The other day I got to go into the city and get my sweat on to an awesome workout with Marc Santa Maria, a fitness instructor at Crunch Gyms in NYC.
The class was held in a dance studio which had me nervous to begin with because as much as I love to dance, I’m much better dancing in front of my hallway mirror than I am in front of people, so walking into a ballroom full of spinning ladies and dapper gents had me sweating before the music even started for our workout.
I give Marc tons of credit for creating a class even I could (mostly) handle and then even more credit for not laughing out loud when he caught my reflection in the floor to ceiling mirrors as I stumbled through the more challenging (at least for this white girl) parts.
Marc has just finished a DVD called Rhythmica Dance Cardio Party which GAIAM released for sale. The workout we did was a combination of all three workouts on the DVD. Think of Rhythmica as Zumba with more instruction, but not too much that you feel like you’re in a Jazzercise class. The moves are easy enough yet flexible enough that if you don’t get them right (which I rarely did) you can kind of shimmy your hips and feel like you’re not too far off the class.
The three workouts are Get Fit House Party, Latin Dance Mix and Hip Hop Fat Burn. Basically, it’s just a big ole dance your butt off DVD.
I had a blast at the live event but I have to admit I was skeptical of the DVD because these things never seem to translate as well to television. But when I tried it out I have to say I like it well enough to add to the fitness rotation. It’s a perfect miss of slow instruction and fast tempo dancing. I am still partial to the Latin, as I was in the live class, but that has everything to do with my skill and nothing to do with the workout. A Hip-Hop dancer I am not!
If you can’t make it to Zumba at the gym, this is a great substitution and Marc is as dreamy on film as he was in real life. I know I for one am stocking up on in-house exercise ideas. As we head into summer break and a house full of kids, I can kiss my long weekday runs goodbye. Looks like I’ll be shimmying to a latin beat instead.
Want your own copy of this DVD? I’m running a giveaway over on the Real Life Wellness Blog. Just click the link and leave a comment over there. Thanks for visiting. It’s lonely there without it’s RHM peeps!
P.S. Looking for more parenting guidance and tips for self-care? Check out From Chaos to Calm a guided training to help you feel better in this tough season.
Sounds great. I am always looking for excercise that doesn’t seem like exercise.