Whoa Zumba!!

Today, after I dropped the kids off at school, I came home, put on my workout clothes and popped in my Zumba Exhilarate DVD. I can tell after today that I need to put it in more often!

Two years ago, when I really began being serious about losing weight and getting into shape (not to mention not looking like a blob in a bridesmaid's dress), I started by counting calories using My Fitness Pal  and then incorporated exercise. I actually started by doing a couple of Playstation workout games that I had and a few old DVD and VHS tapes. They were working OK, but I was starting to get bored/used to them, so I started walking on the treadmill. Then, I began to jog on the treadmill (although nothing like I do these days).

 I don't know if you remember, but Zumba was all the hype a couple of years ago and I really wanted to do it. I had two small children and a full time job at this point, so going to the gym was out of the question. The DVD set is really pricey and didn't fit into our budget. Finally, someone (I won't give names) graciously sent me a copy of the Exhilarate DVD, and my journey into  Zumba began.

When I first started, I could barely follow the steps (with the prompting) and I was always out of breath before getting halfway through. Gradually, I started picking up the steps and I could keep up pretty well. It's also a REALLY good workout. It burns more calories in a hour than an hour of running, plus you get a whole body workout.

As I started taking running a little more seriously, I gradually stopped doing Zumba altogether. I found, after a while, that I missed it. It's actually quite fun to do! However, I was starting the training program for the half and the moves just aren't conducive to cross training. In fact, I almost injured myself trying to do them both. So, running won and  Zumba was out...until today.

Since I am only going to be doing 5Ks for a while, I can incorporate different kinds of activity into my work-out plan. I find the treadmill to be SO boring and I need variety, not to mention the all-over toning and burn.

So today, I put on my clothes and popped in the DVD and went to it. After doing it for so long before, I still pretty much remembered the steps. What I didn't anticipate, however, was the amount of soreness I would experience! I guess there are a lot of muscle groups I just haven't been using since I started running. Strangely, one of my biggest sore areas was my legs! Despite my efforts, 23 minutes into it (it's 50 minutes total), I had to call it quits. Haven't had that problem in a long, long time!

I will definitely be incorporating Zumba back into my regular schedule and, hopefully, I will start to see some definition in my figure again. It's hiding under a lot of gross and it needs to resurface!