Danika Leahy
ZUMBA INSTRUCTOR
Most new mothers will agree that it’s all too easy to neglect your health and fitness with an adorable new baby to distract you and this was certainly the case with Danika Leahy. As a stay-at-home mum of two, she found little time to exercise (and many excuses!) and eventually became very unhappy with her body image.
“My self-esteem and confidence were taking a massive hit and I decided I had to do something about it,” Danika says.
“I started dancing socially and within months I started to feel better but I knew I needed something more. In August 2010, a friend started teaching local Zumba classes and I was hooked immediately. Three months later I completed my instructor training course and have never looked back.”
Over 18 months Danika dropped over 20 kilograms just by sweating it out on the dance floor. Better still, Zumba eased her Supraventricular Tachycardia, a condition she’d had since childhood.
“About six months before I found Zumba I’d had discussions with my cardiologists about ablation surgery. I was getting debilitating heart palpitations roughly every six weeks with my highest heart rate recorded at a staggering 238 beats per minute,” Danika says. “Once I started Zumba classes, increased my cardio health and dropped the excess weight, I was relieved to find I only had palpitations every 12 to 18 months and each episode was brief and mild.”
“I was just an average mother of two who found myself spiralling in a direction that I didn’t want to go in and Zumba changed all that for me.”
Danika openly admits she had a short attention span when it came to fitness and needed a form of exercise that could hold her interest.
“From the very first class I never felt like I was exercising because I was so immersed in the music and movement,” Danika says.
“I was just an average mother of two who found myself spiralling in a direction that I didn’t want to go in and Zumba changed all that for me.”
Once she became an instructor Danika was overwhelmed to see that same positivity flow through to the women in her classes.
“These were people from all walks of life with varying abilities and fitness levels but each of them were glowing with sweat and smiling from ear to ear,” Danika says.
“Our classes have become my fitness family and we each lift each other up and celebrate our wins together, whether it’s dropping a dress size, having the balance to reach the upper cupboards in the kitchen or the strength to pick up a grandchild. Sometimes it’s the smallest wins that make the biggest impact on our day-to-day lives.”
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