Mister Zumba-Zumba

So I have now had about six Zumba classes by now, and it's all very back-breakingly enjoyable.

Unlike the first Zumba instructor that I met, ZumbaMan 2 - the regular instructor who joined back after my first class- turned out to be much more to my liking. I've always liked part 2s better - Spiderman II, SuperMan II, Karate Kid II, and now Zumba-Man II. This person is all about the music and dance. He has been throwing terms like Bachata, Salsa, Cumbia at us from Day one. It's all very deliciously Latin.

This fellow's energy, like the previous one's is amazing and enviable. I don't quite understand what these guys are made of. Also, he's a nice enough personality, very friendly and smiley and all that - but once he starts the class, he becomes relentless and unforgiving. Oh, he's smiley even while doing that, of course. He clearly enjoys the dance - is a trained Salsa dancer and clearly loves what he does. But he tends to snap at you for not smiling. It's kind of tough to explain to him while I'm attempting to keep up with about two-thirds of his moves that it is not possible for me to smile while I am in the throes of agony.

The other day he made us do push-ups. Ha ha ha. Girls suck at push-ups anyway, and I'm worse than most women on this particular point. It was quite humiliating. He asked us to do twenty. I did half. I would like you to believe that 'half' means that I managed ten, but what I actually did was half-a-push-up, before collapsing.

Anyway, it's strangely fun, overall, even though there are some classes - like the last one - where he did very little of the dancing and more of the fitness routines. We have to work on those THIGHS, he yelled. Soon everyone's thighs were silently yelling back at him. Gruelling, to say the least.

A lot of people are doing double takes when they see me, saying 'how MUCH weight have you lost?' I've stopped weighing myself because after the GM Diet, I had lost only a kilo and my weighing scales and I don't interact anymore. I just intend to continue with this for a while in an effort to get into some sort of regular fitness routine and up my energy levels.

This person's style is quite eclectic. He sometimes makes me feel like Daniel Laruso in the Karate Kid when he tells me 'Your Strength will come from your Core'. At other times, he will be shouting things like 'I want to see your ass MOVE, Side-to-Side. Tick-and-TOCK'. This is definitely not something the Karate Kid movie contained. However, overall it's working out quite nicely. And so am I.

I may be a little biased because the first time he met me, he said 'Well, you clearly work out, don't you?'. Now, this is the nicest thing you can ever say to a lady who has given birth to three children. Perhaps it is because of this initial bias that I like him. In the last class, he wore fluroscent green harem pants. I am not kidding you. This is the only way to describe what he wore. It was outlandish. It bordered on the unbelievable. And yet, I found myself admiring his ability to carry it off and resolved that one day I too will get myself a pair exactly like that and walk around completely unabashed in them.

One strange thing - in the first class, he was educating us on the various terminologies and kept asking loudly, to bring up the energy levels 'So What's the dance form we are learning?' ...and people would shout Zumba. Then at one point towards the end of the class, he shouted 'So are we GOOD?'. For some reason, a couple of people near the front shouted back 'Zumba' in response. The guys in the row behind also repeated Zumba. And now it so happens that every time he asks 'Are we GOOD?' Everyone else in the class but me shouts Zumba in response. I find it really funny and quite enjoy it. And once I'm able to really get into the spirit of the things, I too will respond to 'Are we GOOD?' with...

Zoooooomba!