Dance, Fun, and Health= ZUMBA

The Texas A&M International University Recreational Sports Center provides a variety of fitness programs in which ZUMBA Fitness, ZUMBA Toning, and Aqua ZUMBA are included. All TAMIU students may attend for free from Monday through Saturday at various times by just presenting a valid TAMIU ID.  Certified Instructors will make students experience exercise techniques, dance, and at the same time improve their health in a ZUMBA class.

An energizing way for men and women, to burn about 700 to1000 calories per hour, is ZUMBA fitness. At the TAMIU REC, instructors use a variety of Latin rhythms to exercise at the beat of music. In this type of ZUMBA, students can experience a major workout in their whole body while dancing not even knowing they are working out. Just like Instructor Victoria Davenport said, "Because of theatmosphere that it creates your students really do not feel like they are exercising they feel like they are at the club." Fitness has found a way to be both fun and healthy with ZUMBA.

With a light muscle training ZUMBA Toning is one of the workouts that include salsa rhythm, merengue, reggae, cumbia, parranga, hip hop, even Chinese, and all kinds of music around the world. About 70% of the music used in ZUMBA is Latin and 30% is inspired by the instructor's creativity. Also, weights, that are less than 2 pounds, are used in this program to enforce the body as a whole, but mainly arms and legs. With a mix of exercising movements such as aerobic, cardio, and dance, students may work their whole body just as Martin Gallegos, one of the ZUMBA instructors stated, "You get toned… from your legs, your thighs, your arms… actually everything, a whole body work out." Similarly, aqua ZUMBA uses this technique, but instead of weights, the pressure of the water makes the body work.

ZUMBA is a great way to exercise for students who might want to release some stress or lose some weight.  ZUMBA was founded by "Beto" Perez celebrity fitness trainer, as a result of an accident when Perez forgot his music CD for his aerobics class; he decided to use one of his own which contained Latin rhythms, since that musical accident ZUMBA was born.  For more information students can stop by the TAMIU REC or just pick up a monthly schedule for free. Students can also visit the REC website at, http://www.tamiu.edu/recsports/

(Neguif Angeles may be reached at, neguif.angeles@dusty.tamiu.eduand Sandy Lugo may be reached at sandylugoespinoza@dusty.tamiu.edu)