Dance as exercise

azulvioleta6

jjscholar wrote: »

Believe it or not dance workouts or cardio dance can also alleviate certain heart conditions such as cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. I know this from my personal experience with Zumba and Hip Hop Fitness. Let me put it this way when I started cardio dance my heart's ejection fraction or efficiency rating was only 27-35 percent. I had undergone implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation surgery in order to prevent sudden cardiac death. My doctors were even telling me that I might have to have a heart transplant if things did not improve. As of the last time I had an echo-cardiogram which was December 2013 my heart's ejection fraction had gone up to 65 percent which is within the normal range. Also, my last ICD checkout indicated that my ICD device has not picked up an sort of heart rhythm anomaly. That reminds me I have another ICD check out appointment latter on today January 13, 2015. In addition, my resting heart rate now ranges from 58-72. While I know that my results are not typical, it can be said that I had made great progress. That was why I decided to take the Zumba Basic 1 Instructor Training course in May 2013. While I do not currently teach any Zumba classes of my own, I do demonstration routines in my friends' Zumba classes on a regular basis. I am still a member of the Zumba Instructor Network, and I had attended the 2014 Zumba Instructor Convention. I would say that the only drawback of doing dance workouts in my experience is that where I live it is not really socially acceptable especially with online dating sites. This is because many think that I am weak or that I do not like to date women which is absolutely wrong. But I do my best to ignore those people.

I have another male friend who is a Zumba instructor. He kept his Zumba activities secret from his family for many years. Eventually, they figured out what he was doing and they thought it meant that he was gay. He is not gay.

People are weird!

I think that straight men who take Zumba are very smart...the ratio is definitely in your favor!

BinaryPulsar

Male dancers are sexy, sensual, fun, creative, adventurous. So silly not to see it as masculine. Dancing is feminine and masculine.

girlviernes

Male swing dancers have it good as well

azulvioleta6

Even in Latin social dancing, there are almost always slightly more women than men. Good male dancers never have to sit things out.

I've actually learned lead in several dances just so that I have more opportunities to dance when there aren't enough men around.

ines_a_crazy

Hello,

I'm taking ballroom dance classes with my husband and I love it. My reasons:

1º I get to hug my husband for 90'. We are closer in those 90' that any other time in the week. We hug, we kiss, we laugh, we play, we tease...

2º I get to excercise in a different way than the four times a week I go to the gym. It is not as intense, but it is nice and much much much fun.

3º Metting other people, of all ages.

4º After it we eat the greatest kebab in O'Porto nham nham!

Ooci

I absolutely adore dance and miss it terribly! none round here in deepest darkest rural Lincolnshire.
I got good at salsa and used to be the demo girl in the classes - then I started teaching beginners.
If I could find a good man I'd consider teaching it here where I live.

Love your video girlviernes!

mandypizzle

I want to learn ballroom dance so bad! We are starting lesions once a month in feb with friends. I'm really excited!

spartan_d

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.

girlviernes

Ines_a_crazy - that's so nice for you and hubby!

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.

Dance classes can be highly aerobic too, the higher level swing classes I've taken can be 60 minutes of straight fast dance.

I supplement dance with HIIT cardio about 1-3 times per week and strength training 2-3x/week.

BinaryPulsar

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.

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.

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.