What is Zumba?

Zumba is the new dance fitness class that is sweeping the world.

With varied dance styles from meringue & salsa to bollywood & belly dancing they are blended together in to a class with a wonderful party atmosphere.

Zumba was created by Beto Perez from Columbia who one day forgot the music for his aerobics class. The only music he had was a selection of CD's from his car. With that mixed bag of music the class he taught proved to be very popular & the rest is history.

It was discovered that a lot of people were intimidated by the traditional method of teaching a fitness class. So in comparison all Zumba classes are taught with no or minimal verbal queuing & with no pressure from the instructor to perform the steps correctly.

The people in the class just follow the moves the instructor is doing but if they can't or don't want to do that move, all they have to do is to do their own thing, keep moving & to have fun fun fun!

Zumba attracts people of all ages, shapes & fitness levels (minimum age is 16 years of age). But for people younger than that there is Zumbatomic. There is no dress code (Lycra is NOT mandatory!).

Just wear what you feel comfortable in but do bear in mind you will get very hot! The best shoes to wear are ones that will give your foot support (like an aerobic style shoe). It is best not to wear a shoe that has too much grip as this can cause pressure on your knees.

People are advised to bring a towel & a bottle of water along with them as you will get very hot! There is a break in between each track allowing everyone to get a quick drink of water before the party continues.

Finding a Zumba Class near you:

With Zumba classes popping up everywhere, towns are slowly starting to tremble as if hit by an earthquake, as people shimmy, shake & gyrate to the strong Latin music that is Zumba Fitness. To find local classes just visit the official Zumba website and enter your zip code or post code.

Zumba has recently arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland and is taking the city by storm! Tom and David Lowe's Zumba class is the only male team taught Zumba class in Edinburgh.

David originally fell in love with Zumba every since he attended his first class with Donna Giffen who is Scotland's own Zumba Master Trainer. David has always had a passion for all types of music & dance which reflects in his style & movement.

Tom is a very experienced fitness instructor and qualified Pilates instructor. Tom has taught in most health & fitness clubs across Edinburgh & has been lucky to have full classes across the years.

Warning:

Zumba is infectious with some people having to go to 4 or 5 classes per week because they enjoy the class SO much.

In an average hour long class, you will burn between 500 - 600 calories but can reach up to 800 if you pull all of the stops out.