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Why is dance such a popular exercising method? - Introduction

Aug 18, 2024

6 min read

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Whether it be walking or weightlifting, exercising is vital for maintaining your physical health. But all those gym workout routines and fitness training programs can be a bit too overwhelming – especially for people that don’t exercise on a daily basis.

So how can you incorporate exercises into your daily routine willingly, cheaply, and effectively?



...dance.

In recent years, dance fitness has been gaining popularity as a simple yet fun and productive way to boost physical and mental health. According to Statista, the number of participants in dancing and other rhythmic exercises have been steadily increasing from 21 million in 2014 to over 26 million people in 2023. Within the U.S., around 1 in 10 people exercise each year, with the dance industry contributing over $11 billion to the nation’s economy according to Worldmetrics.org


But what makes dance such a popular exercising method?



Affordability

A simple reason is that dance is affordable in terms of price, space, and skill.


1. Price

No weights, no treadmills, no mats – no equipment is needed to dance. All you need is your body and some music to start dancing, which makes it one of the cheapest fitness activities.


2. Space

Unlike most sports, dance does not require any wide space or special field as long as there is enough room to move a couple of steps in all four directions. This means that if dance studios and fitness classes are too intimidating for some people, they can start by dancing at home in their rooms.


3. Skill

Dance is also a very beginner-friendly activity. Remember, dance is basically a combination of movements and steps: if you move along to your favorite song, that’s dancing! This makes it accessible to people of all ages and physical skills, making exercising a fun and durable experience. 


The most important thing when exercising is to not do it all at once but to continue it on a daily basis – and dance is perfect for that!



Health Benefits of Dance

But dance isn’t just an enjoyable form of exercise – it’s an effective one too!


Dance compared to other exercises

According to USA Today, dancing can burn around 330 calories per hour for a 154 lb person!

How does this compare with other activities?

This is more than leisurely weightlifting which burns 220 calories an hour, or leisurely bicycling burns 290 calories an hour. While other exercises like hiking (burns 370 calories an hour) and swimming (burns 510 calories an hour) proves to be more effective, they can be vigorous for those that want to start out with moderate exercises.

An hour of swimming might sound tiring, but an hour of dancing sounds reasonable.

Moreover, different genres of dance can affect the amount of exercise and calories burned, as presented by Worldmetrics.org.

For a 155 lb person, for example, contemporary dancing can burn up to 500 calories per hour while ballroom dancing only burns around 250 calories per hour. Zumba classes are the most effective, burning up to 1,000 calories per hour! 

This makes dancing one of the most efficient and effective forms of exercise.



Specific Benefits

But why is dance so effective? As it turns out, dance has countless physical health benefits that don’t stop with “burning lots of calories.”

Musculoskeletal Strength

One simple benefit of dancing is achieving stronger muscles and bones. Dancers constantly transfer and bear weight on different parts of the body, as they execute complex footwork and absorb the impact of jumps after leaping. Such movements put stress on the muscle and bones, which in turn prompts musculoskeletal repair and growth.



Cardiovascular Fitness and Endurance

More specifically, dance improves your cardiovascular health. According to the British Health Foundation, dancers can lower risk of cardiovascular death by 45% compared to people that rarely dance. Worldmetrics.org also presents that dance, especially latin dance styles like salsa and bachata improves cardiovascular fitness. This is because dance is a continuous sequence of movements, which means you need to move for as long as the music continues. Repeatedly undergoing these movements that require specific body motions elevates your breathing and heart rate, helping the body adapt to this unique physical stress. This allows you to gain enough energy for completing a choreography. 

In fact, dance is so effective in improving cardiovascular endurance that the American Heart Association lists dancing as an example of endurance exercise for maintaining a healthy heart. Improved endurance helps you become more physically active because you become capable of handling more rigorous exercises for longer periods of time.

Balance and Coordination

Since dance involves a combination of movements, practicing various choreographies improves your balance and coordination. Especially for complex footwork and turning, maintaining balance or having your “core” becomes key in controlling your movements and having a stable center of gravity. In addition, dance requires different movements of the arms and legs at once. Therefore, coordination of your entire body becomes essential in order to execute the movements correctly. Balance and coordination is important not only for dance – it helps prevent awkward falls and collisions, preventing serious injuries.

Flexibility

Practicing various choreography also means that you execute different motions that you might not perform on a regular basis. Repeating such atypical movements with different parts of your body can expand your range of motion and flexibility that is needed to harness various dance movements. Furthermore, flexibility increases muscle blood flow and prevents injuries since your body can endure a wide range of motions to be conducted with your body.



Posture and Body Awareness

When you perform dance movements atypical to your daily motion of range, it can improve your posture as well. Dance styles like ballet are especially effective in improving bodily posture, because they often incorporate movements like leaps and lifts that especially engage the spine and hips helps strengthen those areas that support your entire upper body. This creates a tall and upright posture that reduces curvature of your spine as well as unnecessary stress on your bones, leading to a healthier skeletal system even as you age.

Spatial Intelligence

Since dance is done using your entire body, it helps improve your spatial perception. If you are dancing along, you learn how to control your body so you don’t bump into walls or objects nearby. If you are dancing with multiple people, you learn how to dance alongside others without coming in contact with them. Although this sounds like a basic and obvious skill, this is important especially for children, who can learn how much space their body takes up by doing certain dance movements. Other daily activities like driving, crafting, and catching an object all require spatial intelligence as well.



Rhythmic Awareness

What makes dance different from a sequence of movements is its rhythmic portion. Dance is a movement that synchronizes with the music, which means you need to be on beat with the song no matter how simple or intricate the rhythm may be. This helps improve rhythmic awareness because you learn to embody the rhythm with your body. Rhythmic intelligence can help you be successful in not just dancing but in other skills like playing an instrument and recognizing words.

Cognition

Other cognitive skills like memory can also be improved through dancing. In a 2019 report, the World Health Organization (WHO) compiled several hundred publications on the health benefits of dance. In the report, multiple references indicated that dancing enhances motor learning, leading to improvement in memory, learning, and attention span. In fact, dance has been used historically in clinical settings as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other similar neurological conditions.


With so many positive reasons to start dancing, is there an option NOT to incorporate dance into your daily exercise routine? 



Don’t know where to start? 

Do you want to start or continue physical activity to maintain your health? If you have even the slightest motivation, dancing is the perfect choice to have some fun while also effectively exercising.

But where should you start? 

Visit nearby dance studios?

Join local dance programs?

Watch dance videos online and follow along?


We recommend the last option – to start out small and digital to understand your preferred style and level of dancing. If you are having trouble finding good dance videos, join us in our online dance-along videos

Aside from blog posts, we offer dance videos in the form of online self-paced courses on this website.


Let’s dance ourselves to a healthier and happier tomorrow!


Aug 18, 2024

6 min read

4

21

0

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