Tag Archives: zumba training

Nov 23 2012

Yahoo!

Posted on by

Hello! I hope my American blog friends are in a post Thanksgiving turkey coma today, and had a wonderful time with friends and family yesterday. I’m in a sugar coma … we had a bake sale at work yesterday as a fundraiser for the Movember campaign. I was a terrific donator ;) (also … love the initiative, but can the moustaches go away now, please?).

So. Great news!

I got a job teaching Zumba! Fiiiiiiinally. If you’ll remember, I took my instructor training course back in May. Months ago, I had reached out to several gyms and organizations about teaching, and didn’t get far. I had all but given up on finding a place to teach … until I got a magical email from an organization a couple of days ago. She remembered me from our previous conversations, and offered me a gig! I start in the beginning of February, and will be teaching an eight week session.

YAHOOOOOO! Time to start preparing :)

May 8 2012

How It Happened

Posted on by

Yesterday, I told you that I became a licensed Zumba instructor on Saturday. Here’s how it happened:

Source

The training was in a city two hours away, so I drove out on Friday night and stayed with a friend. Saturday morning, I got to the building where the course was being hosted around 8:15. I’m guessing around 40 or 50 women were there (and 2 men!), in addition to the two instructors/Zumba geniuses. We started the day off with a Master Class, where we danced our butts off for an hour. It was tough work, but I was able to see how the pros conduct their classes and pick up a few tips. This also gave me the chance to start the day of as a participant and be able to distinguish the feeling of taking a class from the feeling of instructing a class. I sweated my face off … I’m talking dripping … and then feared for my life because it was only 10AM and the course was scheduled to run until 6PM.

I was scared someone was going to have to peel me off the floor by the end of the day.

Source 

After the Master Class, we had a brief lecture. We learned about the history of Zumba and how creator Beto Perez started the whole thing. It was great to learn a little bit of the history, and why instructors are so passionate about the entire Latin-inspired fitness class. Also, I was freezing for the entire talk. I forgot a sweatshirt … the room was surprisingly chilly … and I was covered in sweat. Not a good combo. Miss Goosebump.

For the rest of the day, we focused on learning the basic steps to the meringue, salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton. My brain (and every other muscle in my body) was exploding. THANK GOD for the course materials/DVDs they sent home with us. So much information. So many songs. So many steps, rhythmic variations, arm movements, and fitness additions. My head hurt. And every other muscle, too. Have I mentioned that ? ;) The soreness lasted for awhile too … I’m even still a little bit sore today. Since most of Zumba is done on the balls of your feet, calves get an incredible workout. 9 hours on your toes = very sore legs. But such a goooooood sore.

*****

Overall, I loved the entire day. The instructors provided us with incredible amounts of information and a lot of tools to plan our first class. I think it’s going to take me a little bit of time to prepare myself for teaching … but I’m excited for that challenge! I’d like to give myself a deadline of June 1st to get everything in order. I’m going to need to learn to balance life/work/learning music, so that in the future I can balance life/work/teaching Zumba. I need to memorize music, memorize choreography, and focus on putting as much energy as I can out into the room when I teach. But I’m excited to do that! The instructors pretty much told us we will be awful for our first few classes. If I can just remember that, and take it in stride, I think I should be okay. I can’t wait to start teaching! I’m so glad I took the leap to become an instructor :)

May 7 2012

I’m a Zumba Instructor!

Posted on by

Wahoo! I did my training this weekend to become a licensed Zumba instructor. I ACCOMPLISHED IT!

My certificate has my real name, so I did a little fixin’ with paint.

I promise I will tell you all about it tomorrow. It was nine hours of dancing and exercising … and I am super sore from it. But there’s so much satisfaction mixed into that pain. I love it. I can’t wait to get my choreography all figured out and find a teaching job!

Have a wonderful Monday – if you need me, I’ll be foam rolling ;)

Tell me about your weekend! What did you do? I know some of you had races … how did they go?

May 4 2012

Giggly

Posted on by

A few days ago, my coworkers and I discovered we had some creepy crawly … friends.

It turns out beetles (and not the Paul McCartney kind) were hanging out in our office ceiling tiles, and began dropping onto our desks and freaking us the heck out. So we called an exterminator. He told us that there was, in fact, four different species up there. He fogged the place after we left the office Wednesday night.

I promise I do work in a clean place. I don’t know how this happened.

Anyway, he killed them all Wednesday with some sort of chemical. We got to work yesterday morning … and OH MY. Such strong fumes. They weren’t toxic, but I’m sure they weren’t particularly healthy (I also have mild asthma). We made an effort to stay out of the office all day – which is easy to do as a reporter – so we wouldn’t be breathing it in. But I ended up being there for a couple of hours (altogether), and I got quite giggly.

Source 

In addition to that … an elderly man hit my coworker and I when we were in our company car yesterday afternoon. He backed into us, there was very minimal damage. And we giggled after he ran into the bumper, and drove off. We laughed.

Way to take things seriously, girls.

We told our boss about it, and even though it was just a minor scuff on our front bumper (I’m thinking less than a $50 fix), she suggested we report it. So the (cute) policeman stopped by and took our statement. And we giggled. He probably thought we were nuts. But it was fortunate that he was nice and friendly (and cute).

…I took that as a hint that I should leave early. I came home and breathed in clean, giggle-free air.

I did this. In my living room:

Source

But not for long! I had floor hockey last night. There’s always like 30 men who play, and my one female coworker and I. We give it all we have, even though we’re not very good. They always support us because we usually look like idiots, and they’re friendly dudes. Buuuuut I’m scared to look in the mirror this morning … because I took a shot right between the eyes (TWSS). You know those hard plastic balls? Yep, took one right to the face. Pretty sure it’s going to be bruised. A hard shot. I took one from the same guy last game and my calf was bruised for a week.

It’s okay, it’s not like I’m a reporter on television or anything. Wait…yes I am. Cross your fingers that it’s not too bad!!

*****

My Zumba instructor course is tomorrow! I’m looking forward to it … not only because I will have that training under my belt afterwards, but because I’m staying with one of my greatest friends for the weekend as well. The course is a couple of hours away from where I live (it’s the closest one I could find … and I still had to go on a waiting list), so I will be crashing with her. I’m excited! She’s fun and pretty and nice and cool.

All I can say is, we better be going for breakfast on Sunday. Hi Jan. I know you’re reading this. We’re going for breakfast on Sunday before I leave.

Maybe I’ll take my new dancin’ knowledge and perform some dance dares? Please tell me you’ve seen them on Ellen.

Enjoy your weekend! Do you have any fun plans?