What Are the Health Benefits What Are the Health Benefits of Dance?of Dance?

It’s no secret that maintaining an active lifestyle is one of the keys to good health. It’s also no secret that peple will generally keep up with physical activity if it is something they enjoy doing.

Dancing is one form of exercise that is practiced around the world and loved by millions. Whether you take part in ballet, hip hop, jazz or modern dance classes or just dance on your own, it offers many health benefits that are hard to ignore.

Cardiovascular FitnessCardiovascular Fitness

Most forms of dancing will benefit your cardiovascular fitness. This generally results in the ability to do more exercise in terms of intensity and duration.

Once your stamina increases, you can incorporate more challenging or complex movements. Most modern dance classes will gradually introduce more intensity and difficulty as a student’s fitness improves.

Improved Muscle Tone & Improved Muscle Tone & StrengthStrength

Dance also benefits your muscles, and will both tone and strengthen muscles in your legs, buttocks, abdominals, back, arms and shoulders.

Some forms of dance will work more on certain body parts than others, but you can be sure your muscles will get a good workout. Just be sure to take the classes and the movements seriously, and you will progress.

Improved Bone DensityImproved Bone Density

Improved bone density will help with issues like osteoporosis, and weight bearing exercise like dancing is one way to make it happen.

Ballet and other forms of dance typically require a lot of jumping and leaping and are helping your bones all the while.

FlexibilityFlexibility

You can bet that all modern dance classes, ballet classes and any other type of class will include a strong stretching element.

Flexibility is a key to preventing injuries in class, and in your everyday life. Being flexible allows you to move more fluidly and to avoid muscle pulls or tears from trying different dance moves.

Coordination and AgilityCoordination and Agility

Both coordination and agility are important elements in virtually any sport, and even in many non-athletic day-to-day activities. Being agile and coordinated helps you avoid falls and helps keep you balanced when working in tight places or carrying heavy items.

Learning any type of dance will automatically boost your coordination and agility, as these two qualities are essential just to complete basic moves. The more you get into it and perform more complex moves, the greater benefit to your coordination and agility.

Stress ReliefStress Relief

Stress is a culprit in many different health issues, and more are being discovered all the time. Luckily, dance has the ability to minimize and even eliminate stress from your life.

The physical exertion and learning to move the body with such flow are keys to reducing stress. The music likely also plays a big role.

Weight LossWeight Loss

With all of the movement and exertion and activity, it’s no wonder that dance is also a good way to lose weight. Dancing burns calories and burning calories helps you lose weight.

Just remember to observe a healthy diet, so you don’t just add back all of the calories you burn through your dancing.

Types of DanceTypes of Dance

Some of the different types of dance you might try to boost your overall health, include:

Ballet Contemporary or modern dance Jazz Hip-hop Salsa Zumba Ballroom dancing

ReferencesReferences

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/10409/1/Health-Benefits-of-Dance.htmlHealth Guidance

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Dance_health_benefitsBetter Health Channel

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/top-5-health-benefits-of-balletSelfGrowth.com