Day #42: Zumba and Zumba Gold

   I have been running for 17 years. I hadn't really realized it had been that long until I stopped to think about it ( a sign of my age I suppose, when you can vividly remember things from 17 years ago!). And now it makes sense that my knees are starting to ache. I've been going to a gym (on and off, but mostly on) for almost 10 years. So sometimes I get in a gym rut; my routines are the same, I'm rarely sore, I'm bored! So in an effort to revamp my gym routine I try new classes out and add them into my week when I can. I am OBSESSED with Les Mills Body classes. Obsessed. They have a wide range of classes: Body Attack (my personal favorite), Body Combat (my second favorite), Body Pump, Body Step, Body Jam, Body Flow, etc. You get the point. So through the years I've tried some of these and usually take about 2 classes a week, just to mix things up. My friend Amy and I work out together most days and last week we decided to try Zumba. All I hear are good things about this class, from the young and old. I mean, people rave about it. Unfortunately I have no dance skill/coordination/rhythm of any kind. None. And I proved it in Zumba last week. This is why I run; I at least have enough coordination to do that. So we ventured in to Zumba and low and behold, I fell in love. If I could, I would marry Zumba and have zumba babies. It was so. much. fun. I told Amy I felt like the lights should have been low and I should have done a tequila shot before class though. Since I cannot shake what my mama gave me I spent most of class hopping around and laughing at myself, which is always fun to do. However, the next day I was sore, and thus reassured that Zumba was indeed a good workout.
  Today Amy and I decided to go to  Zumba on a different day at a different gym. As we were walking in I noticed that the class was Zumba Gold, not just Zumba. I wondered aloud what the "gold" part meant and was told it was a slower paced Zumba. You know, for beginners (like me) and people who want to move slower...hmm. I started looking around and noticed Amy and I were the only people under the age of 70! Okay, I exaggerate, but only a little bit. Really, there were about 12 people, or, senior citizens, I should say. It really did look like a retirement home field trip in there. One man had to be 80 and he somehow managed to incorporate a chair into the class.?.  Needless to say, we bailed out after song 2. So if ever you find yourself wondering if there is a difference between Zumba and Zumba Gold, there is. A big one. If you are under the age of 65, go ahead and try Zumba!