The Hawk : Dancing your way to fitness

Dancing your way to fitness

Demi Liccio '15, Special to The Hawk
December 4, 2012
Filed under Sports

Hidden on the second floor, towards the back of the O?Pake Recreation Center, is a small room where Saint Joseph?s University students gather for group exercise classes. On Wednesday evenings, vibrant Latin music blares from this room, inviting you to join the Zumba fun.

In the mid-1990s, fitness instructor Beto Perez accidently created Zumba after he forgot the music for his aerobics class in Colombia. He improvised by using a Latin CD he had in his car and instinctively created dance and exercise moves to coordinate with the music.

Now a popular exercise trend across the United States, Zumba was brought to the St. Joe?s campus a year and a half ago. The class, which currently has about 10 participants, is held at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesdays in the group fitness room in O?Pake.

Caitlin Wozny, ?15, is the current Zumba instructor at St. Joe?s. She was certified over the summer and is teaching her first class at the university this semester.

Wozny?s highly energized, and enthusiastic personality motivates her students to keep going. Wozney also offers alternatives to certain moves so that students can work out at their own pace.

Kaitlyn Kraenbring, ?13, is a member of the class.

?I think that it?s great that she is my peer teaching the class,? Kraenbring said. ?I have taken classes taught by older women who were great, but I think she is able to make song choices that are more relatable to college kids.?

70 percent of the music used in Zumba is sent to the instructors through a program especially for certified Zumba instructors, along with some choreography; Wozny chooses the other 30 percent.

One class costs $50 for the entire semester, but the prices for additional classes decrease. Two classes cost $75, and enrolling in three classes will cost a student $100.

?I chose group fitness over an individual activity because it motivates me more to exercise if I have paid and know I need to be at class at a certain time,? said Kraenbring.

Also, group fitness is a great way to exercise with friends, as St. Joe?s fitness coordinator Kelly Halpin said, because there is ?somebody else motivating you besides yourself.?

Besides Zumba, the university offers four other group fitness classes on campus, including Yoga, Yogalates, Total Body, and Piloxing.

?I chose Zumba over things like Pilates and Yoga because it is cardio-based, but I definitely think it is a great toning exercise as well,? said Kraenbring. ?I also know what to expect from Zumba having done it for the past three years. It?s familiar to me. I also love dancing, but [I] am not coordinated enough to take an actual dance class.?

Students can register for Zumba classes on the Saint Joseph?s University website under Campus Recreation and ?Group Exercise?.

Source: http://hawkhillnews.com/sports/2012/12/04/dancing-your-way-to-fitness/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dancing-your-way-to-fitness

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