Improve your quality of life and health by dancing

Dancing has been a form of exercise for a long time now. It’s one of those workouts that you can do as a child all the way until you’re grown. There are so many genres and ways to dance that you can make adjustments as you grow and as your goals change.

Dancing not only strengthens your body, but it can also improve your life overall and be a fun outlet. Dancing can also improve your mental and emotional states and help with social issues. If you are looking for a more holistic way to maintain your fitness and build quality of life, dancing is definitely the way to go.

The benefits of dancing

As mentioned earlier, dancing can do more than improve your physical well-being, it can also be a useful tool in maintaining mental and emotional stability and it can even help you be more sociable and a part of a community. A study was conducted that surveyed 475 people who danced regularly. The results found that dancing improved the subjects’ well-being in many areas from health to their social life. In the following section, we Will discuss the benefits of dancing in more detail.

1. Strengthen your body

Dancing is a form of exercise, and as such provides physical benefits. Dancing requires movement from every part of the body and can therefore provide a holistic workout of all the muscles. The movement that dance allows you to do can feel very freeing, unlike running or cycling where it is more repetitive and uses a few specific muscles.

Other than strengthening your muscles, dance is also less risky in terms of injury and heart issues. This is because dancing has a variety of different movements that constantly changes the speed that your heart needs to beat in order to supply oxygen to the body. Because of this, dancing is also good for heart health.

2. Lift your mood

Dancing, much like other exercises releases endorphins naturally and lifts moods. However, dancing is different in this sense from other exercises due to its expressiveness, which allows you to workout with feeling. Other exercises improve moods only through the release of certain hormones. Therefore, if you suffer from feelings of stress, you could stand to benefit from dancing.

3. Reduce risk of dementia

Dancing can be beneficial even neurologically and reduce the risk of developing neurological diseases and Alzheimer’s. A study that tested various activities including dancing, swimming, reading, and doing crossword puzzles found that dancing regularly can reduce the risk of developing neurological issues by up to 74%, which was the highest percentage of all activities tested.  Dancing even scored over twice as much as reading. The reason dancing is so good for neurological health is that When you dance, your brain and body must synchronize and work together. Decisions have to be made within a fraction of a second. It requires you to use many different parts of your brain at the same time. This is why dancing is considered a good way to manage and maintain neurological health.

4. Form and join new communities

There are many genres of dance where you have to dance in pairs or in a group. By engaging in these genres, you are exposed to new people and new communities. Other than this, dancing can also Foster self-confidence which can help you further engage socially with others in and out of your dance community.

What genre of dance to choose?

As you may well know, there are many genres of dance, each providing their own benefits such as aerobics which focus on the exercise aspect of dance, or ballet which focuses on balance, rhythm, and form. Whichever form of dance you choose, you will receive benefits from it regardless. But if you are not sure where to begin, here are a few options that you can explore:

Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop like many other genres of dance has gained popularity around the world due to how easy it is to get started in it. It is not necessary for you to find a partner or a group to dance with. You can start practicing all on your own at home whenever you find the time. Hip-Hop is a style of dance that allows for a huge range of expression and movements. You can use your imagination in coming up with moves for your routine since there isn't one specific way to dance with Hp-Hop. This dance isn’t age or gender specific– anyone can get into it! You can start when you’re young or old.

Ballroom dancing

Ballroom dancing typically requires a partner. Each genre of ballroom dancing has its own specific rhythm and style of music that works with it. Ballroom dancing includes many types of dance such as Waltz, Samba, and Tango. Ballroom dancing is especially focused on beauty and appearance. It is a type of dance where there are Even competitions held around the world. Ballroom dancing is a great way to engage with others and become a part of a community.

Contemporary dancing

Contemporary dancing is a very expressive type of dance. There is no one specific way to move with this type of dance. It requires a lot of improvisation and its movements often are derived from many different genres of dance. Due to this, it is difficult to box contemporary dancing Into a specific definition. Anyone that wants to try a dance that is freeing and expressive should try out contemporary dancing.

Jazz

To anyone that wants a high-energy type of dance, Jazz is the one for you. Jazz combines contemporary ballet with upbeat music that is fun and engaging. The outcome of this combo is a dance that involves flexibility, jumping, and fast movements that require a lot of energy.

Conclusion 

If you are looking for a new way to workout for fitness reasons as well as to improve your mood, neurological health, and to socialize more, dancing is definitely worth getting into. You can begin to dance regularly through taking courses or even on your own at home. You will find that dancing can improve the quality of your life and your health.