12 Reasons Why Dancing is a Great Activity to Help You Achieve a Healthier Body and Mind
Some of us love dancing — and we have done so as a species for more than 10,000 years. A good thing about this physical activity is that it’s pleasing because we enjoy music and movement, but our mind and body also get a myriad of benefits from doing it.
5-Minute Crafts has prepared a list to tell you about the ways dancing improves both your physical and mental health.
1. It can help you burn calories.
When you’re dancing, you engage in aerobic and anaerobic exercise, making it a great workout and an effective way of burning calories. Depending on the dance style, you can burn 90–252 calories by doing it for 30 minutes.
2. It may improve your cardiovascular health.
Aerobic exercise is also known as cardiovascular training, which increases your heart rate. All styles of dance get your heart pumping, making them an effective and fun alternative to engage in cardio workouts.
3. It may strengthen your muscles.
Dancing is an exercise that demands a lot of effort from a key set of muscles, like your legs, glutes, and hips, as well as core muscles like your back and abs.
4. It may help you fix your posture.
Another group of muscles that is developed through dancing are the ones that control your posture, which are located around the spine. When these muscles are not trained, they get tired quickly, which leads to slouching.
5. It may lead to stronger bones.
Dancing is also a weight-bearing activity, a great exercise to get stronger and healthier bones. It has also been proven that, coupled with a diet that provides enough vitamin D and calcium, weight-bearing exercises are a good way to prevent degenerative conditions like osteoporosis.
6. It may increase your flexibility.
Many of the movements you use when you dance also stretch your limbs, which may train your flexibility. Because of it, dancing and the stretching associated with it might be a great way to ease joint pain and soreness.
7. It may improve your coordination and balance.
In dance, several parts of your body are used in unison, which requires a great amount of control. When you’re dancing, you use most of your muscles, which trains your coordination. By doing so, you are also improving your balance, which further helps your mobility.
8. It may boost your self-confidence.
Dancing is not only useful for your body, but it may also be a useful tool to overcome your shyness and express yourself in a new way. It is a great way to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone, which will help your confidence in the long run.
9. It may be a good stress reliever.
Any form of exercising and moving your body around is a good way to blow off some steam when you have pent-up stress, but dancing offers the benefit of doing it to your favorite music. Research shows that dance therapy positively affects the cortisol awakening response in order adults, which is associated with chronic stress.
10. It may brighten up your mood.
The ability to boost your self-confidence and relieve stress through dancing is inherently related to the overall positive impact dancing may have on your mental health. This mood boost is also tied to a decrease in symptoms of mood disorders as well as a boost in self-esteem.
11. It may improve your cognitive performance.
Dancing in moderation is associated with an increase in brain metabolism across all regions. It also trains your cognition by making you memorize moves and choreographies. What’s more, dancing has been shown to stimulate and activate several areas of the brain, leading to a lower risk of dementia.
Tap dancing, for example, is a style of dance where you use your shoes as a form of percussion, which usually has you memorizing complex sequences that you need to perform.
12. It can be a great social activity.
Dancing alone will still let you enjoy the benefits heretofore described, but doing it with more people is a meaningful way to socialize and connect with them. From ballroom dancing, to dancing at the club and with your family, there are many ways to dance with other people.
What do you think is the biggest benefit you get from dancing? Which one do you need the most?