Tips and Tricks on Finding Inspiration For Your Zumba® Class

Teaching a group fitness class encompasses an enormous amount of time researching music, creating and learning choreography, setting up set lists, practicing and teaching. {Hit repeat}, and do it all again. Over and over again. Sometimes multiple times a day and most certainly several times a week. It is not uncommon to hit a plateau. You know that feeling when you want to introduce new choreography but find yourself short on time and maybe even lacking inspiration. There are many ways to reignite your Zumba® engine.  

1. Take a break. YES! Take a few classes off occasionally to rest your body and your mind. When you return to classes, I promise the spark will follow.

Zumba.com ZIN™ JAM Sessions

2. Attend another ZIN's class. This is an insta-boost. Not only will you love the energy, but experiencing someone else's vibe can really help you discover something new that would also work for your unique self. (No, I don't mean use their choreography, but maybe you can discover a new move or a new song).

3. Attend a ZIN™ JAM Session. Find a local session by logging into your zumba.com account, head over to ZIN™ Jams (under training and education) and find a local session. In these classes you will focus on a particular type of class (Salsa, Merengue, Reggaeton, etc), and you will leave class with fresh and new choreography to take directly to your classes! 

ZIN™ Play

4. ZIN™ Play. Take advantage of the choreography Zumba® Home Office sends you. You can locate the choreography organized by ZIN™ Volume or MegaMix. You can peruse 1-1 and Live Videos. Learn them as they are or take bits and pieces of what you like and add your own flavor.

5. YouTube. Go to Youtube.com and type in almost any song under the sun to find a zillion variations of choreography that you can mix and match and make your own. Don't forget to save the links that you love so you can easily find them again. 

6. Co-Teach With Local Peeps. Ask a fellow ZIN™ to come to your class and co-teach with you (as long as your gym allows it). I guarantee, the energy in the room will shoot through the roof. Not only will it be beneficial for you, but fun for your class. Don't be shy. Reach out to someone who is not in your inner Zumba circle. You would be surprised at the great connections that can be made when you reach out. 

7. Bring Back the Oldies. Your class will LOVE dancing to the oldies, and hearing the tunes will bring back nostalgic memories of where you were when you first heard the ZIN™ classic. You can even switch up your set list and have half old and half new. 

8. Be Creative. Have a themed class. Dress in a certain color. Take pics. Use Facebook live. Bring participants up to dance with you. Come early and practice. Stay after and show new routines. Do a battle song. Teach in different locations in the room. There are SO MANY WAYS you can spice up your class. Bring something unexpected and make each class memorable. 

9. Take if Offline. Ask participants to send you THEIR favorite songs. Create choreography for "their song". You will make people very happy and chances are you will discover new tunes you didn't know about.

10. Make a List. Make a list of all the reasons you started teaching Zumba®. Make a list of all of the things you have accomplished so far. Make a list of all of the things you want to accomplish and share your passion with others. Zumba® Fitness is truly about community. You will always find inspiration by looking within and reaching out to others.