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Ballroom dancing is the perfect combination of physical activity, social interaction, and mental stimulation, and it can add a lot to your life. It is a great exercise and has documented benefits for physical and mental health. It can improve your social life and self-confidence, reduce stress and depression, and promote relaxation. Also, it is a wonderful outlet for self-expression and creativity, and it is fun, too. With all these reasons to start dancing, you will want to try it as soon as you can.
Are you interested in practicing this new hobby? In this list, you will find eight benefits ballroom dance can bring to your life.
It Will Help You Burn Fat, Lose Weight, and Speed up Your Metabolism
Ballroom dancing is a low-impact aerobic activity that can help you burn fat and boost your metabolism. In just thirty minutes of dancing, you can burn between 200 and 400 calories—that is about the same amount as running or cycling! Burning an extra 300 calories a day can help you lose ½ to 1 kilo per week (and that can add up quickly).
A study in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that dancing as exercise is as effective for weight loss as cycling and jogging. Dance training is also a great form of maintenance exercise to stay healthy and toned once you have reached your ideal weight. And since ballroom dancing is so fun, get these benefits without feeling like you are exercising!
Increases Your Flexibility
A good quality ballroom dance class will usually start with some stretching exercises, to prepare you to perform dance steps with comfort and ease and to protect you against dance-related injuries. Beginning dancers will especially notice that the more you dance, the more flexibility and range of motion your body develops.
Greater flexibility will help your dance skills, decrease joint and muscle soreness after exercise, and improve core strength and balance. Yoga and ballet stretches can be extremely beneficial as a warm-up before ballroom dancing, but be sure to talk to your instructor about the recommended warm-up schedule.
This Exercise Increases Muscle Strength and Endurance
Ballroom dancing helps develop muscle strength because the act of dancing forces the dancer’s muscles to resist their body weight. Using quick steps, lifts, twists, and turns will help you develop more muscle strength in your arms, legs, and core as your classes continue. Ballroom dancing is also useful to boost your stamina, and the added benefit is that you will look and feel strong, toned, and sexy.
It Is Ideal for All Ages
Ballroom dancing is a fun activity for everyone, from children to seniors, which is another reason why it is such an effective form of exercise. Find a dance school that works with students of all ages, physical abilities, and skill levels and where they will create a personalized dance program that is comfortable yet challenging.
Ballroom Dancing Will Improve Your Physical Health
In addition to lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, it should also help improve cardiovascular health, strengthen weight-bearing bones, and help prevent or delay bone loss related to osteoporosis.
Practicing this type of dance can also help speed recovery after orthopedic surgery, as it is a lower-impact exercise than jogging or cycling. The posture and quick movements required in ballroom dancing help improve balance and stability, especially among older people (which can help prevent falls and trips).
Ballroom dancing can even help you sharpen your intellectual and mental skills. If you still lack motivation, dancing is one of the only activities that improves cardiovascular fitness and can also reduce the risk of cognitive decline such as dementia. Dance for at least 30 minutes, four days a week, to get the full body conditioning benefits of ballroom dancing,
Strengthens Mental Health
Research has found that ballroom dancing improves mental acuity throughout a dancer’s life and that there are also substantial benefits for those who begin dancing as adults.
Ballroom dancing can help improve memory, alertness, awareness, focus, and concentration. Engaging in an activity like ballroom dancing helps create more intricate neural pathways, which can prevent the weakening of synapses that often occur with old age.
Ballroom dancing will not only help the elderly but can decrease the anxiety and stress levels among adolescent girls with stress, anxiety, and depression. They also saw a marked improvement in mental health, with patients reporting being happier than those who did not participate in the dance. Partner dancing can also decrease loneliness among all age groups because it is a goal-oriented social activity that brings together like-minded people.
It Will Help You Improve Your Self-expression and Creativity
Dancing comes naturally to people, and it is an easy activity for anyone to participate in. Dance provides an emotional outlet to express your feelings through body movements, with passion and style. Ballroom dancing can be a wonderful creative outlet to enhance your ability to continually use these expressive qualities, even when you are not dancing, and share that creativity with others. After just a few classes, you will begin to move more and more fluidly across the dance floor, while losing yourself in the music. You will find a beautiful rhythm that your body may have been hiding.
It Will Make You a More Confident Person
Every opportunity to dance, whether during a class or a social event, whether with your partner or a new dance partner, will help improve your comfort level, confidence, and communication skills on the dance floor. As your dance technique improves and you feel more comfortable with other people, your sense of accomplishment, motivation, and confidence will continue to increase. And even better, you will notice that these new attributes take root in other areas of your life as well. Do you want to start? Get your ballroom practice shoes and start dancing!
If you want all the benefits of this list in your life, join ballroom dancing lessons and enjoy all the improvements this dance should give you.