By Berkeley Wellness – With shows Such as Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance at full swing, dance Has Become one of Americas favored pastimes. There is even National Dance Day, that was started in 2010 to inspire Americans to adopt dancing as a pleasure and positive way to keep health and fight obesity. Dancing offers physical, emotional, and social advantages galore, so wear your dancing shoes and follow together. Better balance, enhanced mood – Many research has found that dancing may enhance balance, even in frail elderly people. Some have demonstrated improvements in gait, walking speed, and response time, in addition to cognitive and fine motor performance.

Dance research has included jazz, ballroom, tango, folk, and a string of slow, low impact dancing movementsthough any type of dancing will probably be beneficial. Interestingly, according to a review at the Western Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine at the year 2009, dancing can help men and women with Parkinsons disease, which is represented by rigid muscles, slowed movement, and impaired balance. Dancing can also be good for your mood. In another study, attendance was greater with waltzing than traditional exercise, maybe because dance is one type of exercise wherein motion, societal interaction, and fun are combined together, the researchers said.

Dancing for heart health and weight management – If dancing gets your heartbeat speed up, it could be a very good form of aerobic exercise, that is good for your heart normally. One study even found that in men and women with stable chronic cardiovascular failure, slow fast waltzing enhanced cardiovascular and blood vessel function and overall quality of life just as much as a moderate aerobic workout program did. Normally, a 150 pound person burns around 240 calories per hour when dancing. However the numbers vary a lot, from less than 200 calories per hour for slow dances like tango to about 350 calories for faster dance like swingand more than 500 calories for step aerobics dance.

Obviously, for the more active dances you probably won’t dance a full hour. Put on your dancing shoes – since there are plenty of various kinds of dance, you ought to be capable to find a style which suits you with regards to intensity, difficulty level, type of music you like, and whether you prefer to dancing without or with a partner. If you would like an upbeat, calorie burning style, you may try tap or swing, for instance. You might also search on the internet for a wide range of dancing events in your area, sponsored by several dance groups or dance schools. Another program, Dance for PD, offers classes for individuals with Parkinson’s disease that integrate movements from traditional and modern dance, they’re taught by trained dancers and accompanied by live music. Bottom line: There’s nothing negative about embedding dance into your regular physical exercise routine, and it might help motivate you to get moving if you find other types of workout routines, like treadmill machine walking or biking, a little boring.