Tried a new fitness class last night - observations

A friend of mine here locally told me of a class offered at our gym twice a week. I can never make the Sunday one because it's when I'm teaching, but with flipping around when I take yoga, I had a chance to try this class.

It's called Dance Sport Endurance. It's basically the same idea as Zumba, but it's all ballroom dance steps done as an aerobics class - no partners. Here's a link to show you more about it: http://www.dancesportendurance.com/

My friend thought I would like it because it's less hard on the knees and less bouncy and she was right. It was good in that way. And it was fun to sort of learn some dance steps to popular dances like the Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, the Jive, Foxtrot as well as the Latin dances like Samba and Tango, etc.

Of course, the instructor makes the moves look soooooo easy and so smooth and none of us could move like that. She's a professional ballroom dancer (and professor) so for her it is easy.

What I'm finding though is that these classes aren't intense enough. I wore a cheapo heart rate monitor I picked up just to see how intense the workout was and really, only a couple songs got my heart rate really going (the middle two) and a few had parts that got me going, but I was in the low aerobic heart rate zone for much of the class. I can probably make it better with these two things.

1. I need to learn the steps because trying to move as quickly as I need to for cardio work isn't possible when I'm learning how to do the steps at the same time as moving fast. I miss steps and turns and moves which keeps my heart rate lower than it would if I knew what steps came next.

2. I need to move to the back of the room away from other people in the class. The instructor in front of the gym makes big, broad movements front to back and side to side. People in class tend to make short steps which, of course, limits the cardio peaks if you move small. I can't move big if I'm around other people because I'll knock into them, so maybe I can just hang out in back and move bigger there.

All in all it was a good class and I guess it's good that I've gotten to a point in my fitness level that I need to push myself harder in such classes. And it was good that it was on the day after a tough workout day. I still got exercise, but in a less intense way.

Tonight, the yoga class. It's a new class, so I'll see if it's the same instructors we've had in the other two classes or a third instructor. The two instructors for yoga 1 I've had have been night and day in their approach to everything, even though they are teaching the same yoga poses!

Stats for 2/3/12:

Highest weight: 275  Now: 175.8
Total hours exercised in 2012: 23/250