Can you really dance your way to a svelte, toned body while side stepping the gym, aks AILISH CONNELLY
‘HAS YOUR mother gone to her pole dancing class yet?”
The neighbour’s husband was hopeful. Dream on daddyo . . . it’s salsa that your wife is learning, not pole dancing.
And if you happened to take a peek at 30 ladies of a certain age, happy, sweaty and red-faced from effort, it’s hardly titillation you’d be feeling.
Somehow I got inveigled into this, into agreeing to join Salsa Slim, a weight-loss/fitness programme, after a brief conversation in miserable mid-January with an evangelistic friend.
If she found five guinea pigs, we could all have a reduction on the €120 fee for the 10-week course. So of course, she did and suddenly we were there, pulling on the leggings, filling the water bottles, hoping we’d not make a show of ourselves.
And praying that if we paid attention to our new diet booklet, courtesy of Stepping Out, the fitness/dance company which runs the Salsa Slim dance courses, the post-Christmas bulge would melt away and we’d be svelte, toned, fitter, different people practically, happier obviously and raring to go by Easter.
Dancing as a way of keeping fit has side-stepped into vogue on the heels of such TV programmes as Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars.
On these programmes even professional sports people talk about the benefits of dance for their overall fitness levels. So just think what it could do for the Josephines at home watching the box with their fingers shoved in the biscuit tin.
Regular exercise boosts the immune system, decreases stress, improves energy levels and improves the quality of your life, as well as helping to control weight gain.
For women, dancing is recommended as one of the “weight-bearing” exercises, helpful in reducing the development of osteoporosis as they age.
Studies show Irish people as some of the most unfit and overweight in the Euro zone; we need to get moving.
According to the promotional material provided at my first Salsa Slim class, low-intensity exercise, such as dancing, is a better way of burning fat than high-intensity activities such as cardio training or running.
One of the myths of exercising is that you have to kill yourself, pushing yourself to the limit, to see any results.
Stepping Out suggests that if your workout leaves you shattered, you won’t rush back to repeat it and that you can injure yourself with strenuous exercise.
Dancing uses all the muscles in your body. You can get lost in the music and won’t even notice that you are exercising at all.
That bit held true, certainly for my first class. I didn’t notice a thing, it all seemed a little bit too easy going, too effortless.
We learned several steps: how to forward travel (mince forward, with grace if possible), side travel, open step and basic, among others.
There will be no holding back on the dance floor next party season but surely there should be some pain?
The traditional views of exercise can be difficult to shift.
Why wasn’t I gasping for breath and practically crawling out the front door?
I had hardly broken a sweat and I’m not showing off; neither had anyone else.
Between the low-key weighing in (no ritual humiliation, no forced standing on the scales, all voluntary), the regular announcements of stuff for sale (salsa CD for €20, we aren’t that desperate) and the gentle pace, the hour flew by.
However, I felt mildly disappointed and wondered whether I’d have been better off running around the tennis court outside the door of the dance class.
My friends had mixed views, some enjoying the lack of punishment others, like me, feeling it had been a bit too comfortable.
The next few classes were a definite improvement. In week two our young dance teacher upped the pace considerably and soon the room full of ladies were giving it loads, becoming pink-cheeked with their energy expenditure.
We basic stepped it and forward travelled and cross stepped as if our lardy lives depended on it.
We learned the more complicated rhythms of Suzie Q, a dance sequence, and felt we may actually be getting somewhere.
There was no weigh-in and no annoying sales push.
But there were moments of pure Zen where we concentrated on the music and the movement and thought of nothing else, nothing, not the recession nor the kids nor the chores waiting at home for our return.
We got into our groove and decided that actually yes, this salsa lark is a good use of an hour, of an evening.
Salsa Slim is suitable for all fitness levels, from late teens to old age and even for people with minor mobility challenges.
But a warning for the ladies, don’t go to a Salsa Slim class looking for a mate. The only men in the vicinity were on the courts outside although, as it’s a countrywide organisation, it may be different in other venues.
This type of class bears only a passing resemblance to more traditional ideas of the Latin American dance style.
My group of friends mentioned that our class felt quite crowded, so check on numbers before you sign up as it may hamper enjoyment worrying about walloping another class member.
There are similarities to WeightWatchers with the obvious difference of the emphasis on dance.
The Stepping Out organisation runs a slick programme. The company, and others like it, are cashing in on the nation’s collective weight problem. However, if you go with an open mind, can ignore the sales patter and give it a chance, you will learn dance steps and have an enjoyable time.
Per class it’s not expensive and if you pay attention to your diet during the 10-week course, you may also lose some weight. Salsa slims, we hope.