Wanna Keep Fit? Try Zumba!
By: Minoti Dighe Gadre
Tags: Fitness, Weight Loss, Exercise, Dance, Health

Physical activity is a must in today’s busy and stressful life. Most of us are engaged in such work that makes us sit for long hours. There is hardly any activity or moving around or sport/recreational activity we do. Such a lifestyle is called sedentary activity. Sedentary lifestyle is responsible for many lifestyle related diseases and disorders such as obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.

Overstress adds to this condition and makes us more susceptible to such problems.

Many-a-times we realize this and want to be physically active. One may think an easy way of doing this is joining a gym or go for walks. However some of us find these activities to be very monotonous and may get bored soon. This may lead to us either quitting the activity or be irregular at it.

There are various other forms as a substitute to the usual approach to exercise. New types of set physical activities are being developed to suit more and more people and their lifestyles.

Zumba fitness could be considered an effective type of physical activity able to improve aerobic capacity i.e. the cardio activity (it relates to heart health and expending calories by burning fats from the body).

Zumba is a fun activity, which is a combination of various dance moves and cardio vascular exercises. It also has some strength building activities involved in routine. Generally, there is a class in which one or two trainers train a group of participants on a piece of music.

Zumba was found accidentally by Alberto “Beto” Perez (Columbian dancer/choreographer) in the 1990s. The dance routine includes a combination of various dance styles such as hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue and mambo. Other exercises such as lunges and squats are also comprised in Zumba.

Health Benefits:

Weight loss

It is a good activity for losing weight (of course along with the right kind of healthy diet and other lifestyles changes). It is medium to fast pace activity and help in burning fats from the body, thus resulting in weight loss.

2. Improves Cardio Vascular (Heart) Fitness

Studies show that a Zumba program of 12 weeks can be responsible for noteworthy improvements in cardio vascular or aerobic health.

3. Decrease Blood Pressure

Regular Zumba activity has also shown to decrease the blood pressure.

4. Increases Threshold to Pain

It is a great aerobic activity and evidence shows that aerobic exercise improves tolerance to pain.

5. Fun and Social Activity

When a physical activity is done in a group, it is thought to be more enjoyable. You may meet new people, make new friends or workout while having a great time with your friends and family members! Experts believe that being social helps in maintaining and improving mental health.

6. Makes you Happy

Exercising release feel good hormone called Endorphins, the same effect can be achieved with doing Zumba and thus it may help elevate your mood.

Some experts also believe that certain types of Zumba programs such as “Zumba toning” may also help improve the muscle strength and help tone your body. But more research in this area is required to show its effectiveness.

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References

https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/benefits-of-zumba#1

https://www.pmrjournal.org/article/S1934-1482(16)30189-7/pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumba#cite_note-brides-3

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22699138