1. Flexibility
Flexibility is an important part of being healthy. Dance requires a great amount of flexibility. Dancers must strive to achieve full range of motion for all the major muscle groups. The greater the range of motion, the more muscles can flex and extend. Most forms of Ballroom and Latin dance require dancers to perform moves that require bending and stretching, so dancers naturally become more flexible by simply dancing.
2. Strength
Strength is defined as the ability of a muscle to exert a force against resistance. Dancing builds strength by forcing the muscles to resist against a dancer’s own body weight. Many styles of Ballroom dance build strength and conditioning through the slow and controlled strides associated with the Smooth dances, as well as developing explosive power through the twisting and rotating actions of Latin dance. Dancers also gain strength throughout the muscular range of motion, since muscular control is required at all points of a given movement in dance (as opposed to the more traditional types of resistance exercise where the muscles are either contracted or extended in a given exercise).
3. Endurance
Endurance is the ability of muscles to work hard for increasingly longer periods of time without fatigue. Regular dancing is great for improving endurance by elevating the heart rate, and keeping all your major muscle groups working for prolonged periods of time. The great thing about dance as an endurance exercise is that it doesn’t “feel” like exercise at all! Answer honestly, which would you rather do: a strenuous and painful hour on the treadmill or a fun and fast-paced hour of Salsa dancing? For most, the latter is clearly more enticing. An average adult can burn between 200 and 500 calories during an hour of dance, depending on the intensity of the workout. Here at Fred Astaire Hoover, you can get a great endurance workout during our private lessons, group sessions, and practice parties.
