Zumba: Fitness Rush for XBox Kinect

I have actually had this workout "game" since Christmas and I was so in love with World Party that this one has been collecting dust.  Tonight my World Party was acting up on me and so I decided to get some use of out Rush.  Let me start by saying that if I thought World Party was a step up in the
workout game, it is nothing compared to it's predecessor Rush when it comes to an intense cardio workout. 

After being used to Zumba Core & World Party which both came after this one (which was released in 2012), the graphics are definitely not as advanced and the kinect tracker isn't as finely tuned, but the workout I did had the tempo upped so much I was feeling it the whole time.  I have been wanting to get my money's worth of cardio in between working out my Jillian Michaels and I wanted a more intense cardio workout, I was tailoring world party but it's not as easy to get a good cardio workout with the shorter song lengths on world tour (in my opinion) so now I seem to have found my solution.

After being used to the music diversity of World Tour, I can definitely say that there is a much stronger Brazilian/Spanish flair to the music on Rush.  It was aptly named though as you do definitely get a "rush" from the workout.  I highly recommend Zumba Rush for anyone looking to get an intense cardio within a limited amount of time.  It does unfortunately feature the Brazilian woman back that I swear counts in 6 count instead of 8 count, but some of her moves/techniques are similar to Core so I had an easier time picking up her workout.  I also noticed some great Hip Hop Ab moves thrown in on one of the songs.   Luckily the re-packaged versions of ZUmba Rush do include the Bollywood and Hip Hop pack add-ons built in to the game to give you more choices and more dance styles.   

Zumba Rush does allow for tracking of up to two people at a time if you want to have a workout partner.  As with previously reviewed ZUmba workouts, this one does allow you to create a custom workout.  It features the standard three-tiered workout choices with a Short/Easy Medium and Long/Hard options for your choices.  Typically a short workout runs 20-25 minutes with a Medium workout in the 30-40 minute range and the long workouts are 40+ minutes.  Zumba Rush does also have the move queue indicator to let you know what is coming next, it doesn't come on as often as it does on Core, but seems to give you better lead time than World Tour.  You do still get the track your workout features, with achievements and calorie tracking if you want to utilize them.  as with any other ZUmba games you can always take the time to learn the steps if you aren't stubborn like I am and just want to learn as you go haha. 

Overall I give this workout game 4.5 Stars.  The overall workout receives 5 stars, but the older graphics slightly slower tracking takes away half a star.  Once you get into it you don't notice.  If you like workout out at home and/or without shoes like I do than this is a wonderful option.  I have been having such a hard time finding good intense cardio workouts at home without any equipment (treadmill, eliptical, etc) and now I am so pleased to have this wonderful option that had been hiding out the whole time.
*Note I did read that this is also available on the Wii but that it did not have a lot of the same great features and did not work as well as it was designed specially for Kinect

For the official website of this and all other Majesco Zumba games go to: zumbafitnessgame.com

If you are interested in taking a look at my other workout reviews check them out there:

Zumba Fitness World Party

Zumba Fitness Core

Jillian Michaels: Ripped in 30

10-Minute Hip-Hop Dance Mix

Insanity Cardio Abs

Insanity Plyometrics

Belly Pilates

Zumba Fitness World Party

 Every year I create Amazon wishlists for my parents to give them an idea of what they can buy for Liam and I.  I always suck at finding anything outside of books to really get me, but this year I was perusing the Kinect workout games because as much as I love love love my Zumba Fitness Core, I was starting to wear out all of the workouts and all of the music, and was in desperate need of something to change it up.  I was finding myself going back to old standards like Hip Hop Abs, which as much as I love just doesn't quite give you the cardio that you get from Zumba.  Needless to say when I came across Zumba World Party I HAD to get it!  I was so excited I could barely wait until Christmas to try it out.  The first day it came I was prepared to start my workout and was pumped up and for some reason I couldn't get it to pull up on the XBox.  I was devastated.  I wasted almost 40 minutes trying to get it to work before I gave up and decided in disgruntlement to do a different workout.  It took some fidgeting in the daylight but finally it worked like nothing had been wrong the night before.

Since I finally have started the world party workouts I have to say that it is an increased tempo and much more intense in a good way.  The makers decided to pick shorter songs to give you more of a chance to try out more kinds of dance and target more body parts in a single workout.  I think it was genius.  I did a short 20 minute medium intensity workout tonight and it had me pretty worn out by the end of it.   It is kind of daunting when you are used to only 4 or 5 songs and instead you get 7 or 8, but they are shorter and staggered more with intensity.  I love the fact that dance is used from all over the world.  My only real complaint is that in all of the other Zumba Fitness workouts you had very clear visual clues and in this one they are harder to recognize against the background when you are in mid dance.  Also the screen set up on World is a little different from the previous Zumba workouts so it has just been taking a little bit of getting used to.  The instructors are much more realistic looking and have better hair movement like you would see in a unreal game engine for PC games (oops I may have just geeked some of you out sorry).  Also the Zumba streak indicator gives you the number of Zumba streaks in points reminiscent of how many hits you got in an action or first person shooter console game so it gives it added video game feel.

This is the only Zumba Workout game thus far that does give you the added option to World Travel mode and go through 7 destinations around the world and focus on the dance styles for those locations instead.  This is an amazing added dimension on top of the other great qualities of class picking by length and intensity as well as customizing your own class, doing a song at a time, learning the steps and even the zumba world edition found on all Zumba games that allow you to live connect with a current ongoing Zumba class that is being broadcast. 

