might even go back

Last night was Zumba at the Ft. Hill American Legion. First thing I must note is how nice that hall is now. I was sold about a year ago. Maybe two. A Latino restaurant is in the bar area, and they still rent the hall out for weddings and things.

The 70s paneling is gone. Everything is painted, with some nice wall art, and the ceilings, and about a foot down, are black. It looks clean, bright and inviting instead of a little scary.

I saw the sign for Zumba just over a week ago. It was exciting because it met my goals for fitness. I could walk there. I didn’t go last week, I could barely keep my eyes open after work. When I left my house last night to walk to the American Legion I told my roomie I’d be back in an hour and a half, or 15 minutes. Wasn’t sure if they would still be there. They were.

In my heart of hearts I was hoping they wouldn’t be there! My first experience with Zumba was not good. It was held in a suburban community center, with 200 people, largely white, and suburban. Then instructor never introduced herself, and it was chaos.

This class is led by Glady’s a very friendly and perky woman. She not only introduced herself, but greeted each person as they came in, asked if you were new and gave you the “do what you can” speech.

She is also training to be a Zumba toning instructor. I think it’s a slower version with weights. Better than torture class.

By the time everyone came in, there was maybe 20 people, max, in the room. And they looked like the neighborhood—young, old, fat, thin, black, white and everything in-between. Refreshing.

Zumba is fast. All cardio, all the time—legs and arms flying constantly. I did maybe a third of it, and I was soaked to the skin. My major problem was having my feet do one thing and my torso another, and my arms a third thing. I can’t walk and chew gum, and I have two left feet. But I was still burning buckets of calories.

She gave us water breaks. One refillable bottle was not enough. I need to take a bigger one.

I didn’t like that it was “follow the leader”, but the routines are repetitious, so I guess that eventually you learn them thru repetition.

Overall a positive experience. Will I go back? Maybe. Probably. We’ll see next week.