As a group fitness instructor who teaches both Zumba® and BollyX®, I love teaching and having both formats in my schedule for variety. I taught Zumba® for 2 years before getting my BollyX® Certification – at one point, I was teaching 4-5 Zumba® classes in one week. While I really enjoyed teaching those classes, I did experience a little burn-out because of the repetitive nature of teaching nearly the same songs week after week. As an instructor, we know that we can get bored of a routine or song long before our participants do because of how frequently we practice and teach them. It’s not that I wasn’t changing up my songs – it’s because I was teaching at different locations to different participants and so I kept the playlist similar for 4-6 weeks to give participants a chance to master the choreography before swapping out the songs (as per the Zumba® format). Now that I teach 3 Zumba® and 3 BollyX® classes per week, I’m so much happier. By having two dance formats to teach within a week, it not only provides relief from music/choreography boredom, but it also keeps my mind challenged with memorizing new moves, and my body challenged with doing different moves. I’m not getting any younger so anything that helps with preventing my brain and body from aging quickly, I’m all for it!

Even though I now teach both formats, I still always add at least one Bollywood song to my Zumba® playlist. As a Zumba® instructor, if you aren’t familiar with Bollywood music and have not considered introducing Bollywood routines into your classes, I’d highly recommend trying it out. Here are my top 5 reasons for why I always incorporate Bollywood songs in my Zumba® classes:

1. Music from the world’s largest film industry is FUN – not just the language, but the sounds and vibe of Bollywood songs are unlike Latin music, which provides a refreshing change of pace in a Zumba® class. I love Zumba® because it introduced me to a cultural experience I didn’t have before from teaching Kickboxing, Boot Camp and other strength training classes. Adding Bollywood flavor kicks up the cultural experience a notch.
2. Dance moves from a different culture are NEW and CHALLENGING – while there are several moves that are seen in both dance styles as well as other dance genres, overall, each genre has its own unique moves that go with it. Having the variety in my class prevented me and my students from getting stagnant (in the mind and body).
3. My coordination improves – we can get into a comfortable rut teaching the same dance moves over and over again until we can practically do it in our sleep. It’s a great feeling when I initially struggled with a new dance technique, and then over time, feel I mastered it (and I use the word “master” very loosely as I know I still have lots to improve on). However, learning never stops for us fitness professionals. By incorporating Bollywood-inspired dance moves into your routines, it will improve your coordination as you form new muscle memory while learning new movement patterns.
4. My brain is stimulated – learning and memorizing new choreography is never an easy thing, but it’s so rewarding when we finally get it and see the smiles on our students’ faces. Bollywood songs don’t always have the same 32-count musical phrases that most Latin and English songs do. These different musical patterns may cause me to curse more often than not when I forget it and err while teaching, but, once I know the song, it becomes one of my favorites for life! And I like to think it makes me smarter.
5. My fitness level goes up a notch – hello muscles that I didn’t know I had! Anytime you do a new exercise, you reach certain muscle fibers that you hadn’t reached before. Those muscle fibers will get sore – in a good way! When I first started teaching Zumba®, I did get sore after class because I wasn’t accustomed to the movements I was experiencing as I taught Zumba® (ahem…obliques). But after awhile, I wasn’t getting sore anymore. My body had hit its plateau. I introduce BollyX® (and Bollywood music) to my teaching schedule. My glutes were sore for days after teaching each BollyX class. Even introducing just 1-2 Bollywood songs into my Zumba® class worked my body more simply because I was doing something different. Your body won’t change without challenges (and by change, I mean improve).

If you are a Zumba® instructor who also incorporates Bollywood music into your classes, please feel free to share why you do it!