Workout craze hits Loyola

Loyola students are joining the party of Zumba and Zumba Sentao.

Zumba is a fitness class offered at Loyola. The fitness class features Latin-inspired dancing and total-body and fat-burning workouts.

Erica Svoboda, wellness coordinator, said Zumba is a fun way to get in shape and tried Zumba herself.

“I’m not a dancer so it was not so much for me, but (Zumba) was a lot of fun,” Svoboda said.

Svoboda is pleased with the popular attention for Zumba as a fitness program that “gets students working out,” she said. She encourages students to try the new Zumba Sentao class. Zumba Sentao has all the styles of regular Zumba but is centered around a prop.

“While using the prop (chair) you get an extra workout and do more,” Svoboda said.

Lisa Wolf, Zumba Sentao instructor, said Zumba Sentao is not for everyone, but if you want a good workout, you should come to her class.

Wolf is licensed in four different styles of Zumba: Zumbatomic, regular Zumba, aqua Zumba and Zumba Sentao. She is also a part of the Zumba Instructor Network. Her class ranges from 12 to 25 people and “a lot of the students in the class never tried regular Zumba.”

Wolf prefers teaching Zumba Sentao rather than traditional Zumba.

“My heart is with Sentao because it’s different and the chair makes it challenging,” Wolf said.

Sharita Williams, marketing sophomore, Diana Mirfiq, psychology junior, and NiRey Reynolds, mass communication sophomore, tried Zumba Sentao. The students had different experiences in the class.

“The instructor is positive, energetic and a decent workout ,” Williams said. “After a while you’ll learn the steps to the moves.”

“I like it, it got me out of my comfort zone,” Mirfiq said. “I was shaking my booty, grinding on the chair and doing things I won’t normally do.”

Mirfiq disliked the pull-ups on the chair, but said there’s more to the class than just exercise.

“The exercise portion pull-ups hurt, but I don’t like to exercise. I did it for fun,” Mirfiq said.

“I like the chair, it made it Zumba but more exciting,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds went to the fitness class with four close friends to laugh and have fun.

“It was a total foreign concept to me because I have never done Zumba before,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds’s one complaint about Zumba Sentao was a need to limit the amount of people in the fitness room.

“(With) regular Zumba, you can pack a lot of people but with Zumba sentao a lot of people cannot be in the room because the chair takes up too much room. You end up bumping into people,” Reynolds said.

Whether students are experienced with regular zumba or new to the Zumba experience Wolf said, “you will leave soaking wet.”

Shamara King can be reached at [email protected]