Holiday home workout

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you're having a wonderful break and enjoying lots of food and time with your families.

Working out over the holidays can be tough.  A lot of gyms are closed, it's pretty cold to exercise outside, and if you're like me you're in a city where you don't usually live.

I'm definitely not telling you to diet over the holidays.  Food is one of the best parts of this season, and that's totally unrealistic. But trust me, after all that eating, a little exercise will feel GREAT!

Here's an awesome bodyweight workout that you can do at home from my favorite fitness blog, Greatist.  It only takes half an hour, and no equipment necessary! Give it a try!

Finals week schedule

Hello Zumba lovers!

Happy Thanksgiving break.  I hope you all are headed home to spend time with your families and eat wonderful food.

Don't forget that there are NO TigerX classes starting today through Thanksgiving break.  We'll start back with our normal schedule on Monday, December 2.  But only for one week!

Starting on December 6, we'll be starting our special finals week schedule.  Here it is:

New choreography I love

Today I'm going to share some of my favorite choreography videos I've found recently.

I'll let you in on a little secret….most Zumba instructors steal a lot of their moves from other instructors. But isn't that how creativity works?  You take a little piece of something you like, build on it and make it your own.

This first dance is to the song "Tranquila" by J Balvin.  I love this dance (and these instructors!) because of their energy, the simplicity of their moves and their performance quality.  And, they're pretty good- looking, too! One of my favorite co-instructors told me, "I'd be first in line for their class if they taught here!"  Enjoy.

Dance fitness shoes

Hello, everyone!  Today I'm going to talk about what shoes you should wear to Zumba or any other dance fitness class.

Wearing the right pair of shoes to work out in is VERY important.  Footwear can aid or restrict your movement.

For Zumba, it's best that you find a pair of shoes with very little tread on the bottom.  This will allow you to twist, turn and slide without putting your knees in danger.

Right now, I'm wearing a pear or bright purple and green Nike Free shoes.  There's almost no tread on the bottom.  They look like this:

It's also really important to replace your shoes when they get old.  I know that shoes are expensive, but it's definitely worth the money.  Believe me, in 2011 I was out for two weeks because of a nasty case of achilles tendinitis caused by worn-out shoes.  Ouch. 

One of my fitness mottos is that appearance matters way more than you think it does.  If you're dressed in a way that makes you feel confident, you will get a better workout.  Check out this blog post and this one for more.  

And keep dancing!

Zumba Jam of the week: "Noche de Estrellas" by Jose de Rico and Henry Mendez

 

Have you tried Aqua Zumba?

Today I'm going to tell you about Aqua Zumba...that's right folks, you can Zumba in the pool, too.

I got certified to teach Aqua Zumba about a few years ago.  I've been teaching ever since. This semester we're having class once a month in Tiger Grotto.  Here's the schedule for the remaining classes:     

• Nov. 13 7:15 p.m.
• Dec. 10 5:15 p.m.

Adventures in teaching a non-dance class

This semester I'm teaching my first non-dance fitness class.

It's called TigerXtreme, and it's on Mondays from 12 to 12:50.  Basically, it's a cardio class with no rules.  We like to mix up the actual exercises that we do.  One week we may be doing stations, and the next week boot-camp style, and the next week intervals.

You can check out the TigerX website for a full description and descriptions of all our classes.

I've been teaching this class for about 8 weeks now, and it's definitely been a challenge to learn a new class style.

Zumba for a good cause

Howdy, y'all!

Today I'm going to talk about how you can help a good cause while having a GREAT time.  It's called a Party in Pink Zumbathon.

ZumbaTHON?!?  Yep, you heard right.  Several hours of Zumba back-to-back like a marathon.

I've been to several Zumbathons as a participant and have taught at a few.  I can tell you from personal experience that it's a blast!  The energy of having so many people gathered to dance in one place will get you through the challenge of dancing for several hours.

Party in Pink is a special kind of Zumbathon put on every October to benefit breast cancer research.  You can go to the Zumba website to find the closest Party in Pink to where you live.  And don't forget to wear pink!