Dance Into Fitness
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” – Martha Graham
Share, a local shelter that provides housing, food and resources to those in need in our community is hosting a virtual fundraiser on April 23rd. The theme is “There is no business like Share business” and has community leaders producing dances and skits from popular Broadway shows. Watching the performances provides a great reminder of the immense benefits of dancing.
Heart Health
It’s heart health month so it is a good time to consider how you are strengthening your cardiovascular system. Dance is an aerobic exercise and benefits your heart and lungs. Getting your heart pumping and blood flowing by dancing will improve your cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory fitness, both incredibly important during a health pandemic.
Agility and Coordination
Moving side to side, forwards and backwards, spinning and turning and trying to keep up with all the dance movements will improve your agility, kinesthetic awareness, motor skills balance and coordination. Improving your spatial awareness through dance will decrease your risk of falling, improve your functional fitness and your ability to perform daily tasks.
Weight Loss
Dancing can easily burn up to 600 calories in an hour and can be an effective approach to weight loss and weight management.
Muscle Tone
Dancing works your entire body and can provide full body muscle conditioning and tone. Observing the bodies of dancers will provide evidence to the benefits of dance to body composition and musculo-skeletal development.
Low Impact
Many forms of dance are low to mid impact and/or can be easily modified, therefore providing exercise without a lot of force and impact on joints.
Brain Health
During dance, you are forced to think and memorize the choreography and that promotes cognitive function and stimulates the brain. Recent literature suggest that this type of movement that causes you to use your brain and body simultaneously can help reduce the risks for dementia and Alzheimers.
Stress Relief
When you’re dancing, you have to concentrate, which allows you to forget about your problems and escape the daily grind. Dance is a type of movement that forces you to focus and truly be in the moment. If your mind starts wandering, you’ll miss a step therefore promoting a complete opportunity to disengage from everything except the pure joy of dance.
Fun
Most people don’t exercise because they don’t enjoy it but with dancing, you’re often having so much fun that you forget that you’re actually exercising! Even if you’re not that great of a dancer, know that when you’re going right and the instructor is going left, have a good laugh and know it’s doing wonders to boost your mood and benefit your overall health! Laughing and having fun is good for the soul and evokes happy-go-lucky endorphins and positive feelings throughout the body!
Bottom line, dancing promotes your physical and mental health. So, whether you are participating in an organized dance class like Jazzercize, Hip Hop or Zumba, taking a ballroom dance lesson or just grooving to your favorite playlist, dance can improve your general well-being. Martha Graham said it best expressing that….
“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.”
Yours in health & fitness,
Sherri McMillan
Sherri McMillan
Sherri McMillan, holds a master's degree in exercise physiology and has been inspiring the world to adopt a fitness lifestyle for more than 33 years. She has received numerous industry awards including 2010 CanFitPro International Presenter of the Year, 2006 IDEA Fitness Director of the Year, 1998 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, 1998 CanFitPro Fitness Presenter of the Year and 2005/2006 ACE Fitness Educator of the Year - Runner up. She is a fitness trainer, fitness columnist for various magazines and newspapers, author of five books and manuals including "Go For Fit - the Winning Way to Fat Loss" and "Fit over Forty" and the featured presenter in various fitness DVDs. She has presented hundreds of workshops to thousands of fitness leaders throughout Canada, Australia, Mexico, Jamaica, New Zealand, Germany, England, Spain, South America, Asia and the U.S. She is the owner of Northwest Personal Training in downtown Vancouver, the founder of WHY Racing Events & WHY Community, participates in various community fundraisers and can be found running, biking, or hiking around the community. Find more information at nwpersonaltraining.com.