Dance as exercise

dubird

I used to use DDR for exercise. Now that we're moved, I'm going to try and get that back going again.

spartan_d

girlviernes wrote: »

Spartan_d - exciting to meet another lindy hopper I would argue that it can be great exercise, depending how you do it. If I go out to a dance, I'm going to be dancing at least 75% of the time. So if that's 2 hours, it's about 90 minutes of cardio. Maybe a third of the songs are very aerobic. It's not the same of course as something like running, where if you were to go running for 90 minutes several times a week you probably couldn't hardly help but lose weight. With dance, you still need to focus closely on calories.

Fast lindy and Charleston is certainly more vigorous than most exercise. It's still not what I'd call "great," but of course, that's a relative term.

I do know that in my early days, I looked forward to the workout that it provided. As I became more fit and started working out more intensely, I came to feel that it was good but not great... but again, that's because such terms are relative in nature.

spartan_d

BinaryPulsar wrote: »

It's true that dance can be stop and go (as often it needs to be), but that is still good exercise. Some contemporary classes keep going and going without stopping. I also strength train in addition to dancing and do yoga. And I am an active person in general. And dance is an excellent addition to an active lifestyle. Most dancers do other types of exercise in addition to dance training.

You'll get no disagreement from me on that point. I would advise beginners against treating dance as a primary form of exercise, simply because of its limits (little strength training, little sustained effort over long periods, etc). However, I do wholeheartedly agree that it is a worthy addition to an active lifestyle.

azulvioleta6

spartan_d wrote: »

I'm a lindy hopper as well, girlviernes. Sending you a PM to ask which scene you're from.

I think that dancing can be good exercise, but not great. Don't get me wrong; I know you can lose fat by doing so, and I certainly encourage people to try it. In a social scene though, it tends to be very much stop-and-go, and it usually doesn't place great demands on one's cardiovascular endurance. Nor is it particularly good for building strength.

None of this is meant to discourage people from trying it, though. It's a good, enjoyable way to burn off some extra calories and keep people more active. I'd say that it's not as good as running, weight lifting, interval training, or boot camp work, but it's worth incorporating as a supplement to one's exercise program.

There is nothing to say that you can't dance AND do all of those other things. I do...plus swimming too!

spartan_d

Again, agreed. Like I said, I view it as a useful supplement to traditional exercise. Instead of treating it as exercise per se, I think it's more useful to view it as simply a part of one's active lifestyle.