Dancing burns calories and builds muscular strength and endurance. Pair dance with a healthy diet and you have all the key elements of weight loss. Choosing a supportive dance environment also exposes you to others who can encourage you on your weight loss journey. Even if you're too shy to go out dancing in a social setting, you can polish your moves through private lessons or use dance-instruction or dance-fitness DVDs to learn -- and sweat -- at home.
Intensity
Dancing encompasses almost any means of moving to music. You can build fitness with social dancing like ballroom, Latin or swing, or solo dancing like tap dance, break dancing or belly dance. Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, is often set to music and may be taught as a form of dance as well. You can also work out in trademarked fitness dance classes like Zumba or Jazzercise.
Types
You can monitor whether you're dancing at moderate or vigorous intensity by paying attention to your breath. If you're able to carry on a normal conversation but not sing, you're working at a moderate intensity. If you're only able to get a few words out at a time, you're working at vigorous intensity. The harder you dance, the more calories you burn and the more you challenge your cardiovascular system to increase its fitness level.
Duration
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults do 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or 150 minutes of moderate activity every week. Just two nights of dance classes followed by social dancing can meet either of these requirements -- as long as you keep moving. One of dance's biggest benefits is that once you're in the swing of things, you might have so much fun that you're motivated to keep exercising for longer than the recommended minimum.
Music
Dancing's social aspect helps you connect with other people interested in physical activity. This sort of positive peer pressure can help you on your weight loss or fitness journey. The music helps, too: According to research sponsored by the American Council on Exercise, working out to music can increase your endurance and make the workout feel easier than it actually is.
Considerations
Making physical activity a part of your life is the key to a successful weight loss or fitness plan. Even after you meet your weight loss goal, you still need to exercise regularly to maintain fitness and healthy weight. Dancing feels like fun instead of grueling effort, which might inspire you to keep doing it over the long run.
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