Ellefitness

How many are you burning…well the only way to know is to put a heart rate monitor on.

I was at the Y last week and one of my participants came up to me and said “last week in Zumba class I burnt 725 calories and 50% of it was in my fat burning zone“…WOW congrats to her.  I have always told you that you can burn 500+ calories in a class and now someone has gone out and proved it.  Are you getting as much as you could in your Zumba class?  Here are a few other tips to increase the level of your workout…

• Remember to tighten your core, use your torso and contract your abs…the body is lazy and it will do a movement using as little as possible.  So engage your muscles…feel the movement as we take those hips forward, side back and around.

• Make sure you have appropriate footwear so that you are not putting additional stress on your hips, knees and ankles

1. light thin soled shoes…  and NOT running shoes, which are inappropriate as they are heavy and designed for forward movement only and also tend to have thick treads. The treads get in the way when doing Zumba’s many side-to-side and pivot moves.

2. good support and comfortable is a necessity.  I had my orthodics made so they would fit in to my streamline Puma’s allowing me to wear the lightweight, smooth soled shoes but still getting great support in the arches

• Give it your all…often I have participants that stay for my back to back Zumba classes…I always wonder if they just love Zumba or they are looking to get a better workout?

1. Put your all into the one class…don’t save energy for the next class.  Studies have proven women’s bodies respond better to intensity  It is great to get winded..it improves cardiovascular fitness

2. Finish your movements…extend arms to the finger tips, hips snaking through the body and bend your knees allowing better weight transfer from foot to foot

• Make sure when you are pivoting you are lifting your heals allowing better fluidity and movement and so much easier on the joints it also helps with the hip movement

• Get continuity in your class attendance then you will be more familiar with the songs and steps allowing you to more of your energy into the dance

1. Speed up your learning curve by taking an instructional workshop like How to the basic steps to merengue, salsa, cumbia…and more for Zumba  next workshop November 8th, 2:30pm or 6pm for part 1 and 7pm for part 2.  I have a number of people who take the workshop multiple times as they get better at executing the moves therefore a better workout

Giselle Bergeron-Raganold

g.ellefitness@gmail.com

613-596-3183

~ by ellefitness on October 31, 2011.

Posted in Chair Zumba, Ellefitness, Personal Training, Uncategorized, Zumba, Zumba Gold
Tags: activity, burn calories, class, core, Ellefitness, energy, exercise, fitness, Giselle, goals, nepean, Ottawa, Stittsville, tone, torso, workout, Zumba, Zumba Gold