The Health Benefits of Dance
Physical exercise is essential to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. However, most people don’t have the motivation or the time to go jogging or to the gym. But there are less boring activities you can do, such as dancing. Furthermore, the health benefits of dance are significant.
Dance is a universal language that’s present in all cultures. It’s a different form of communication to the rest. It’s also a powerful tool to exercise creativity and express yourself.
Dancing combines music with bodily expression and helps you to connect both with yourself and others.
Below, we list some of the health benefits of dance. Some of these benefits are connected to the body’s physical well-being, while others are connected to mental health. Some even benefit both physical and mental health equally.
The most important health benefits of dance are:
- Improves circulation.
- Helps to burn body fat.
- Helps improve mood.
- Strengthens personal relationships.
- Helps improve contact with others.
The health benefits of dance
1. Improves circulation
The first health benefit of dance concerns the health of the heart and the cardiovascular system since it improves blood circulation and lung capacity.
Since it’s an aerobic exercise as well as one that trains the body, it reduces the risk of suffering a heart attack.
In fact, dancing is recommended by the American Heart Association as an aerobic exercise that reduces the risk of heart disease.
2. Helps to burn body fat
The second health benefit of dance is directly related to the first. As it’s an aerobic exercise, dancing doesn’t just improve circulation but it also burns calories which means loss of body fat. In addition, it helps to improve self-esteem, as well as energy levels for facing the challenges of daily life.
3. Helps improve mood
There’s a lot of evidence on the effect of physical exercise on mood. In fact, dancing improves your frame of mind.
Due to aspects such as the release of endorphins and improved body image, dancing helps fight problems like anxiety and stress. It makes you feel happier.
On the other hand, dancing can also be a relaxing and distracting activity. It helps your mind disconnect from negative thoughts and worries. Furthermore, dancing enables the channeling of adrenaline, which boosts your motivation and enthusiasm for life.
As if that wasn’t enough, dancing helps achieve the flow state of mind. According to a study by Amado, Leo, Sanchez-Miguel, Sánchez-Oliva, and García-Calvo (2011), people who practice dance experience a kind of fluency in which they become totally absorbed in what they’re doing.
4. Strengthens personal relationships
Dance is a social discipline. Although you can practice dance alone, many types offer the chance of interacting with others.
Attending dance classes will help you meet new people and make connections with others, as you’re coordinating and communicating through body movement. In fact, it connects people of all different ages and countries. Dance has no boundaries.
5. Helps improve contact with others
Dancing, like any other artistic activity, includes a high emotional component. Dance practice helps you stay in touch with your inner feelings and express your deepest emotions.
Dancing frees you, allowing you to communicate your emotional universe through movement, something that you otherwise might not dare to express. In fact, in some areas, dancing is beginning to be used as therapy.
As you can see, dance has many health benefits. In this article, we only mentioned the most important ones. If you really want to know what dancing could bring to your life, you just have to try it out. Give it a go!
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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