My Plan For Health

With FSFP’s water aerobics program over for the summer and only one week left in my belly dancing class, I have to think seriously about what I’m going to do fitness-wise between now and September (aside from going to the gym, that is). I can’t just go to the gym every day, and I miss being in the pool!

Currently, I’m looking for places to do water aerobics on my own, and have bought a pool membership from Hilliard Recreation and Parks. FSFP instructor Ya-Ting was kind enough to share her lesson plan with me. I’m going to laminate it and take it with me to the pool!

As to belly dancing, it was fun and challenging, and I plan to continue practicing at home. I’ve recorded many episodes of Shimmy, and discovered another show — All Star Workouts on FitTV — that has a belly dancing episode. While Shimmy has excellent production quality, I’ve decided that the All Star Workouts show is easier to follow, since it offers a more traditional classroom experience.

Some of the girls in my class at Habeeba’s have commented that they don’t know where to find belly dancing music for practice at home. So I put together a list of songs that I especially like. They are all available through Amazon (most via MP3 download if you want) and most of them are probably avialable via iTunes:

Marco Polo — Loreena McKennitt

Maris — Stellamara

Nahan – Niyaz

Hayati Inta — Natacha Atlas

Moi Et Toi – Abdel Ali Slimani

Dari — Zachary J. Mechlem

Gayatri Mantra Shuffle — Adham Shaikh

One new class I’m going to try this summer is Zumba. RPAC is offering it — here’s the description:

Zumba - Tired of the treadmill? Zumba is a high energy, heart pumping, dance-inspired workout that fuses traditional Latin rhythms such as Salsa and Meringue with hip hop. Each class will feature simple yet incredibly fun routines that will help tone your body and get your heart rate up! Dance experience is NOT required - Rachel will work with the group to ensure the best results. Best of all, you will be having so much fun you’ll forget you’re even working out!

Upper Arlington is offering it as well. And last Saturday I took a Zumba class at EquiVita in Grandview, which is offering free class trials for the month of June. I think most people don’t know about EquiVita yet, because I was the only student in the class! I got lots of personal attention, as you can imagine.

I think I’ll try several different Zumba classes to see what I like best. If I decide to stick with it, I’ll have to put together a Latin dance playlist!

The latest video feature from our New Media unit highlights a yoga class for cancer survivors, as well as Ohio State’s unique Integrative Approaches to Wellness minor for undergraduate students.

Web editor Kristen Convery writes:

When Daniel Snider’s aunt was dying of abdominal cancer, Snider wanted to get to know her better and help her deal with her disease.

So he created a yoga routine for her.

Read the full story here.