Dance

I'm so happy to know that dancing has so many benefits, because it's no secret... I love to dance!

Dancing does wonders for:

1. Flexibility - the greater your range of motion while dancing, the more your muscles can flex and extend.

2. Strength - dance strengthens by forcing the muscles to resist against a dancer's own body weight. Jumping and leaping uses lots of strength in major leg muscles, preventing osteoporosis as well as keeping the joints lubricated, which helps prevent arthritis.

3. Endurance - regular dancing, and especially vigorous dancing, increases endurance; and elevating the heart builds stamina. Dancing also helps improve our cardiovascular system and lung capacity. 

4. Balance - dancing allows us to master balance in numerous positions, strengthens our stabilizer muscles while protecting our core and possible injuries. It also improves our coordination and srengthens our reflexes.

5. Well-being - a stress and tension reducer, dance improves our overall sense of well-being. It raises our endorphin levels, which helps depression and guards our immune system. Dancing is expressive and helps to encourage harmony betweeen the body and the mind. It's soical too if you dance with others.

6. Circulation - dance gets the blood flowing thereby improving our circulatory systems.

7. Memory - memorizing steps, routines and dance patterns improves memory.

8. Weight loss - dancing burns calories: 5 to 10 calories per minute, depending on the intensity and spped of our dance steps.

9. Cholestrol levels - dance raise HDL (the good cholesterol) and lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol).

With so many different types of dance, there is no need to ever get bored. I'm going to make dance one of the main ways I exercise. Now where did I put my disco music... just kidding, it's already right by the CD player, along with all my other dance music!