Overall I give this workout 5 stars.  Someone on my IG (InstaGram) just recently wrote a testimonial about losing 70 pounds on this workout alone.  I use it predominantly for cardio and because I thoroughly enjoy it which makes me look forward to working out.  The music is the best yet and reaches many different cultures.  I love the diversity and learning dances from around the world!  It will be quite some time before I wear this one out.  I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys or would like to look into working out at home! 
*This workout is also available for Wii

Here is the official website for Zumba Fitness: Zumba World Party

Here is my review for Zumba Fitness Core: Zumba Fitness Core


My song for today :)

Zumba Progress Month 2

Here is my second month of progression using Zumba.  Taking photos at least once a week on Fridays to show progression  I work out a minimum of 3 times a week and a maximum of 6 times a week.  I don't do any sort of special dieting, if I did I am sure that I would have a it faster results, but I am not concerned with the results I am having thus far, and I love food and zumba has been such a great time!  It makes working out so much easier to do, when you are enjoying yourself.  I encourage any one to at least give zumba a try and to find something that you enjoy doing to help you work out!  If any one needs daily workout motivation just let me know and we can motivate each other!  Enjoy. 

Where I started out:

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

2 Months

If you missed the first month of progression you can check it out at:
Zumba Progress Month 1

Zumba Progress Month 1

This is my one month of progress since starting regular workouts with Zumba at home.  I started by taking photos after 1 week of working out on a regular basis.  I am not engaging in any kind of diet behavior.  I want to prove that you can look great just by working out and not engorging yourself with food.  As you can see from my blog I cook all kinds of food and do not cut anything else.  I love food and I feel like life is too short to be enjoyed without eating what you love as long as it is not a health concern.  I may have to work a little harder at working out, but in the end I am happier eating what I like.  

As far as workouts are concerned.  I do Zumba 3-5 times a week.  25-45 minute workouts.  I also like to throw in some weights with 10 pounds.  I do different arm exercises as well as lunges and squats.  I try to do sets of 10-15.  I also do a variety of isometric exercises with the abdominal area as the focus.  I will have to go into more detail at another time if anyone is interested.

My main point of this current blog is to go through my progress from week to week.  I take my progress photos on Friday evenings and so they can be great factors to affect the way I look based on what I ate or drank during that day.  During this time no alcohol has been consumed and I have also taken rest days 1-3 times a week.  

This was my very first progress photo, where I actually could see a difference right away and gave me the motivation to keep doing Zumba!

here is a side view where you can really see my problem areas in my thighs and my stomach

This is my week 2 progress photo, I could see a huge difference in my legs this week

Week 2

Week 2 showed immense change in my thighs and a slight slimming of the waist

week 2

Week 3 Progress Photos, I could see the biggest difference in my arms this week

Week 3

Week 3

Side view of week 3 showed that my thighs were getting less jiggly and my stomach was slightly slimmer

Week 3 still need a lot of work on the stomach

week 3

1 Month progress, my legs look drastically smaller here and I can see some difference in my stomach

at 1 month there is definite definition in my thighs

The thighs look immensely better from a back view

Stomach is still needing work at this point

1 Month

Zumba Fitness Core Kinect Review

As I am very new to the whole XBox-Kinect thing and also very new to the whole Zumba thing (I know WAAAY behind the times on both). I know I know I am a PC gamer through and through and haven't played on a game console since the original Nintendo and then the original Sega.  Since then it has been strictly PC for me.  I was always interested in the workout games when Wii first came out for playstation and I remember hearing that Kinect had expounded upon Wii when it came out.  Overall it just looked like quite a bit of fun.  I also was always interested in Zumba class, but even after a one year membership at the gym I found that the classes that were offered did not fit into my single mommy, bedtime for Liam schedule and so I was never able to get into it.  Also I felt like Zumba was something that I really wanted to do WITH someone.  I thought it would be a great class to take with a friend.  Alas as with everything else in San Angelo, at the time I found it quit difficult to try to get anyone to do anything outside of going out or drinking so I stuck with myself again.

Back to the topic at hand, when my boyfriend told me that he had a Kinect with his XBOX I was SO excited to try some of the workout "games" that were available.  I immediately started my search for which ones were the best and what I could find used and for cheap and also in my facebook shopping
groups.  Within a few days I was able to find someone selling a couple of Zumba Kinect "games" so I negotiated a fair price and was able to gleefully take them home.  Immediately I tried it out having no idea what I was doing.

Let me just say that I SUCK at using the kinect controls.  I am getting better at it, but I think that the placement of certain things was not the greatest in ease of use.  If you have something in the bottom right corner that you need to get your hand on (using the Kinect sensor) and then hold for a few second, it should NOT be in the bottom right corner next to something else to the right that will swipe the screen to the right, it should have been placed at the very least at the bottom center or just the center as a whole.   That is my main complaint, other than that I am slowly getting more accustomed to the way it works and getting more familiar with it.

 Get pumped up for Zumba Core!

As far as the Zumba Core disc in and of itself, I have to say that I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in cardo, Core , Dance or Zumba workouts.  It is very fun and definitely effective.  You have many options to customize your workout to yourself.  I have tried the pre-set workouts and they are really great, I have tried going through by a song at a time to get a feel for what was available.  This evening I tried the playlist option where you get to create your own playlist and then workout to it.  I did 5 songs for tonight.  There is everything from bollywood, to hip hop to salsa to warm up types of songs, so that you can change it up or stick to one kind.  The sensors are pretty accurate in being able to distinguish your whole body and if you are doing the entire move correctly.  You get to track your progress and at the end of the workout it shows you how many calories you burned and the accuracy percentage for your technique.  You can track your progress and even have it suggest workouts based on your progress.  Definitely something worth a try that is both fun and effective :).

 For a great preview of what the Zumba actually looks like on the console

*As an added bonus and for the "game" part, as your progress is tracked you get to unlock different added bonuses to the game such as videos from the real life trainers, more songs, etc.