Fit Friday’s Health & Wellness Winter Series gets up close and personal with our community’s fitness leaders who serve as role models with invaluable tips on prioritizing fitness in the new year. This week, we interview Jamie Parker, a Zumba instructor in Chester and Montgomery counties for 15 years.
Occupation and location:
I’m a licensed and active part-time Zumba Instructor for over 15 years in Chester and Montgomery counties and a licensed Group Exercise Instructor for ten years with the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, now called the Athletics and Fitness Association of America. I have also been a Marketing Executive for over 13 years.
What was your inspiration for pursuing a role in the fitness industry?
I’ve always been a dancer and an athlete ever since I was three years old. I’ve taken and taught classes in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, modern, contemporary, and various Latin dances at the collegiate, adult, and competitive levels. I served as a TA in college in Syracuse University’s ballroom dancing class.
I’ve worked as a choreographer and a director professionally for a theatre in Delaware. I’ve played soccer, softball, and flag football. I’ve rock climbed, biked, hiked, and rappelled. I’ve enjoyed taking classes in body pump, various forms of yoga, TRX, and HIIT. I love being active and I’m inspired every day by the miracle of my body and the way it allows me to move and improve myself daily.
Has anyone inspired you on your fitness journey?
The person who inspires me the most is my mom. She’s very active and will be turning 70 this year, and is quite healthy and mobile. She was also an athlete in her prime who ran track and prided herself on ‘beating the boys’. When she started taking Zumba classes with her friends at our local wellness center, near where I grew up (in her mid to late 50s), she invited me to try it out. I signed up to become a Zumba instructor the very next day. It’s been over 15 years since then, and I haven’t looked back!
What is your mission as a fitness instructor?
I realize that exercise is hard for a lot of people. It generally comes easy to me I think mostly because I don’t view it as exercise or work. I think this is why I chose the motto or tagline for my classes, “Forget it’s fitness… join the fun!”
One of my life’s missions is to encourage people to see the ‘fun’ in staying active and exercising. I think if you view it as a chore, it will be exactly that for you. If you change your perspective, and think… “I’m going to have fun now!”, then it will be exactly that as well. It’s all about how you frame it. It’s the ‘getting started’ that’s the hardest part.
Biggest exercise achievement?
My biggest achievement was going out for, and achieving, my AFAA (now NASM) group exercise license when I was almost nine months pregnant at 33 years old with my son, who is my second child. The rigorous final exam was held in mid-September of 2011, and he was born in early October.
At that same time, I was choreographing one of my favorite musicals: A Chorus Line, for a black box theatre where I was employed in Delaware. I remember a week or two later, I got into a car accident. I was distracted and trying to do too much. So, a word of warning: there is such a thing as overexertion. I’ve learned a lot through exercise and balance, especially life balance, is the key to a healthy, high-functioning body, mind, and spirit.
How does exercise help you in your daily life in terms of the benefits it brings you and to those you teach?
Right now, my daily exercise is not optimal. I go on walks and bike rides whenever I can, but it is tough with a full-time marketing job and being a single mom of two kids. I try to remind myself that cleaning my house, doing dishes, washing and folding laundry, watering plants, and performing other daily chores, especially while going up and down stairs, is enough for some days.
In general, I work out a lot on the weekends, and look forward to my Aqua Zumba class on Saturdays, and my regular hybrid Zumba class on Sundays, which keeps me motivated during the tough times of the week when it’s difficult to get up from my desk job.
I would encourage those who struggle with exercising daily, like me, to do small exercises each day… even if only for a few minutes. I also find that scheduling this time makes it much more likely that you will do it. And, involving other people in your plans makes it even more likely that you will do it.
For instance, I do yoga for 30 minutes every Monday with my mom and son. We are each other’s “accountabili-buddies” and we make sure that we all do our strengthening, balancing, and stretching through yoga for at least 30 minutes every week.
What do you think draws people to Zumba with its continuing popularity despite being around for so many years?
