Zumba: The one wear I hang bells on my backside….

Yesterday marked a return to the fitness regime that started in April and ended in May on a beach in Portugal.  With the marathon staring at me from seven months in the future, I felt it was time to attempt to shed some pounds and gain some strength.

As it stands currently, I can’t run a mile.

I entered the gym with apprehension in my mouth.  Around me, stood individuals with bodies like Adonis’s, sweat glistened on their brow, and they played with intimidating looking weights and they pounded at the treadmill in fury.  Me?  I stood, self conscious, with my Natalie Cassidy leggings on and an oversize t – shirt that caught on the bulge in my middle.

I didn’t fit in.

However the plan is to get marathon fit, so I shoved my misgivings aside, swallowed a glug of watery mixed with bravery, and entered the studio where my first class was waiting for me.

Zumba.

I thought this was a nice way to get back in the zone, a bit of dance, a bit of jumping, a bit of getting fit.  I looked around the room and saw others to be of similiar age or more mature and figured I could handle it.  My one concern was that my sports bra had mysteriously disappeared that morning, last seen on BB’s head as she cried ‘ear muffs, mummy, ear muffs’ and I was wearing a regular over the shoulder boulder holder with a tight fitting sports top over the top.

I was a little bouncy…

In fact when the first song kicked into action, and I realised that Zumba is all about dance moves I have never been able to comprehend, coupled with a fair amount of jumping and leaping about, I became aware that my body was like a huge ripple, starting at the chest, wobbling down through the tummy and finishing at my ample sized arse.

With the huge glass mirrors in front of me, I looked like a huge, vibrating, lycra, frog.  With bells on.

Yes, as a treat we were given scarfs with bells on – so we could go all Bollywood.

I found a spot without a mirror in front of it, found my inner chime, and went for it.  The teacher went left, I went right, I collided with a lady a few decades older who took my apology graciously, but still left the class rubbing her thigh.  I threw myself into the dance moves like it was the millennium and I was celebrating the turn of midnight.

I looked a fool, and my bells were out of sync with the class.

But….

I loved it, I rang out loud and clear, and I could feel my body awakening after months of not working.

I am so going back next week….

If they will have me!