Dance Exercises A Fantastic Way To Get Healthy
Judging by the ratings of Dancing With The Stars, or Britain's counterpart Strictly Come Dancing, time on the dance floor has become very popular and dance as exercise might be just the bit of fun that everyone needs to stick with the aerobic workouts known to be so very good for your health.
Two recent studies, one out of Italy, the other conducted in the United Kingdom, suggest this might be the way to go, and both were presented at the most recent annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Seattle.
The results of the Italian research found that salsa dancing improved aerobic fitness, while the UK work found that the less strenuous, but still fun, fox trot or tango added two thousand steps to our daily walking total.
Every little bot helps, but ten then thousands steps are recommended daily by experts.
The Italian researchers considered salsa dancing, assessing heart rate and oxygen intake in dancers.
The average age of the participants was 36 years old, and eleven pairs of dancer were involved.
The heart rate of the dancers went up 58-75% and their oxygen intake went up 41-56%, subject on where the participants danced.
Those dancing at the nightclub was the most strenueous of the three locations, though all increased heart rate and oxygen intake and levels.
Salsa is a spirited dance, study author Gian Pietro Emerenziani, from the University of the Studies of Rome, in Italy points out. With this form of dance, you are clearly getting a workout. All three types of salsa in our study, practiced frequently, will have a positive impact on health and fitness.
Aa team of UK researchers conducted a study of the effects of dancing by offering a 12-week series of ballroom dancing lessons to a group of adults who are usually not active.
The average age of the 27 subjects was 53; most, 22, were females. They attended lessons once a week for two hours, all led by a qualified instructor. The dances the subjects learned and performed included the tango, fox trot and cha-cha.
"Learning to dance can be a fun, social, local and friendly way to enjoy low-intensity physical activity and skill learning", explains the author of the second of the two studies, Stephen Cobley who is a senior lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.
Dancing means you can avoid the gym or stop getting all hot and sweaty to get the cardio benefit of a workout.
Dancing can helps strengthen bones and muscles without stressing joints, tones the body, helps with posture and balance, improves your stamina, boosts flexibility, reduces stress, wards off potential problems like diabetes, high blood-pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis and even depression.
As you move your feet, you want to keep an eye on your heart rate however, so that youre sure the dancing is intense enough.
Also don't take away the benefits of the dance session by consuming high calorie drinks or snacks.
However, before you just straight into it, be sure that you've had a word with you family doctor about what type of activity is right for you, especially if you have been inactive for some while.
There are many options, square dancing, swing dancing, line dancing, folk dancing, ballroom dancing, belly dancing, salsa, flamenco, jazz, modern, clogging and contra - They can be great for your health, and your overall fitness , not to mention your social life.
Next - just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for more information on using dance as exercise or dance as exercise as an alternative to other exercise, plus for alimited time get 5 free fantastic health reports.