Dancing in front of the Mirror

A couple of years ago someone shared this image on facebook.  I laughed because the image itself is absolutely hysterical, but also because it is so true!  When I am at my Zumba class, the inner me is shimmy-ing and thrustin' and shakin' and bustin' quite a fantastic move on that dance floor.  My dream as a young girl was to be a Solid Gold Dancer shaking my tush in those metallic gold costumes.  This was my moment to dig that dream from the depths of my brain and live it out on the dance floor of Firehall #6.  In reality I'm sure Cat (my most incredible instructor) is seeing quite a frightful scene when she scans the room in my direction.  But that's ok because I can't see the true me in that moment and I know that everyone around me is so focused on Cat or their own moves that they don't notice me flailing around.

Until I showed up at Cat's Saturday morning class in a room where half the walls are covered in . . . MIRRORS!  WHAT?!?!?

For the first couple of classes I tried my best to stare at the floor or the ceiling and not let my eyes catch even the quickest glance at the freakish woman jumping wildly to the beat of the music.  But after a few weeks, curiosity got the best of me and I couldn't help but stare at this woman trying her best to match the rhythmic moves of the instructor.  I was truly shocked at the fact that the hips and pelvis I truly believed were shimmy-ing and thrustin' and shakin' and bustin' some kind of move were in reality hardly moving.  No wonder whenever Cat told us that our core should be burning that I was feeling nothing.  I assumed that my core was buried so deep under fat that I just couldn't feel anything.  Boy, was I wrong!

I began to study Cat a little closer and look at my own body (Yes, I practiced in front of the mirror at home!).  If I spread my feet a little wider, bent my knees a little more, tightened up that dreaded core and stopped worrying about what my arms were doing in that moment I managed to get a lot more action going on down there below my belly button!  Then guess what happened?  I felt the burn!  My core burned.  Whoop!  Whoop!

I learned several things from this revelation:
1) It is important to spend some time studying the structure of a move (in Zumba or any form of exercise) in order to gain the maximum effect.  This could take just seconds as Cat is teaching us a new routine or require a little extra practice at home.
2) There is a core buried deep within me.
3) I'm glad that I finally took a look at myself dancing in front of the mirror.

That's me in the grey t-shirt bustin' a Zumba move!!
Photo credit - SkyBird Photography

My BFF Amy (right) and I with our most incredible Zumba Instructor Cat.