Oh yes sir, I can boogie

I'm not overkeen on exercise videos. Not since this - the Cindy Crawford post-natal exercise video. In my post-baby state, the last thing I needed was Cindy doing press-ups on a beach in her knickers. Worse - she pretended to find the exercises hard.

I refused to accept that Cindy Crawford could only hack 10 leg lunges.

The workouts were interspersed with slow-motion videos of her faffing around with her infant son. I remember screaming at the screen - Cindy, get your damn child out of the rose garden and get on with the workout.  I haven't got all day.

But this week I got the offer of a review copy of a Zumba DVD (the top one here). And where was the harm in trying? Sitting on my backside watching Waking the Dead hasn't done me any favours.

So yesterday Littlest and I decided to get our Zumba on. The cheery music began, and the three superhuman women onscreen started moving around. God knows what they were doing. They went so fast that we could barely see their arms. Even Littlest couldn't keep up. "I can't go that fast! She's going bananas!" she shouted, whilst throwing herself around the room like a pinball. The main onscreen woman kept grinning. Her elaborately-coiled hair continued to look fantastic. "Doubles!" she cried. "Singles!" We didn't really have much of a clue which was which.

But the music was upbeat, so we carried on. We abandoned all attempts to keep up with the moves, figuring that as long as we kept jigging about, it didn't really matter. The workouts were split into tiny little segments, and no-one asked us to stop and fetch tins of beans or bits of furniture (I'm looking at you, Cindy) so we didn't get bored. We were dancing! We were in the zone!

The Grandmother came round to borrow something and just joined in. And for one golden moment there we were, three generations of the same family, exercising together, laughing, dancing, living the dream... and then The Grandmother said her back was hurting and wandered off.

Later we strapped Eldest into her standing frame so she could do the arm movements. (What, you don't strap your child into a frame? Doesn't everyone?) Because when we test something, we test it good. Young. Old. Disabled. Does anyone have a dog we can borrow?

I had to hide behind the stairs to snap Eldest. "Not the face," she said. Too cool to be pictured doing Zumba with her mother.

The workouts are split across three DVDS, all working on different 'zones', but the individual routines are so quick that it's easy to fit one or two in without thinking you have to cancel your plans for the day. I wouldn't pay £24.99 for it, but then I buy nearly everything in charity shops so I'm not a reliable barometer when it comes to cost.

And I have to admit it, I really enjoyed it.  Twenty minutes dancing round the living room with my children and I was a different person. Exercise can be boring, but dancing does make you happy, it seems - even if you're doing it all wrong.