Let’s get physical

Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar

For a girl whose only workout is an occasional late-night boogie at Leamington Spa’s finest establishments, just the thought of reviewing Club Cardio for the _Boar_ was utterly exhausting. (Don’t judge- it’s rude.) However, when advertised as ‘fun dance moves in a…non-judgemental nightclub setting’ I let that optimism-stuff get the better of me, and quickly signed up, thinking it an appropriate activity to start my foray into the world of fitness.

I walked into the copper rooms, armed with my bottle of water, and neon sweatbands for protection – ready to face the prospect of dancing awkwardly in the name of exercise. With over a hundred people present, Copper Rooms 1 already felt a lot more full than ever before. We were quickly started off by Warwick Folk Society, whose instrumental medleys were beautiful but drowned out by the giggles from people like me; hopelessly trying to master the “…now left-right-tap-tap-right!” choreography.

After half an hour of ‘sweeping the willow’ and attempting to be Scottish, us lads and lassies moved on to Aerobics Society’s Zumba-esque/Latin routine, led by a girl whose energy levels would put Britney to shame! This was, also, just about the time I began to realise the direct proportional relationship between liquid courage and my dancing ability.

The last bit of the session was run by professional choreographer Brendon, who had travelled from the big LDN to turn our swag on with songs such as R Kelly’s classic Hot in Here, a cheeky cameo from Madagascar’s Lemurs with I Like To Move It.

Despite my glaringly obvious two left feet, I couldn’t recommend Club Cardio more. It was a fantastic experience, undoubtedly the most enjoyable form of exercise I have ever done. If the SU organises another evening (which they definitely should), I’d suggest getting a group of your besties together, pulling on those trackies and joining the party.

Samantha Hopps

Club Cardio was charged with a fantastic atmosphere from start to finish, with the dances taught by the folk society (which I was somewhat dubious about to begin with) turning out to be great fun and a warm-up to get everyone in the room bonding. This was followed by a taster session of Zumba with the Aerobics Society’s teacher Emily, whose enthusiasm and friendliness, even from up on the stage, got everyone into a really lively mood and showed off Zumba classes in an incredibly positive light.

The highlight of the evening was, of course, the class from Brendon, MD of Alter Ego, a dance school based in Hertfordshire. He and his trusty sidekicks spent their time on stage teaching the excitable crowd some basic street dancing moves, allowing us to learn as we danced. The tunes were a mix of brand new chart-toppers and some good old classics, which everyone seemed to really enjoy.

The crowd consisted predominantly of sports clubs but there were exceptions to this – me, for example, since I went without any club allegiances. Either way, once the dancing and the music got going everyone seemed to forget who they came with and just began to mingle within the crowd. The night was definitely all that it promised to be, in that it provided a fun workout without making it feel like tiresome, boring exercise, and my legs are definitely feeling it a couple of days later! As the session finished no one seemed to feel tired or worn out, it simply left us excited and a little hyper with a great buzz and, for me, the strange desire to do some work?!