Jazz It Up! Find Your Fitness with Dance Exercise at Our Timonium Gym
Think your mind cannot handle the drudgery of another minute on the stair climber or treadmill? We have all been there. While both are terrific ways to boost your fitness, the reality is that they can get tiresome day after day. Working out does not have to be boring, and there is one particular way to spice up your routine without sacrificing the health benefits. What is that? Dance workouts!
The 411 on Dance Workouts
You don’t have to head to the local nightclub or ballet studio to get the benefits of getting your groove on. In fact, today’s dance-themed workouts bring all of the fun of dancing to your gym. But dancing isn’t just fun; it’s also good for you. According to a breadth and depth of research, shaking your booty can do everything from improving your outlook on life to reducing stress to boost your heart health. But do these benefits carry over to the gym, and, if so, are dance workouts as efficient and effective as other types of exercise?
The answer is a resounding “yes,” say researchers from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Department of Exercise and Sport Science. According to their findings as reported by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), participants in Latin-inspired Zumba workouts burned an average of 369 calories per class while also enhancing their cardio endurance.
Explains lead researcher Mary Luettgen, M.S., “If we look at the heart-rate monitor strips from the Zumba fitness session, they kind of look like interval workouts, going back and forth between high intensity and low intensity. Because of that, with Zumba you burn a lot of extra calories compared to a steady-state exercise like jogging.”
The overall takeaway? Whether you’re looking to lose weight, gain strength or improve flexibility, Zumba works. Not only that, but the study further determined that the benefits of Zumba were experienced by study participants at a diverse range of fitness levels. So regardless of where you are on your fitness journey, dance workouts can help you salsa closer to your goals.
Continued Luettgen, “The surprising thing is that it doesn’t matter what fitness level you’re at—our research shows that in Zumba classes everyone is working out at the zone that’s recommended for improving cardio health. Both fit people and less-fit people are going to get an equally good workout.”
Zumba can also be easily modified for people looking for a low-impact workout, while aquatic Zumba classes offer another appealing option. Sign Up for an Aquatic Session to take your dance workout into the pool.
Beyond Zumba
Zumba was mentioned first, and with good reason. It’s inarguably the most popular form of group dance workout out there. According to ACE, more than 12 million people in 125 countries around the world take Zumba classes at approximately 110,000 sites.
But Zumba is just one of many options when it comes to dance-inspired group exercise classes. Also popular are ballet-themed workouts, line dancing, swing dancing, and even pole dancing!
Classes like Aqua Zumba, a ‘pool party’ that integrates the Zumba philosophy with traditional aquatic disciplines in a safe, challenging and exhilarating workout; BodyJam, an addictive fusion of dance and cardio moves set to chart-topping music, Dance Party, which incorporates different dance-based classes into one amazing dance experience; Latin Hip Hop, an energizing workout that blends dance move styles including Brazilian, Hip Hop, Caribbean, African, House, Funk and more; and WERQ, a fiercely fun dance fitness class based on pop, rock and hip-hop music are just a few Brick Body offerings aimed at helping people move their bodies to the rhythm.
Zumba and other dance-themed group fitness classes offer a simple way to add more fitness — and fun! — to your life. If you’re ready to take your workout from boring to blast, sign up for a trial pass today.
