Stephanie Annee

Hello. My name is Stephanie Annee. I started taking Zumba at a class in Newton, IA in October of 2010. After the first class, I fell in love with it. While taking the Zumba class offered here in Newton, the women standing behind me kept telling me I should go get certified. At first, I shot down the idea of me being an instructor because I just hadn't ever thought of myself as a fitness instructor. But after some long, hard thinking, I decided I would take the training and give it a try.

I decided to get certified to teach the class myself so I could offer more classes and more times to the community. I took my Zumba Instructors Training class in Chicago, IL. It was 8 hours of training and taught me a lot about the right and wrong way to teach Zumba so that it could be safe and effective for everyone. Once I made it through the training, my confidence was boosted and I was ready to teach my first class. After a few days of posting up signs at a few local businesses here in town, and by word of mouth, I decided it was time to start the class. I was expecting 15-20 people at the first class, (mostly my friends and family) since I hadn't advertised in the local paper or anything like that. After everyone signed in, I looked at the sign up sheet and began to panic. I had 65 people standing on the floor waiting for me to begin my first Zumba class. I was nervous as I will get out. However, once I got out on the floor myself, and got my welcome speech over with, I was pumped. I got out there and did my thing and had a blast. I wasn't sure how everyone else was feeling because no one was smiling, and they were all concentrating so hard. But, after class, I had so many people say they had never had so much fun and that they totally forgot they were even exercising. :) I wasn't sure if I had so many people at my first class because it was the first night and I told myself not to expect that size of class every time. However, every class I have between 45-65 people and it's incredible. My whole purpose for teaching this class is to help save at least one person in our community from having a heart attack. Zumba is an amazing cardio workout, and in my book, even if everyone is not doing exactly what I am teaching, all these people are getting up off the couch and moving! I have people of all ages, shapes and sizes in my class. My youngest in the class is age 13 and my oldest member is 77. :) I tell the ones with bad knees, or bad backs, that the most important thing is to JUST KEEP MOVING. (Stepping in place is GREAT too) And during my routines, I always explain ways to make the moves harder, and ways to modify the moves to make them easier for beginners/Golden age group. My biggest goal, is to make sure everyone feels welcome, no matter what age/size they are. It doesn't matter. Everyone is there for the same reason....to make their hearts stronger and to get healthy.

A couple weeks ago, the HR director from Skiff Medical Center called me and asked if I would be interested in teaching a Zumba class to the hospital staff once a week. Needless to say, I felt very honored to have them call me since we have to other places in town that teach Zumba as well. So, starting next week, I will begin teaching/instructing Zumba at Skiff. I am so excited to be teaching health care professionals something new and how to have fun and workout at the same time!

I am part of the ZIN (Zumba Instructors Network) which means that every month Zumba sends me new training materials along with new music and new routines. I love it. I can stay current and up to date with everything I need to stay informed with Zumba. We also are invited to take (which I have) Zumba Jammers Sessions which is another way to stay up to date with the new Zumba music and routines. Part of our guidelines with Zumba is that we have to use 70% International music and then the other 30% we can choose for ourselves if we want. I use mostly international music, except for my warm up and cool down. I change my routines about every four weeks so people don't get burnt out, however, 4 weeks gives them long enough to pretty much get the moves down.

I am planning on doing the Relay For Life walk in Newton, IA on June 4th, 2011. I decided it would be a GREAT way to get my Zumba members involved to raise awareness and raise money for the cure of cancer. I am so excited. I have had so many people volunteer to walk and raise money, that this is going to be even bigger than I ever dreamed.

Zumba has been such a positive thing in my life, and it has helped a lot of people (including me) with their physical state as well as their mental state. It just makes a person happy. You can't leave class without a smile on your face. :) Zumba has not only taught me how to work-out and have fun, but it has also shown me how eating right makes a big difference as well. Since Zumba has taken off so quickly, and has become so big, I have now cut back my hours of being a full-time nail tech to being just a part-time nail tech. I get to have two part-time jobs that I truly love and I also get to be a great mom and wife, all at the same time. Which is WONDERFUL! :)

Thank You So Much For Your Time,

Stephanie Annee