How to do zumba dance moves
Basic Zumba Moves | livestrong
Basic Zumba Moves
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The dance moves in Zumba are inspired by some of the most expressive and lively dances from South America. Classic dance styles, like salsa, get a modern revamp with a fitness twist in Zumba routines.
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Your first Zumba dance class might be overwhelming in terms of complexity. The music is fast and the moves are even faster. However, if you break the dances down to their basic roots, you can start to master Zumba.
Originally, Latin American dances were the inspiration for Zumba. Over time it has evolved to include dance moves from all over the world. Many of the basic moves are still inspired by Latin dance, so those are the basic moves you should learn first. Once you learn the steps that each style of dance is based off of, you'll have a foundation to build on when you take Zumba.
Read more: How Fast Can Zumba Whip You Into Shape?
Basic Salsa Steps
For salsa, start with the most basic step pattern. There are eight counts total:
- Take one step to the left with your left foot.
- Rock your weight back to the right foot.
- Step back to the center with your left foot.
- Pause for the fouth count.
- Step to the right with your right foot.
- Shift your weight onto the left foot.
- Bring your right foot back to center.
- Pause for the eighth count.
Alternatively, you can do these steps in a forward and backward direction.
To step it up a level, you can do travel steps. Instead of taking one step to the side, you take four steps total. The lead leg goes first, then the back foot catches up to the lead. Take one more step with the lead and catch up with the hind foot one more time. Then, repeat that sequence in the opposite direction.
Basic Merengue Steps
Zumba uses the simplicity of the merengue steps to create a fast-paced series of steps. Start slow to master the basic steps before you pick things up.
Stand tall with your feet close together. Shift your hips to the right and pick up your left foot, then stomp it on the ground. Then, shift your hips to the left and pick up your right foot, then stomp it. Find a rhythm with that step pattern, then try to move faster once you're comfortable. You can add arm movements like a reach out to the side or overhead as you step.
Basic Reggaeton Steps
For this upbeat and modern style of dance, start with the leg movements first. Step out wide with your left foot. Bring your right foot in and tap it right next to your left foot. As you tap your right foot, lean to the right so that you would fall if you didn't catch yourself.
Step wide to the right with your right foot to catch your fall, then step your left foot close to the right as you lean to the left. Keep alternating to the beat as you get comfortable with the big steps. When you're comfortable, it's time to add the arm movements. When you step both feet to the left, raise your right arm up high.
Put it down, then step to the right and reach your left arm up.
Zumba can seem overwhelming at first, until you learn the basics.
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Basic Cumbia Steps
This classic Latin dance style involves some fancy footwork. With your right foot planted, step your left foot forward. Keep your body tall and don't lean forward with your leg. Keep the front knee straight, then pick up the lead leg and bring it behind your right leg.
This time, plant your left foot behind your body. Plant your toes, keeping the rest of the foot off of the ground. Twist your hips and bring your left foot to the front again. Keep stepping with your left foot only until you're comfortable with the motion, then try it with your left foot planted as you move your right foot.
Read more: The Best Zumba Exercise Videos
Basic Samba Steps
Similar to merengue, this Brazilian dance has simple steps but becomes complicated quickly as it moves fast.
Start standing tall with your feet close together. Lean your weight into your right foot, keeping the knee straight and leaning your hips to the right.
As you sit into your right leg, lift your left heel off of the ground so that only your toes are touching, and bend your left knee. Then, put your left heel down onto the ground and lean into your left leg, raising your right heel and bending the right knee.
The key to this dance step is in the hips. Move your hips in an exaggerated motion to the side that has the heel planted.
Creating a New Zumba Routine
Zumba routines are fast-paced cardio dynamos that help students forget they’re even working out. In today’s fitness deep dive, we’ll cover everything instructors need to know about creating the perfect routine for eager Zumba students.
The Origins of Zumba
Zumba has a relatively short history compared to other forms of exercise and dance. In 1998, Alberto “Beto” Perez founded Zumba in Columbia.
An aerobic instructor, Perez found himself in a predicament one day before class. He had forgotten the class music. Pulling out the only music he had with him, salsa and merengue, Perez decided to wing it. The fusion of latin dance and aerobics was an immediate hit.
