My baby Miss F is nearly 2years old. When she was a new born I remember feeding her at night and watching TV to pass the time. Midnight, 2am, 3am there isn't much on except a lot of bad television programs and infomercials. Zumba infomercials always seemed to be on. And ads for Proactive.
Zumba ads then made into daytimes spots and then Zumba was at a gym near you. Up until tonight I hadn't made it to a class. I looked at the kits in Target and was tempted but managed to keep my money in my pocket so far. Local classes have been at inconvenient times.
Tonight I went to Zumba at my gym. I tried to go last Tuesday but I had the wrong night, oops. A friend posted about her recent Zumba experience saying it was a waste of an hour. But my class was a great workout. It got my heartrate up and my body moving. The instructor and the other participants were enthusiastic and having fun. I worked up a sweat and think I might be sore tomorrow. It don't think the difference in our experience is just the she's fit and I'm not. I think I had a great instructor.
Now I have to work out if I will go back and pay the extra money each week. Zumba classes aren't included in the membership or just buy the kit and do it at home?
What would you do?
4 comments:
I would go to the classes. Any of those home fitness DVD programs are doomed to failure for a number of reasons:
1. to do it at home, your lounge needs to be clear of toys and other junk
2. in your own home you are always tempted that doing other things is more important
3. although you may think you can do it with the kids around, kids tend to distract and bug you to do things for them.
4. pre-recorded instructors can't motivate you to keep going past your comfort level like real-time instructors can (they can see when you're struggling)
5. even if you don't have a friend doing the class at the moment, you will become familiar with regulars at the class which will give you extra motivation to go - relationships are strongly associated with maintaining exercise habits
6. Even if you don't feel overly energetic when you are travelling to the class, the atmosphere of being part of a class setting (and some degree of peer pressure - in a good way) will liven you up. Whereas at home, the couch and remote are always calling you if you're a bit tired (even if the housework of point #2 isn't calling)
7. A DVD can't give you feedback about whether you are doing the moves correctly and therefore you might not be getting the best fitness benefits out of it and at worst you are at risk of injuring yourself.
I could probably keep going, but need to get stuff done. Hope what I've said helps.
I'm with the other Mel. I never ever do stuff at home. Though I find it hard to get out the door and drive to a gym too. Knowing you Mel, I think that you would be more likely to keep going when there are other people to do it with. Wish I could come with you!! We'd have fun -- or at least you'd have fun laughing at me.
I'd go to the gym. As "Mel" wrote, there are lots of reasons why it doesn't work at home. But I've found just getting out of the house to exercise away from the family is a mental break that is helpful to me!
I also agree with you Wendy that getting away from the family to exercise is a great mental break! I did a step class for the first time in 3 years last week. I had to put all my mental thought into concentrating on getting the moves right so I didn't make a total fool of myself, no space to think about kids, housework or anything else, which made it a great mental break.
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