dancing for fitness

Dancing for fitness? You’re dancing for brain fitness too!

Great news. Not only are we dancing for fitness. Science is now saying that dancing is the single best physical or mental activity for lowering your risk of dementia.

So dust off those dancing shoes.

As learned a source as the New England Journal of Medicine tells us that In a June 19, 2003 article people who dance, as in ballroom dancing, or dance exercise class, can lower their risk of dementia by up to 76%.

Yes, you read that right – 76%.

The article, published in June 2003, explained that dancing was the single best activity for building new neural pathways. It’s better than playing musical instruments. And it’s even better than mental activities like reading, playing bridge or doing crosswords.

dancing shoes to dance your way to fitness

Ballroom dancing promotes mental acuity. Ballroom dancing is a perfect example of dancing that promotes brain fitness. It requires constant adaptation and split-second decision making to adapt to the partner. Yes, there are repetitive steps and patterns, but levels of skill differ and dancers are always adapting to one another and to new partners.

And the constant adaptation helps to create new neural pathways in our brains. New neural pathways are important, because they give us options.

People who don’t engage in activities that stimulate new pathway growth have far fewer options if existing neural pathways wither Here are some of the reasons that dance contributes to mental acuity

The physical activity promotes increased blood flow to the brain
It’s a social, interactive activity
It engages your memory to remember steps
Learning the dance or inventing as you dance requires you to exercise your brain’s planning functions, and to fine tune motor coordination

And you're not just dancing for fitness, or for brain fitness. You’re having fun!

I'm excited about Nia dance exercise classes for fitness. It's different from ballroom dancing because you don't dance with a partner, you go through an exercise routine as you would in any exercise class. Except the whole class is dancing the routine.

Read about this joyful way to dance your way through an hour of exercise here

P.S. Here’s a special dancing shoe bonus for women The dancing shoes you can get at specialty dance shoe stores are terrific for women who have trouble finding fashionable evening shoes. If you have bunions rush to a dance shoe store. On many styles the shoe tops are fabric and soft and malleable, so you can wear them without pain. Most of the dance shoes will have lower heels as well, but can be found in glitter, gold, silver, red, and all kinds of gorgeous looks. It makes sense – women who dance in competitions need sturdy shoes but they also need to look fashionable.

So look up dance shoe stores in your area and treat yourself to a beautiful pair of shoes that are also wildly practical for dancing. And they are not expensive either.

Come to think of it, men can probably also get soft top shoes that would solve their foot problems.

Can't get to ballroom dancing class or Nia dance exercise class? Don't forget you can always get dance instruction videos and dance your way to fitness at home.

So everyone, let’s get up and go dancing for fitness. And remember, when you dance for fitness, your brain is getter fitter too. Now that's attractive!

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