Originally the spanish word for party - rumba - and the common aerobic class jazzercise were combined to name this new form of dance exercise rumbacise. Later the exotic aerobic blend was coined Zumba. Now Zumba has certified instructors in 125 countries around the world.
Becoming a Zumba Instructor
As the world of Zumba has exploded throughout many countries, the need for teachers grew with it. Zumba is a high-intensity cardio aerobic exercise class. Having the right certification, as with any other fitness profession, is absolutely essential.
The ZIN™ Academy is one of the largest and most recognized professional networks of Zumba. ZIN™ offers a subscription with a wide range of certifications and specialty classes for instructors to hone their skills.
Do Zumba Instructors Need a Dance Background?
A common concern for those looking into the career as a Zumba instructor is whether or not they need a background in ballroom or classical dance. While the muscle memory created through formal training could be very beneficial, it is not necessary for Zumba. The steps are supposed to be simple and easy to learn.
Zumba classes are for individuals who are looking for fun exercise—the motto being “Ditch the Workout, Join the Party”. An experienced instructor needs to have taken part in many Zumba classes, as well as continued education, before venturing into a teaching role.
A Closer Look at a Zumba Dance Sequence
With any good aerobics, Zumba dances need a good up beat song to put the movements to. A typical dance can last the length of one full length song. The average choreography would last approximately three and a half minutes. The dance should be contained to a small area, allowing students to be able to follow along without running into walls or neighboring students.
Repetitive movement sequences allow learners to pick up the choreography and apply the movements by the second or third time through. Arms, legs, hips and shoulders are all used throughout the routine to allow for full body exercise. The progression of exercise should allow for a warm-up period, a high-intensity section, and finally a cool down. This progression can be done throughout the entirety of a class or within a single dance. The warm up and cool down should use smaller movements, while the high intensity sections use larger, full body steps.
Tips for Choosing Zumba Music
The choice in music is an important part of any choreography. Although Zumba was first started in South America using Salsa and Merengue, you can use any genre of music. For Zumba, quick tempos are a necessary component for any dance. A quick tempo ensures that even small movements will be fast-paced, adding to the cardiovascular benefits of Zumba.
While Latin music offers many different styles of quick energetic music, pop and electronic dance music are great genres to loop in, as well.
Picking music that's catchy and enjoyable to you will help you in choreographing the dance as you will be hearing these songs more than anyone else. When choosing your next song, finding a track with a simple repetitive beat will help you and your students keep tempo and pick up the dance faster and easier. Making a playlist of possible song choices can help you decide what song to use and will give you plenty of options for future choreographies.
Best Places to Find Zumba Music
Looking for good dance music can be tough if you’re not sure where to start. YouTube is an easy, free way to find new songs and genres. Once you start finding music that inspires you to get up and move, create a playlist to keep all your music selections in one place.
Alternatively, a streaming service might be more ideal for you. Paying a set price each month would enable you to download a huge variety of songs straight to your device. The official Zumba website has a membership that gives you unlimited access to their top music picks and even choreographies.
Finding what works for you is always the best policy for giving yourself room for maximum creativity.
What Steps to Use in Your Zumba Routine
As soon as you lock down your top choice of song, it’s time to start creating your routine. Listening to the music and seeing what your body naturally wants to do when you start to get into the groove can help inspire your entire choreography. If you want to shimmy your shoulders and put your hands up, you would want to consider movements that get your upper body working.
A great way to get your shoulders and back working are, arm pumps, body rolls and hand rolls, just to name a few. Combining these exercises with simple foot movements such as, heel switches, walking in place, or a wide legged stance with hip bumps will help keep your full body moving without adding too much complication to the sequence.
Finding Inspiration for New Zumba Routines
If you are feeling stuck in the middle of a choreography or can’t even think where to begin, inspiration might be what you need.
Watching videos of Zumba dances or attending a Zumba class is one way to get your creative juices flowing. Seeing and doing different movements can help you create ideas for your own dance.
Watching ballroom dancing or other forms of dance can help you discover new movements you haven’t tried before. Part of being creative is being open to new possibilities.
Ways to Keep your Zumba Class Safer
Zumba classes are fast-paced and high-energy, which means there are chances for mishaps to occur. Taking small steps with each and every class you teach can go a long way in helping to lessen the chances for an accident or mishap.
