Dancing is fun! It gives the entire body, mind, and soul an excellent workout. It offers many health benefits too.
Learning a two-step, a salsa, a belly dance, or ballet will have you waltzing to better health. So, put on some music, your dancing shoes and dance your way to better health.
Dance and aerobic benefits
Besides being an ancient cultural art form, dance is an aerobic exercise that helps improve heart health, burn calories and strengthen muscles and flexibility. It also reduces stress. Dance offers major aerobic benefits such as boosting heart health, burning calories, and improving overall fitness levels. As with other aerobic activities, such as running, swimming or walking, dance strengthens the lungs. It also burns calories, which helps with weight loss and increases your metabolism, even while resting.
Improves flexibility
According to dance also offers fitness benefits by increasing flexibility. There are wide arrays of dance forms but they all require stretching to warm up and cool down. Stretching the muscles, as well as performing exercises such as leaps, lunges and balancing poses, helps lengthen the muscles and improve flexibility. In addition, dancers use a wide range of motion in their routines, which helps improve the muscles’ ability to flex and stretch.
Conditions the muscles
Another positive effect of dance is increased muscle strength and endurance. Dancing requires a lot of strength to hold poses, leap, twist, and bound, hence building muscles. Strong muscles burn more calories than weak muscles, as well as protect against injuries. Dancers often have very toned arm, leg and core muscles as these major muscle groups are used in a variety of dance styles.
Enhances muscle endurance
Dancing also helps build muscle endurance, as it challenges the body to continue performing for extended periods while under stress. Muscle endurance allows muscles to keep working without getting tired. Endurance boosts overall energy levels and helps dancers stay healthy and active, both on the dance floor and off.
Aids cardiovascular conditioning
Regular exercise can lead to a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure and an improved cholesterol profile. Experts typically recommend 30 to 40 minutes of continuous activity three to four times a week. The degree of cardiovascular conditioning depends on how vigorously you dance, how long you dance continuously and how regularly you do it.
Strong bones
The side-to-side movements of many dances strengthen your weight bearing bones (tibia, fibula, and femur) and can help prevent or slow down loss of bone mass (osteoporosis).
Rehabilitates the body
If you are recovering from heart or knee surgery, movement may be part of your rehabilitation. Dancing is a positive alternative to aerobic dance or jogging.
Promotes sociability
A dance class is the perfect setting to make new friends and branch out socially. Maintaining positive relationships may just rank up there with healthy eating and exercise. Being socially engaged leads to increased happiness, reduced stress, and a stronger immune system. Dancing contains a social component that solitary fitness endeavours do not. It gives you an opportunity to develop strong social ties that contribute to self-esteem and a positive outlook.
Boosts memory
Dance not only instills grace, but it also helps you age gracefully. It boosts your memory and prevents you from developing dementia, as you get older. Science reveals that aerobic exercise can reverse volume loss in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls memory. The hippocampus naturally shrinks during late adulthood, which often leads to impaired memory and sometimes dementia.
Reduces stress
If you are feeling tense or stressed out, you might want to grab a partner, turn up the music, and tango! In a controlled study, researchers found that partner dance and musical accompaniment could help bring about stress relief.
Diminishes depression
Dancing really does lift your spirits. People who participate in an upbeat group dance show the fewest depression symptoms and the most vitality. Got the blues? Grab a friend and go out dancing tonight.
Helps you lose weight
An exercise programme of aerobic dance training is just as helpful for losing weight and increasing aerobic power as cycling and jogging.
Increases energy
Can’t seem to find your get-up-and-go? Taking a dance class might help. A weekly dance programme might be what you need to improve physical performance and increase energy levels among adults.
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