Pleasant Grove takes Zumba aerobics class to the pool
PLEASANT GROVE — The Pleasant Grove Community Center offered Water Zumba at the Veterans Pool for the first time Monday night and had the pool crowd enthralled with the music and movement.
“Tonight was incredible,” said Jackie Brinkerhoff, instructor for the class. “I had like 50 to 70 people in that pool — grandmas, grandpas and kids — and they were all shaking their booty. That’s what I like about this program.”
Brinkerhoff certified as a Zumba instructor in 2008 and has been teaching Zumba classes ever since. A dance fitness program that became popular in the United States in 2001, Zumba combines Latin and international music with dance.
Aqua or Water Zumba is an all-ages class similar to water aerobics designed to be safe yet effective and challenging.
The biggest thing Brinkerhoff said she has seen through teaching is that people begin feeling comfortable in their own bodies.
“I tell them at the beginning ‘We get to have fun in this class,’ ” she said. “Everyone moves differently, and you get to find out what your own rhythm and your own style feels like.”
An advantage to the newly offered water version of Zumba is that no one can see you workout, and it can burn from 400 to 900 calories during the 55-minute class.
“They are having so much fun, they don’t even know they are exercising,” Brinkerhoff said. “It’s the only type of class I’ve seen where a family can dance together. I’ve seen anywhere from age 6 to grandparents.”
Hesitant to take the traditional Zumba class with its merengue, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, belly dance, flamenco, tango, samba music and movement, 42-year-old Debbie Miller said it was because she thought she would be the oldest one at the community center class. But she was wrong. “There were 60-year-olds, and if they could do it, I could do it,” she said.
Miller began exercising when she was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. So far, she has lost eight pounds in approximately 45 days.
“That’s why I started on this program, is to lose weight,” she said. “It’s crazy, it’s so moving and shaking, and you don’t think it moves you but it does. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of workout.”
Before the first Water Zumba class, she said she is looking forward to participating.
“I’m really excited for it because when you are in the water it puts less stress on the knees,” Millers said.
The center is offering the Water Zumba class at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Monday and Wednesday and is free for pool pass holders or $2.50 for non-pass holders.
Brinkerhoff said she could never teach Zumba full time. She taught three classes, including the Water Zumba, and with 3 hours of dancing Zumba style was ready for a rest at the end of the day. Even so, she said it was fun.
“I’m tired, but I loved every minute of it,” she said and laughed. “I’m 40 years old, and there is only so much this body is going to give.”
Jana Patten has taken the traditional Zumba class and said everyone loved it. She also said she is looking forward to the new water Zumba.
“That’s kind of exciting,” Patten said. “We’ve never had that before.”
If you go
• What: Water Zumba
• When: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7 to 7:55 a.m. or 7 to 7:55 p.m.
• Where: Veterans Memorial Pool, 300 S. Locust Ave., Pleasant Grove
• Cost: Free for pool pass holders, $2.50 per class for non-pass holders
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