Zumba Strong is a new discipline, which is how I fetched up in a class for instructors. Ha. An hour before it, I would have been using the word “discipline” facetiously, to indicate my ironic distance from the wildfire fitness industry that likes to style itself as somewhere between a martial art and a PhD. An hour afterwards, still panting, I understood that instructors really do have discipline up the wazoo. They are a fascinating bunch, but that’s an anthropological deep dive we’ll have to go on some other time.

If you’re expecting dance moves, you’re in the wrong scene. The class is divided into four sections, all of them aerobically very intense, but not like traditional aerobics, except for a grapevine here and there. There are a lot of boxing moves – jabs, upper cuts, footwork, feints backwards and forwards, and more lunges than I think I’ve ever done in a single hour.

“You won’t just be listening to pop songs,” the head instructor promised at the start, and I felt downhearted, as I used to love going to pump in the 90s and dropping weights on myself while listening to banging house tunes. It was the only time I knew what was in the charts. This programme has bespoke tracks for each section, and the difference is incredible. Just when you’re at the point of slackening off, the music takes on an extra dimension to push you through.

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I’m always incredibly easy on myself during squats and lunges, clinging on to some ancient knee injury to exculpate myself when I give up halfway through. I did not give up once during this class; if anything, I got progressively more energetic as each section went on, which I swear had nothing to do with any decision I may have made, and everything to do with the music. It was discovered in 1911 that cyclists went faster when they listened to music than they did in silence; almost exactly a century later, it was demonstrated that cyclists used 7% less oxygen when the movement occurred synchronously with the music, than when the tempo lagged behind. The effect is greater than simple feel-good motivation: it improves our efficiency, probably (this is my guess) by unifying mind and body. The instructor talked about the uniqueness of the tracks, composed by a Grammy award winner. I didn’t find any of it memorable – I couldn’t hum it now – but it worked.

By the time we got to the mat work (planks, crunches, push-ups, side-planks, your basic nightmare) I was pretty well spent. If I’m honest, I prefer Zumba Classic, which is easier and more playful. But I was bowled over by how well Zumba Strong tricks you into working harder than all your instincts dictate.

What I learned



Getting to the ground (for a burpee, a bear crawl, a suicide push-up) is a savage request in a high-aerobic class; brilliant for your fitness.