As many people know, Zumba was born out of a mistake by its founder, Alberto “Beto” Perez. He forgot his exercise music one day at a fitness class he was instructing in Miami and decided to use some of his favorite Latin tracks instead. Thus, Zumba was born! I think the roots of Zumba are really important to discuss here because a lot of people in the fitness world are about ‘looking good’ and ‘having it all together.’ This simple story proves that you can be far from perfect and even make a mistake to start a multi-million dollar business venture!
Something else that attracts people is that you can go to any Zumba class in the world and the basics are there. It’s like being a part of a community, similar to belonging to a specific culture or a faith.
What is your approach to food and how do you suggest people transition from their holiday food consumption that might’ve taken them off track to getting back to healthier choices?:
I think the most important thing is moderation, even around the holidays. I know this is not a ‘fun’ choice, but it is a wise one. Don’t overdo anything… good or bad. Eat until you are full, or starting to feel full, because that means you will be soon. Know that your body will treat you well and be good to you if you treat it well and be good to it.
If you have already overdone it, do as Taylor Swift says, and ‘shake it off!’ and recommit yourself to a better plan ahead. When I’m struggling, I find it much easier to make a list of what I can and should have, and then I make myself follow that regimen, as difficult as it can be sometimes.
What is your approach to keeping up your personal fitness regimen during the winter months and how do you motivate yourself on days when you might prefer to skip due to the freezing weather and other obstacles that can serve as excuses during the winter months?:
I teach. I am committed to making a difference for others, so I commit to a specific number of classes, and I remind myself that I am responsible for more than myself, so I am motivated to get up and do it! For those who can’t or choose not to teach, I would say it is important to ‘make the time’ to do it and put it on your calendar. Also, involve other people. Turn it into a habit. It only takes a month to make a habit stick!
What do you suggest to people who have taken a few weeks off to focus on the holidays in terms of how they should get back to their fitness routine mindfully, so they don’t injure themselves in the process?
Start slow. Again, moderation. Don’t overdo it. Be nice to yourself. Give yourself credit for the practices you put in play every day, even if they are small. Don’t be so judgy! Make sure you stick to it. It will get better each day. From a mindful standpoint, your body knows itself better than you know it. It will tell you when you’ve done too much. Listen to it. Don’t ignore it! Be proactive in the care of your body. Don’t push it too far. Talk nicely to it, water it a lot, and feed it so it will grow and be healthy… and heal quickly should it experience a setback. Treat it like a good friend.
Any tips to spice up winter workouts?
Challenge yourself by putting on a bathing suit, your comfiest bathrobe, and warm winter boots, and head over to your local YMCA or any gym that has an indoor swimming pool. It will wake you up in the winter, invigorate you, and it is virtually impossible to hurt yourself in a water aerobics class!
It’s so much fun, and I think my participants would agree… it definitely spices things up and energizes you in the wintertime! I just created choreography to a few holiday favorites for the last few weeks of my Aqua Zumba class at the Upper Main Line YMCA (UMLY), while wearing an ugly Christmas sweater and a light-up menorah headband to add to the fun!
What are your current fitness goals for the new year?
Here are 10 goals I am going to put into play in 2026, and I hope you do too:
• Moving for at least 30 minutes per day, even if it is just to do a household chore.
• Keeping up with my weekly fitness class offerings.
• Scheduling more movement-related activities with my friends and family, rather than just going to a party to drink or talk. I just went to Top Golf with some friends and it was a lot of fun, and also allowed for socializing and drinking, while involving some form of physical activity. Other examples of this are bowling, roller or ice skating, rock climbing, ax-throwing, escape-rooming, etc.
• Seeing a holistic health practitioner for acupuncture, chiropractics, massage, Reiki, and other forms of holistic health on a regular basis, to be proactive instead of reactive about the current state of my body.
• Taking high-quality supplements consistently that are good for my body.
• Eating until I’m almost full, and not a morsel more!
• Choosing vegetables and lean meats over anything else (cutting out grains and dairy). This diet works for me, but it could be different for others, so make sure you are doing what is right by your body.
• Eating much less sugar.
• Cutting back on alcohol.
• Reminding myself that I’m only human, I’m going to make mistakes.
