11 Years of Lessons
Here are my top 11 pieces of honest learning I’ve had over my 11 year Zumba Fitness career. For what it’s worth, I’m still learning and so these “lessons” are fluid and churning, like when a river meets the ocean.
1. It’s not easy. Showing up and pressing “play” on the (CD player, then iPod Nano, then iPod 1st generation, then) iPhone is one thing, but actually teaching a quality workout every week, sometimes 5-7+ times a week, that also builds connection, without creating shame, and staying in the game for the long haul is another. If you are here for a discount on fitness gear or a trip to Florida once a year with really fun people, the door is that way.
2. Fitness hurts. It eats into your wallet with CPR/AED trainings every two years and your monthly license, new shoes, new clothes, music and continued learning all add to the total. It takes prime time from your family with evenings and weekend mornings away. Staying certified in the professional body that makes you reputable takes time and hours or weekends out of your free time. Fitness multiple times a week earns you Tennis Elbow and bursitis and frozen shoulder and a number of random overuse injuries that get you into specific physical therapy sessions where your therapist knows immediately you teach fitness and then it’s all you talk about while they carefully (kill) strengthen you.
3. Fitness can earn money. Going indepedent, marketing your human side and building your brand, especially in the virtual world and with the assistance of clicks and followers on social media can actually earn income. Celebrity trainers earn a true living and it’s impressive - as opposed to instructors at gyms earning a new pair of shoes each month - and somewhere inbetween has been the past 11 years of my blessed life.
4. Teaching Zumba Fitness is like sharing the best parts of diversity training. Allowing other languages, moves from other cultures, and the lightness and joy of other parts of the world is the absolute best part of the party. Every restaurant you encounter after learning about Zumba Fitness is different because you appreciate the background music differently. Every vacation to a tropical area is like being home in your Zumba class. Meeting an Uber driver from Nigeria listening to Tekno now feels like reuniting with your long lost cousin. Loving music, language, dance and smiling are universal.
5. Fitness fails you. You can teach 1 class a week and still hurt yourself. You can teach 17 classes, feel like a rockstar to dozens, even hundreds, of people, and then still have no health insurance. Being a fitness instructor does not earn you a piece of the stimulus package for essential employees or make its way into greeting card categories, holidays or ornaments on a Christmas tree. Injuries, reputations, arthritis keep you up at night.
6. Fitness fills you. Seeing folks “vote with their feet” to be there, near you, learning from you and leaning into what feels good is like coming up from the water to take a big gulp of air. You get inundated with this swimming and treading and getting dragged down by competition, fears of self-worth and the demons of your day and then finally, one person, or five, or a few hundred subscribing to YOU one day fills you with oxygen. The Christmas gifts, the thank you cards, the banana bread and Ziploc bags filled with tomatoes really add up! There is no tangible way to say that folks don’t appreciate their instructor, the evidence is in the Ziploc.
7. Fitness, especially Zumba Fitness, frees you. The weightlessness of dancing like nobody is watching and the medicinal release of adrenaline when nailing just the right moves is the most inspiring drug.
8. At one point, the drama of the fitness world will beat you down. The in-fighting at clubs, vying for the same jobs, the pecking order of years of service and show-boating for the Monday night, 6pm time slot will make you question why you even started. The words you hear from other instructors will inevitably make you ask, “Are they saying awful things about me, too?” The answer is yes, and the only way to make it through that shame spiral is by being the instructor willing to adapt, the one who never says a bad word outside of their own car, and accepting that the fitness world is a breeding ground for insecurity. The thickness of our skin and willingness to think, work and respect indepedently are our strongest assets. Don’t quit! Work smarter, not harder, and define what makes you unique.
9. The losses in the fitness world hit you double; you lose friends when you lose clients. You lose companions when fellow instructors leave the fold. There is a shift in your professional world without them and a hole in your heart without that friendship. Try not to take their reasons for leaving personally; the best gift you can give yourself is saying out loud “They left fitness, they did not leave me.” The same goes for when someone in your classes passes away. Say out loud, “They left this Earth, but they did not leave me.”
10. The gains of the fitness world (pun absolutely intended) are exponential. The friends who now invite you for drinks, the weddings that need you at the reception, the clothes you now share since everyone is wearing tie dye next week are endless. Nothing compares to a warm, sweaty hug after class. The notion that smiles are contagious is only an inkling of the gifts held within the fitness world and if we only show up we gain a glimpse of how positive energy shifts time and space. I can see from the front of the room each class, even virtually, how each person gives off a bit of light. And that light is energy and that energy is uplifting for all of us. We gain youth and vitality; we gain stamina and speed; we gain friends who become family.
11. The only way to make it 11 years is to keep growing. Continue to treat your body like a temple and eat clean and work out for yourself as best you can. Take trainings in what you need to know. Strengthen what you are weakest at, both figuratively and realistically. Enjoy Convention and the digital downloads and your New Music playlist on Apple Music. Give yourself permission to be imperfect and allow yourself a bit of humility. The muscles we need, especially for another 11 years, are the most important to keep flexing.
Cheers to my ZINaversary, and kudos to you for your endless support of such a crazy, sweaty endeavor. I had no idea that an 8 hour training would lead to such an amazing story. If you’re considering getting licensed in fitness, DO IT and don’t look back. Here’s to your 11th Fitness Anniversary one day!