Keeping a Zumba class safe takes diligence on behalf of the instructor, certain things to watch for include:
- Keeping a clean space: this seems basic but you’d be surprised how many accidents happen simply because a studio wasn’t cleaned beforehand. Make sure to promptly wipe up any spills and pick up any loose debris so they don’t become a slipping hazard.
- Correct bad form: if a student is not performing a routine correctly, you need to help guide them into the proper sequence. Improper form could injure the student or those around them so you aren’t doing any favors by not correcting them.
- Keep intervals manageable: you know your class and may even be targeting a specific client segment such as older gym goers. Make sure to keep the intervals between high and low intensity dance moves at a manageable level, relative to the class. Watch out for any signs of overexertion and tone down the routine as needed.
No accidents are completely unavoidable but you can help lessen the chances of a mishap simply by being present, alert, and prepared for each and every class.
Making Sure Your Zumba Career is Covered
Creating the absolutely perfect Zumba routine that really drives the energy and enthusiasm of a class is a great feeling. Having students spread their good experience with others, creates an opportunity for having more individuals sign up to take your next class.
With consistently good experiences, a Zumba teacher can build their reputation and their client list to whatever heights they desire. Even with all of this, an entire career can come crashing down in an instant with just the slightest misstep during a session with students.
Zumba instructor insurance is your career’s safeguard, offering 360 degrees of protection from the most common types of accidents and other risks that sometimes just happen, no matter how careful you are. A slip and fall injury, an accusation of malpractice—events like these could lead someone to file a lawsuit against you, which, frivolous or not, will require paying for your defense.
Insure Fitness Group’s Zumba insurance policy helps provide for the costs associated with a claim, as well as any legal defense fees that are necessary. We do this for a wide variety of risks that today’s Zumba instructors face so they can have full confidence teaching the routines they love.
Sign Up for Zumba Insurance in a Few Clicks
No long questionnaire to fill out or waiting a long time for approval.
Simply fill out a quick online application, check out, and enjoy full Zumba insurance coverage with immediate access to plan documents.
Zumba fitness: 10 lessons for weight loss (video)
Dance, rejoice and lose weight - this is the essence of "zumba fitness" in a nutshell. This dance fitness program combines elements of Latin American dances and hip-hop, and anyone can master it.
SovetskySport understood how to lose weight and pump up the press with the help of Zumba
What is Zumba fitness for weight loss
The founder of Zumba is a choreographer from Colombia, Alberto Perez. Zumba is an intense fitness program based on simple dance moves from rumba, salsa, bachata, merengue, hip hop and other dances. Zumba weight loss classes are held to music. The session lasts an average of 40-60 minutes. Advanced Zumba dancers use light weights to make it harder.
What is the effect of Zumba fitness for weight loss
An hour of intense Zumba movements effectively burns fat, trains the muscles of the legs and back.
The dance also gives a load to the pectoral muscles, shoulder muscles and arms. Zumba fitness trains the cardiovascular system and increases your endurance.
You can learn and perform Zumba movements for weight loss at home using video tutorials for beginners.
Video Lesson 1: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss – Learn Zumba Movements
Affordable zumba weight loss video tutorial that explains the basics and teaches you the basic initial movements - steps and twists.
Video Lesson 2: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Making Basic Movements Harder
Easy to understand Zumba weight loss video tutorial. Here you will be taught how to link zumba movements to one another, keep the right rhythm during training and control yourself for mistakes.
Video Lesson 3: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Abs and Legs Specialization
The load in Zumba fitness can be varied by increasing the pace or highlighting individual muscle groups and making “specialization days” for them.
This beginner zumba fitness video tutorial is all about how to work your abs and hips while dancing.
VIDEO
Read on "Soviet Sport" - Squat at home. A guide to the most important exercise in training0017
Have you mastered the basic zumba movements and how to vary them? It's time to go through the full 50 minute lesson. Repeat the movements after the trainer, try not to stop or pause.
Video Lesson 5: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Hip Hop Zumba Movements
Intensive 25-minute Zumba video lesson for beginners with a focus on hip hop movements. In addition, the trainer will add a lot of squats to hip-hop - this way you will work out the hips, buttocks and remove fat from the sides even more effectively. Don't be surprised if sitting down and getting up is difficult for the next couple of days.
Video Lesson 6: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Zumba with Dumbbells
The Zumba toning program involves increasing the load of the standard zumba.
