The Health Benefits Of Dancing
Hey, why are you playing the wall?
Get out there on the dance floor and shake your groove thing, player!
Why?
Why?!, you ask.
Ummmm…because dancing helps burn calories, improve the health of your heart and lungs, lower your blood pressure, and strengthen your bones and muscles. Beyond the physical, dancing improves memory, reduces stress, elevates mood, curbs anxiety, and lowers the risk of dementia.
Yeah, that’s right, dancing has many of the same benefits as running, swimming, cycling, and other activities that are normally thought of as “exercise”. And depending on what form of exercise dancing is compared to, the benefits are sometimes even greater.1While the benefits of dancing are many, the degree to which you enjoy them depends on the type of dancing you do. For example, to work out the heart and burn the same number of calories as you would when jogging or swimming, a more up-tempo dancing style like hip-hop or salsa is required. Conversely, slow forms of dancing like tango and American square dancing burn a similar number of calories as those that are burned while performing a moderate activity, such as walking briskly. For memory and other cognitive functions, the more choreographed steps the better, as the brain has to work to learn and remember the series of movements.
And as if those weren’t more than enough reasons, dancing also helps you pick up girls because they can see if you know how to work your hips for that motion in the ocean.
SO GET OUT THERE ON THE DANCE FLOOR AND SHAKE YOUR GROOVE THING, PLAYER!!!
Given its ability to elevate the heart rate depending on how intense you’re doing it, dancing is a great alternative to traditional forms of cardio. That’s the case especially if you find running, cycling, and other types of cardiovascular activity boring, as you might have fun in the process of dancing because the music and movement can make it feel like you’re not getting a workout while you are.
The benefits of dancing are many and it sounds like a good activity to do, whether for intentional exercise or not. But what are you to do if you’re too nervous to dance in public at a club, studio, or group fitness class out of fear of embarrassing yourself?
Well, a possible lack of rhythm doesn’t mean that you can’t dance.
Nope, there are dance DVDs and online videos that allow you to dance in the privacy of your own home so you can dance like Elaine Benes without judgment!
Dancing at home with videos not only works if you’re a terrible dancer but also if you have social anxiety. However, while dancing itself has an effect on stress and anxiety, the sense of connection and sameness that’s created by touching and moving in rhythm among people helps improve confidence and the following reduction in stress and anxiety has a therapeutic effect that carries over into other situations where you’d normally feel self-conscious in front of an audience, such as public speaking.
SO YEAH, GET OUT THERE ON THE DANCE FLOOR AND SHAKE YOUR GROOVE THING, PLAYER!!!
Glossary: calories, cardio, exercise, intensity, muscle, work out, workout
