Last night I went to my second hip hop fitness class with Mike Nicholson (here's his website if you live in Columbus and want to check him out...definitely recommend! This video embedded here is a little intro to what he does.)
I've been to a lot of dance classes in my time. Starting at age 4 with the Joan Garrett Dance Studio's tap dancing lessons. Luckily the grown up classes aren't so strict about knowing your left from your right (which I'm still not so great at when moving fast!)
I danced all through childhood and am glad I did because whatever coordination I have, which isn't much, probably comes from that. Is it sad that I had 10 years of dance lessons and I still have no rhythm? Probably.
As an adult I've gone to Zumba classes, 'latin fusion' class at the gym, and now hip hop. Varying levels of difficulty with hip hop seeming to be the hardest...but it really wasn't! They were all very accessable!
The Latin Fusion class was probably the easiest one, and was actually cancelled at my gym a few weeks after I first tried it due to lack of attendance (there's now a Zumba class at that time that I wish I could make it to but the kids are always too hard to get away from on Monday evenings) It had more instruction and slower pace, kind of like a dance workout DVD (or all the ones I've done).
But Zumba and Hip Hop are very similar (this class anyway...I should probably add that its part of a program that offers Zumba too). Minimal instruction, just jump right in. And its easy to jump right in because the moves are repetitive enough and there are enough people in the class who really know what they're doing adn are amazing, that you can just watch them and pick it up in no time. And if you don't? Just move around like a crazy person and burn calories anyway! No one cares if you look like a fool! This isn't a recital, this isn't 'da club', its a bunch of people looking to have fun and get a good workout in.
All levels of fitness were there. ALL LEVELS. And there was probably a forty year age range represented. Maybe more than that because there were a couple little ones rocking it out with their moms here and there.
Want to talk about a stress reliever? You REALLY don't think about your problems in a dance fitness class. You don't think about much more than the dancing and the music! And maybe your sweat. (I don't know about you but when I do yoga, they say push it all out, but I think A LOT).
Definitely recommend to keep exercise fresh, get out of your comfort zone!
By the way? Probably burned 500-600 calories during this class (total conservative estimate. I wore a heart rate monitor during the first one and it went through the roof!)
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