Here, all exercises are performed with dumbbells weighing 1-2.5 kg. How to use vzumba dumbbells correctly is in this video tutorial for beginners.
Video Lesson 7: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Zumba for Seniors
Zumba is suitable for people of all ages. From here, what pace to maintain if you are engaged in Zumba, and you are well over 40, this video tutorial will tell you how to choose movements and music.
Read on "Soviet Sport" - Five forgotten but effective exercises
Video lesson 8: zumba fitness for weight loss - zumba for children
You can involve your children in Zumba. If it's cold outside, Zumbafitness can replace them with a walk on the sports ground.
The movements in this video lesson are adapted for children 3-5 years old. They are simple and look like morning exercises.
For a child, Zumba training will be an interesting game while you continue to burn your calories and lose weight
Video Lesson 9: Zumba Fitness for Weight Loss - Warm Up Before Zumba
This video lesson will teach you how to properly warm up before your Zumba class. There are many steps, swings of arms and legs - everything that will protect you from injuries and sprains. You can also perform this video lesson for beginners with music
Video lesson 10: zumba fitness for weight loss - hitch and stretching after training
stretching right - in this zumba video tutorial for beginners.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ZUMBA:
- Zumba is an intense form of training.
To find out which load is right for you, consult your doctor. Check your cardiovascular system;
- you need to train according to the "Zumba-fitness for weight loss" method on average 3 times a week. Let your body rest for at least one day between workouts;
- do not neglect the warm-up and cool-down. Warm-up - will help prepare the body for stress, and the hitch - "calm" and relax the muscles after training.
source: "Soviet Sport"
Zumba for weight loss for beginners at home. Fitness zumba at home
A method of losing weight with African and Latin American motives, originally from Colombia? Of course, we are talking about Zumba.
Contents
- What is Zumba?
- How to lose weight with Zumba?
- Are there any contraindications?
- How to practice?
What is Zumba?
Zumba is a complete weight loss exercise that combines elements of hip-hop and African dance to energetic Latin music.
Zumba has long ceased to be just a kind of sports dance and has become a full-fledged brand that unites people around the world.
In addition to the direct effect on weight and figure, Zumba is a great mood booster. The concept of this sport lies in the brightness, cheerful and motivational environment in which you plunge headlong.
How to lose weight with Zumba?
Zumba is a dance that will definitely help you lose weight. All dance elements and movements are aimed at a deep study of all muscle groups, the formation of a beautiful, toned body.
Guaranteed slimness is not the only advantage.
- Zumba can be practiced both in the gym under the supervision of an instructor and at home. YouTube is full of tutorials that show and tell in detail what to do and how to do it.
- This type of fitness increases your energy levels noticeably. During classes, serotonin is actively produced, as a result of which a positive attitude towards oneself and others really appears.
- Performing dance elements does not require special training. You can teach Zumba to anyone, regardless of whether a person was engaged in dancing or not. The movements are very simple, but that is why Zumba instantly draws in.
- You can practice at any age. There are special concepts Zumba Gold and Zumba Kids, the target audience of which, respectively, are the elderly and children.
| Important! During one workout, you can burn from 500 to 900 kcal. It all depends on the duration of the lesson, the pace of execution and the intensity of the exercises. You should start with 20 minutes of activity, gradually increasing the time to 45-60 minutes. |
Of course, fast and high-quality results can only be obtained if you do Zumba regularly, do not miss workouts, follow all the trainer's recommendations and stick to a balanced diet.
Are there any contraindications?
Like any sport, Zumba has its contraindications.
Namely:
- serious pathologies of bone tissue;
- pregnancy;
- hypertension;
- diseases of the cardiovascular system;
- varicose veins;
- brain pathology.
If you have diseases or injuries of the knee joints, spine, be sure to consult an orthopedist. Also, you should be careful when exercising if you have diabetes: during exercise, the level of insulin in the blood can rise sharply.
If all this is not about you, feel free to go for the brightest sports uniform and sneakers, sign up with an experienced instructor (or turn on a video tutorial on the Internet) and start training!
How to practice?
Any Zumba workout starts with a warm-up. This step should not be skipped, because warming up the muscles will prevent possible injuries and sprains.
If you are new to the group, try to take a seat in the front row so that you can carefully observe the instructor's movements and learn combinations and dance sequences faster.
