I did it! Certified Zumba Gold instructor in "da" house!

Jan 31, 2010

Whew!  It was mostly nerves than anything else - they passed everyone and some of the folks were pretty uncoordinated but I'm still so excited that I can now teach Zumba Gold. I'll keep practicing and work towards my Zumba Basic - sounds like Andrea is planning to teach it here in Ottawa in June with Jaime from the US (I've read really good things about him on the Zumba groupie boards - yep... there are groupie boards!).

It was a loooooooooooooooooooooong day - we had to be at the gym to register at 8am and I didn't want to be late so I left here a little too early and was in Orleans at 7:25 (and that included a Starbucks run for a Venti protein latte). Ooops... Discovered the doors were open about 7:40 and Andrea was kind enough to let me in (it was -20 outside!) and put me right to work (which was fine - helped keep my nerves in check). Helped set up and sell Zumbawear off & on all day - did discovered that I can almost fit the XXL (size 16) Samba pants - everywhere but the waist - I could wear them if I had a long/baggier shirt over top. Considering they would go on at the Zumba Fest in early January, I'll take that as a great sign!  Need a bumper sticker that says "Body by Zumba". {giggle}

Because it was a Gold class, there was more "mature" instructors which meant not all hot bodies either so that helped put me a little more at ease. We did a master class to start the morning, learned about "mature adults", baby boomer stats, health concerns to watch for, how to modify as needed, etc. Not quite as much technical stuff as I would have liked but I'll read over my manual today.  Then we learned some choreography and teaching styles.  More classroom stuff - insurance, planning a class, etc then more choreography. I will say we probably did 1 hr of straight classwork, 45-60 min of off & on dance moves, practice teaching - 20 min? then a 30 min "chair" class. No wonder my legs and knees feel a little rough last night & this morning. The Advil (thank you VSG for the ability to take NSAIDS!) last night took the edge off and I was asleep before Desperate Housewives was over.

So now what... I keep taking my continuing ed class on "training the overweight an obese individual", take the Drums Alive instructor class at the end of this month and then Mar 3rd I start my personal fitness trainer (PFT) courses! So excited!!

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