Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

More than just dancing!

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POUND workouts are group fitness classes which are fun and a trend which is fast picking up in Oman.


The Sultanate’s only certified Pound Instructor who is striving hard to teach few tricks to her students is Rozalin al Balushi.


A fitness buff, she leads her classes enthusiastically experiencing the fun element during her stressful workouts. Pound is a full-body workout and a cardio jam session inspired by the infectious and sweat-dripping fun of playing drums.


A practising lawyer in Oman, she is, however, concerned about keeping fit and burning calories.


Rozalin takes pride in her role as she teaches Zumba and Pound in her classes offering a monthly package with mainly teenagers attending her classes.


She makes sure that her choreography is easy to follow yet burn calories, focusing on conditioning and strength training muscles.


There is also the fun element and keeping her students involved and inspired. From working as a full-time lawyer to involving in fitness is a contrast. However she has excelled in her dual role. Rozalin admits frankly there is no contrast as it needs strong personality, determination and commitment, and there is always a big place for fun during fitness sessions.


One of her biggest challenges, however, has been controlling hyperactive kids with strong personality.


“These are the ones who do not want to follow but have the desire to lead,” This she believes can be interesting among children.


Rozalin feels it as a challenge to find how to involve such children and considers it both as a pleasure and blessing.


Her fitness regimen began while attending Zumba classes with Marissa Pontila, the Zumba Marketing Agent in Oman.


Being one of her student made her fall in love with Zumba which encouraged her to take Zumba Instructor training, which finally made her an instructor she is today. “Zumba is another concept of sport, is fun, music and enjoyment and since I am one of the people who loves what I do, I decided after two years of Zumba classes to be an instructor and do what I love and spread that love among others.”


Trained as a Zumba Instructor under Marissa, she became a certified ZIN or Zumba Instructor. Initially, she thought Zumba is just dancing but training made her realise it was much more than just dancing. It consists of technics, rules and principles that should be applied and followed in order to ensure benefits to the student.


Rozalin says she was not expecting to love teaching children Zumba but once she had her kids junior classes, loved it as much as they did and more, and is one of the reason why she is considering to add Zumba kids and kids junior to weekly mode.


“It’s fun to teach adults and to dance with them but there is so much fun and enjoyment teaching kids. Especially those high-and low-intensity dance moves designed to get the heart rate up and boost cardio endurance.”


With a master’s degree from Scotland’s Strathclyde University, she admits there is interesting experiences especially when her students correct her moves, which made her to introduce weekly competitions.


Students were told every week to find her mistakes and made to repeat the routine correctly. “I found that it helped me a lot, made me proud of my students, and appreciate them and their love for Zumba.”


“Teaching kids is totally different game and we have two different age groups from 3 to 7 (junior kids) and kids between 8 to 14 years. Overall, it is not just dancing but we always introduce new games in each class to make it more fun among the juniors.”


Says Pontila: “Rozalin is a strong lawyer who is dedicated to her work, is funny and intelligent, a fast learner and who always loves what she does, an amazing woman and easy to be with.”


Rozalin reciprocates by complimenting Marissa as a perfect mention for all of them at Oman Zumba family.


Her classes at Al Amerat are in collaboration with 24/7 Fitness Gym and in the CBD Area with Vikingz Dojo Fitness. She plans to launch a health club in the near future.


Apart from fitness, she loves reading crime thrillers and presently reads Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment as she forces herself to read at least a page every day.


“I prefer novels especially crimes and mystery novels and one of the closest genres to my heart is history,” she concludes.


Rozalin’s advice is to love what you do and to her luck she loves both law and Zumba, not a usual combination though which she terms it ‘magical.’


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