INSANE (Physical) Benefits
We gave you a warning: dork dancing is a workout. Luckily, workouts come with tremendous benefits. Although we aren’t hitting the gym with a specific intention for physical gains, we get them. We are excited to learn, and share, the INSANE physical benefits that Dork Dancing can give.
It starts with the heart. The heart is pretty much our most important organ, right? It gives blood to our entire body, and that blood is needed for things like our brain to even function. When the heart stops, that means we die. We learned that as kids. If we lose a limb, we are still alive. Yes, I think we can agree the heart matters most.
Well, dancing has one of its most profound impacts on heart health. It’s a great cardio workout that gets your heart pumping. An Australian study collected data from roughly 48,000 British folks and that study revealed something cool. “Moderate intensity dancing” lowers your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Dancers had a 46% lower risk of cardiovascular death, compared to those who rarely or never danced (source: british heart foundation). Lifestyle diseases, particularly heart diseases, are a leading cause of death (especially in the United States) & dancing protects you from that.
Jumping up and down, moving side to side, certainly gets the heart going, but it does other things too. With a variety of movements, you are using many different muscles. It’s a full-body workout, not just a heart workout. The range of motions expressed while dancing even gives it a competitive edge over some traditional workout routines.
Professional dancer Jonathan Tylicki explains: “movements that we typically do in our daily life, like walking, taking the stairs, and common workouts like treadmills and cycling, occur in the sagittal plane, but dance works your body from all planes, including lateral and rotational, which turns on and conditions all muscles, meaning no muscle is left behind” (source: healthline). It’s not just one muscle, it’s many, and unique advantages emerge from that, mainly improved balance & coordination.
If your weight shifts drastically to your left, then your feet are performing a balancing act of sorts to prevent you from falling over. Through that balance, more muscles that may typically not be stretched are being tested. The more you dance, the better awareness you and your body gains on how to keep balanced & coordinated. These things help in most all sports, adding to your athleticism & body confidence. Dancing strengthens your connection to your body and your control of it, improving spatial awareness too.
This helps a lot especially when you get older because so many older folks are prone to falling, leading to injury or even premature death. A 12-week, dance-based aerobic exercise program in 2002 resulted in improvements in balance and agility as well as a reduction of the risk of falls (source: livingwellmag).
“In another study among a group of sedentary senior women, dancing improved their cardiorespiratory endurance, balance, lower-limb strength and endurance, body agility and flexibility, and a decrease in body fat.”
Cardio workouts and weight loss go hand-in-hand. We don’t come to dork dancing for the purpose of losing weight, but if you do this routinely with us, just give it some weeks and watch those numbers dwindle. It will happen. Dance can burn more calories than running, swimming, or cycling even (source: city academy).
This isn’t some weight watching diet or program that demands a significant lifestyle change, no this is much simpler and more fun, just a consistent (preferably daily) hour practice of dork dancing either alone in your room or outside with us. It’s amazing how effective dancing can be for those who are weight conscious.
It’s worth including that dancing builds stronger bones too (forget the milk marketing!). Dance steps “improve the strength of your tibia, femur and other leg bones—which bear the majority of your body’s weight. By building up your bone mass, you can ward off or slow down the progression of osteoporosis” (source: canyon ranch).
Dancing, like most any workout, is a great anti-aging strategy. The more exercise, the longer you will live. Again, back to the basics of things we learned as kids. But knowing it and doing it are two entirely different things.
One study showed that even seniors (those most intimate with aging) struggle to maintain exercise after 6 months, most quit, but things were different when it came to interesting and fun forms of exercise, like dance. This includes activities like ballroom, polka, salsa, or Tai Chi (source: livingwellmag). This kind of exercise was easier to stick to; and that’s worth its weight in gold. It’s easier to do workouts when it’s bundled into something that’s fun.
What you do today affects how you will be tomorrow. Many things are out of our control but some things are. A decision to dance is one of those things that’s within our control.
Dancing, in full participation, is a serious workout. The internet suggests those who may feel unfit see a doctor for a check-up. Dancing without physical readiness can cause injury. Stretching, helpful. Lots of water, needed. Appropriate shoes, definitely. Rest in between dancing, good idea.
None of us are professional dancers. Only dork dancers. So it’s important to keep that in mind. We aren’t guaranteeing any results here. Just documenting research, observing ourselves, and sharing what good we believe dork dancing offers.
Dork Dancing has some INSANE physical benefits. Hope you decide to engage with our practice & community so you too can reap the rewards.
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