After my failed attempt at getting back into Zumba last week, I thought I’d give it another try today. Super-fit instructor lady wasn’t there, but another super-fit instructor lady was there to take her place. As a result, in a welcome change from last week, I managed to get my Zumba fix for the first time this month!

I have to say, I like the usual instructor lady; I like her routines and the pace of the class, and I like the mix of songs she uses, not to mention the fact that she prefers to keep the lights on. Having said that, I did enjoy having a different instructor for a change this evening – it made for a refreshing, not to mention fun, change having some new routines to try, some new songs to listen to, and a different Zumba style to try and adapt to. I was also rather pleased to see how quickly I was able to pick up some of the routines compared to the me of about five months ago going to her first session – it’s almost as if doing something often enough makes you better at it…!

I’m now up to three sessions a week and loving it! Various bits of my person definitely feel somewhat on the used side, which hopefully means it’s doing me some good too. I will admit that tonight’s session, which was with a different instructor, was a little harder to follow than I’m used to, being, as it was, held in the dark with only a disco ball for (not very much and rather flashy) light! On the plus side, it was also much harder to see myself in the mirrors, which can only be a good thing if you ask me

…I have discovered, is to start in November or December, keep at it for a few weeks until you sort-of-know some of the routines, then turn up to a session in January and reap the rewards: lots of Zumba-newbies kicking off their New Year Resolutions who not only look as confused as you were back in November, thus making you look way better at it than you actually are, but make it harder to spot the ones who’ve been doing it for ages, thus helping you think you’re better at it than you actually are

Another thing I’ve discovered is that Zumba can be quite an effective contact sport if performed in the right sort of numbers.

Having decided last week that Zumba is pretty enjoyable as well as being pretty good for me (why can’t more things in life be like that? Chocolate is one excellent addition to this list that springs to mind), I turned up for my second session yesterday, wondering whether it would be any easier the second time round or if I’d somehow manage to be worse. Super-fit instructor-lady? Check. Funky Latin tunes? Check. Still fun? Check. Any improvement at all? Check, actually. I definitely found it much easier this time, my arms and legs having managed to remember some of the routines from last week, a task my hips are seemingly not yet up to.

Roll on next week Sorry, hips.

As an alternative to spending Wednesday evenings flopped on the sofa in front of recorded telly of some kind or other, this week I decided to give Zumba a try, what with my local health club having started a new Wednesday evening class and everyone I know who’s tried it having said it’s brilliant.

I began to suspect I might be in for a tough time of it when super-fit-instructor-lady turned up looking fresh as a daisy and apologised for looking a state before explaining that she’d just come from a Spinning class. My suspicions were further aroused when she proceeded to demonstrate the first routine for those of us who hadn’t been to Monday’s class or the one earlier that morning, implying not only that there are people out there who are able to do such things twice in one day, but that she was one of them…

Forty five minutes later, I emerged from my Zumba debut, bedraggled, panting and very, very thirsty, having spent half the time not quite sure what I was meant to be doing and the other half doing the right thing but not really all that well. If there had been a judging panel present I feel my efforts would have garnered a ‘sevuuuurn!’ from Len for enthusiasm with advice to work on my footwork. I shall spend the next several weeks having fun endeavouring to do so – turns out everyone was right, Zumba is pretty brilliant