The Best Workout is the One You Will Actually Do – Celebrating 10 Years of Loving Zumba®

The best workout is the one you will actually do. Ten years ago, in September 2011, I found my exercise match.

Prior to discovering Zumba® I hated working out. I hated sweating. I hated moving. I spent decades on the couch. I spent hundreds of dollars on gym memberships I never used. I had a collection of workout VHS tapes and DVDs that gathered dust. I had a treadmill that just took up space.

I started a weight loss program at a local gym in September 2011. I hated all of that too. Stairs and the treadmill and lifting weights and Tabata intervals and I can’t breathe and I still hate sweat.

I vividly remember my very first real workout. I thought I was going to die. Not really, but also kind of maybe. My lungs hurt, my body wanted to collapse, and my brain was quite sure there was no way anything that felt this bad could possibly be good for me.

As part of the program we were encouraged to try every type of class and a variety of exercises. I remember my first spinning class where things that should not be numb went numb. I remember my first plank, which looked exactly like me lying prone on the floor on my stomach, because my arms wanted no part of that nonsense. I remember watching my personal trainer knock out a series of burpees as I contemplated running for the nearest exit. She HAD to be kidding, right?

I was in a water aerobics class (because just when you think working out can’t get worse they tell you to do it in a swimsuit), when I met someone who suggested I try Zumba®.

I’d heard about Zumba®. I’d seen signs around town for a few years. I’d joined a gym thinking I’d go to the class, but that would have required (1) actually going to the gym and (2) actually moving. Have I mentioned that I had tremendous social anxiety and no self esteem at the time? I told this new friend I would go if she would meet me there – and that if she wasn’t there I was going to leave.

She kept her word and met me at the gym one fateful Saturday morning. She told me we had to dance in the front, so we could see the instructor’s feet. I’m sure I nodded and smiled but inside I wanted to crawl into a hole. The front row? I was already chalking this up to one more thing I was trying and never, ever doing again.

Then the music started. By the fourth song I was hooked. I knew, without a doubt, I would do this again. I didn’t even glance at the clock during the hour long class. My body moved in ways I had no idea it could move. When the class ended I wanted more.

I’ve been going to Zumba® classes since that day. For over ten years, regularly. I attended classes until I was 38 weeks pregnant. I was back in class 4 weeks after that child was born. It turns out exercise does feel good. Your body does get used to it, and I went from a woman who hated sweat to one who regularly shares “sweaty selfies”.

That alone would be amazing, and something worth celebrating, but Zumba® wasn’t done with me. In April 2012 I became a licensed instructor. I attended the training because I wanted to know everything I could about this fitness format I loved. I never planned to teach. Over time my confidence grew, and my story resonated with people, and I realized I had something unique to offer, that I could be impactful, and that I could be a part of people finding something they loved too.

Since I found Zumba® I’ve done many other active things, and even enjoyed most of them. The idea that I’ve been working out regularly for ten years blows my mind. It’s one of the one hundred ways in which I’m a completely different person than the woman who walked into that class for the first time.

Becoming active by finding movement that I love was key for me. From weight loss to improved confidence, happiness and better health, stamina and a new mindset – I wouldn’t be where I am today without Zumba®.

I would never claim that Zumba® is the perfect workout for everyone, but I know, without a doubt, that the best workout for you is the one you love to do. The one that makes you feel alive. The one that makes your body feel good, even it it’s in that “hurts so good” kind of way. The one you do today and will still want to do tomorrow.