestly unless you're JUST starting to work out, it's not going to give you much bang for your time. Add it to your routine if you like it, but don't replace your Insanity with it. JMO.

    I burn far more Calories in 45 minutes of Zumba than in 45 minutes of Insanity, but they really are chalk and cheese aren't they. I do Zumba because I enjoy the cardio aspect, I'm a useless dancer with 2 left feet, but I throw myself in to every move and burn around 350-400 Calories in 45 minutes (at 5'2"/161lb). On the other hand I enjoy the challenge of Insanity, steadily making progress in learning new rounds and getting stronger, the Calorie burn ends up being around 250-300 Calories for 45min.

  • Juniper210
    Juniper210 Posts: 77 Member
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    I just started Zumba about a month ago and I'm really enjoying it. I went 5 times this week. It's a great workout and the time flies by. I'm not a dancer or very coordinated but I was picking up the moves pretty well by the second week of classes. I still have sections every class where I have no clue what they are doing but I just wing it until I figure it out.

    It really is a lot of fun. Don't give up after the first class though. Give it a couple tries because it really does get easier to keep up.
  • kristikitter
    kristikitter Posts: 602 Member
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    The routines (in my experience) often last about 8 weeks or so, so once you've picked up a new routine you get better at it, and then you CRUSH it. It's great fun.
  • Jdismybug1
    Jdismybug1 Posts: 443 Member
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    I burn far more Calories in 45 minutes of Zumba than in 45 minutes of Insanity, but they really are chalk and cheese aren't they. I do Zumba because I enjoy the cardio aspect, I'm a useless dancer with 2 left feet, but I throw myself in to every move and burn around 350-400 Calories in 45 minutes (at 5'2"/161lb). On the other hand I enjoy the challenge of Insanity, steadily making progress in learning new rounds and getting stronger, the Calorie burn ends up being around 250-300 Calories for 45min.

    [/quote]

    i have found I burn more with Insanity. Like 350-409 calories. So far.
    I haven't tried an entire Zumba class yet. I did try a YouTube video.
    I'm looking forward to it. I enjoy my insanity workout, I also liked what I tried yesterday too.
    I might throw more Zumba in there after my insanity workouts depending on the day and how I'm feeling.
  • Jdismybug1
    Jdismybug1 Posts: 443 Member
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    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    A tip someone told me about Zumba when I first tried it at the Y. Start by doing just the feet. It will take you a little time to get the hang of it. Once you don't have to think so hard about the steps add in the arms. It makes it a lot easier to learn because you're taking it in pieces. Once you get the moves, it becomes crazy fun and a great way to add more variety to your workout. I consistently burn 400-500 calories in a 50 minute class depending on how much I put into it. I'm 5'8" 180 lbs.

    I'm going to try this. I like exercising all around. I was also thinking Zumba is something my 4 year old can do too. She's 4, so she loves dancing and trying exercises with me.
  • Gabbysmum2014
    Gabbysmum2014 Posts: 14 Member
    edited July 2017
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    Hi! Congrats on 3 weeks of Insanity! I tried Zumba many years ago and hated it. It didn't feel natural or comfortable to me, but I recently gave it another go and it was definitely the instructor. I am taking 2 instructors now and love them both but they are different. I sweat like crazy in both but one focuses more on toning by incorporating things like 30 burpees in a routine. It's definitely not a "blow off" workout as I have seen many walk out after a few songs, it's all about effort. You got this! :-)
  • shandy82165
    shandy82165 Posts: 184 Member
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    I tried Zumba one time and hated it, but in hindsight that might have had more to do with the instructors than the type of exercise. I actually love dancing, but I admit I do tend to like my workouts to be asexual. I tend to not enjoy classes that use motivators like "shake you booty, girls!" ...blech.

    I also felt left behind, again probably due to the instructor's incompetence. They didn't make any effort to try to show the newbies how to perform the moves, and it went so fast that most of the class I spent standing around feeling out of place. I consider myself fairly coordinated, and typically pick up moves quickly, but I just failed miserably at Zumba.

    This thread is making me want to try it again, though, but maybe somewhere else besides Crunch Gym.
  • DresdenSinn
    DresdenSinn Posts: 665 Member
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    My first Zumba experience is when I walked in on my girlfriend while she was doing it..it was like a full body dry heave set to music..it wasn't pretty!
  • Juniper210
    Juniper210 Posts: 77 Member
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    shandy82165 wrote: »
    I tried Zumba one time and hated it, but in hindsight that might have had more to do with the instructors than the type of exercise. I actually love dancing, but I admit I do tend to like my workouts to be asexual. I tend to not enjoy classes that use motivators like "shake you booty, girls!" ...blech.

    I also felt left behind, again probably due to the instructor's incompetence. They didn't make any effort to try to show the newbies how to perform the moves, and it went so fast that most of the class I spent standing around feeling out of place. I consider myself fairly coordinated, and typically pick up moves quickly, but I just failed miserably at Zumba.

    This thread is making me want to try it again, though, but maybe somewhere else besides Crunch Gym.

    Definitely try different instructors. I'm a crunch member to and in the month since I started doing Zumba I've tried all of my gyms instructors. There's two of them that I don't like. But the rest are great. One of the ones I don't like it's the most popular instructors they have but he just isn't for me. You gotta find the one that heels with your style.
  • lainy1979
    lainy1979 Posts: 173 Member
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    I love Zumba! I do it twice a week, its a full on 60 minute class doing all sorts of different dance styles to banging music. Personally I'm a single mum so it's my time to let loose and get my freak on!! I don't see anybody else in the room I just dance my *kitten* off and sweat a tonne. The more familiar I become with the routines the harder I can work and really engage my muscles, I've been tonight and I can feel that I've worked my tummy. It's the only thing I've not got bored of since I've been on mfp.
  • WickAndArtoo
    WickAndArtoo Posts: 773 Member
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    Oh I love Zumba, but yes I am super uncoordinated too, it's so embarrassing. I went to group classes which was even more embarrassing, but pretty much as long as you try and keep moving etc that's all that matters, the point is to have fun with the workout, so I just try not to overthink the fact that I'm getting all the dance moves wrong.
  • DebLaBounty
    DebLaBounty Posts: 1,172 Member
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    I go to a Zumba class three times a week at my gym, a different instructor each day. I like how you just lose yourself in the music and focus on the moves, the time just flies by. Nobody gives a rat's behind how anyone else is doing the moves, we're just anonymous people who jump around to hot tunes and sweat like crazy.

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