With the new fitness crave of this generation, many new forms of exercise have come about. These trends include workout styles such as piloxing, a combination of pilates, boxing and dance, jazzercise, a combination of jazz dance and resistance training and zumba, a dance-based cardio workout.

De Soto High School math teacher Ryan Foster has recently joined in on this fitness revolution. Initially, Foster started doing zumba with his mother but ended up falling in love with it himself.

“It started as me being her workout partner,” Foster said. “Then, after about four months, I realized that I liked it more than my mom does. So, I’m going to keep going whether she goes or not. I started going to zumba like three of four times a week.”

Foster enjoyed zumba as a student, and his instructor saw his potential as a teacher.

“My instructor encouraged me to get certified,” Foster said. “She got me going to all of these zumba events. I won a raffle to the Amore Dance Studio, and I got 10 free passes. Then I started going to that place, and the guy who owned it was like, ‘you should get trained here, by me.’”

Foster became certified through an eight-hour training process through Amore Dance Studio. During which, he learned the history of zumba, the dance breakdown, how to design a workout, how to choreograph a song and how to design a cool-down exercise. Foster has been certified for two months and teaches classes one day a week at Amore Dance Studio.

Foster has also worked with athletes at DHS too.

“I have worked with our dance team, Mrs. Hothan’s volleyball teams and their moms” Foster said. “I worked with the [girls’] soccer team. Mrs. Woolery took a video of the dance team and uses that for her cardio class.”

Overall, Foster greatly enjoys zumba.

“I love it,” Foster said. “It’s awesome. You meet a lot of people, lose a lot of weight, have fun and you can’t argue with that.”