AMAZING OTHER STUFF!

Welcome to AMAZING OTHER STUFF! Such as Dance Secrets, stimulating writings on Yoga, Covid, being #Excluded from government support during Covid 19 – and there’s even some little snippets of my life since I was 18… see links to those pages below:

In the meantime – have you ever really wondered why dancing is so good for you and a dozen or so other questions – like these:

Why Do People Dance? Why do we Warm Up? Why do we do a combinations of both fast and slow movements in a Dance Fitness class? How long does it take to get fit? Why do we always stretch at the end of the class? …and many more…

So – read on!

WHY DO PEOPLE DANCE?

Dance is an essential part of the World’s culture and people all over the world dance. Practically every country has a ‘national dance’ and during the height of the Commonwealth, whenever the Queen went on a state visit to anywhere – what happened virtually the moment she stepped off the plane or the ship? That’s right – the people danced for her.

As I write this – I guarantee there are millions of people dancing somewhere in the world. You are never too old or too young to dance. Toddlers dance, school kids dance, young adults dance, mothers dance holding their babies, dad’s do the infamous ‘dad dancing’ and even old people dance – albeit maybe at a bit of a slower pace than they once did. People go to dance classes, to gigs, to parties, to weddings or to any kind of celebration – and they dance. Even animals dance.

Dance is the universal language that everyone understands. So, the answer to why do people dance – is because we can’t help it! It really is part of our DNA.

WHY DO WE WARM UP?

A typical dance fitness class is an hour long. The first 10 minutes or so are generally focussed on a ‘warm-up’ which is where we gently start to raise the heart rate, get the blood pumping a little faster around your body and warming up the muscles. The warm up also increases oxygen and body temperature, firing up your cardiovascular system.

The human body cannot suddenly be expected to go from standing still to moving at great speed without the risk of injury, so a good steady warm up is essential.

Think of your muscles like a stick of chewing gum. When the chewing gum stick is taken out of the packet it is cold and stiff. You could snap it quite easily. In order to make it soft and pliable you have to chew it. Your muscles are just like that too. When you first start to move them they are like that ’just out the packet’ stick of chewing gum, so we warm them up gently, so that they become stretchy and less prone to being pulled or torn. A good warm up will prepare your body for your dance workout (or indeed ANY workout!) and help prevent any injuries from moving too fast, too soon. So, that’s why we warm up!

WHY DO WE DO A MIX OF FAST & SLOW TRACKS?

The main body of a Dance Fitness class is made up of a mix of dance tracks that vary in tempo. Some are fast, some are slow and some are in between. Sometimes, even the faster tracks have a slow section in them. This is both intentional and has a very important purpose.

You’ve probably heard of HIIT – that’s High Intensity Interval Training – where you do short, but very intense bursts of movement – and this new way of working the heart is thought to be more efficient in helping to improve your cardio fitness, burning calories and getting fitter, quicker, unlike a traditional cardio/aerobic type class – where the heart rate is elevated and kept at this elevated level throughout the class.

My Dance Fitness classes use the HIIT method, but in a gentler form – I like to just call it, ‘INTERVAL TRAINING’. We raise the heart rate, then slow it down before elevating it again, maybe taking it up a little more and then slowing it down again. It’s like a wave motion that carries on throughout the duration of the class, until we get to the ‘cool down’ where we gradually bring the heart rate back down, ready for a stretch. Having a mix of fast and slow also makes it easier for beginners to join in a class, as you feel like you are getting a bit of a ‘breather’ every now and again when slower tracks and movements are used.

And since you made it here – you must be interested in keeping yourself healthy and fit (well I hope you are!) so here’s a link to an interesting article on the TOP TEN BENEFITS of REGULAR EXERCISE

Here’s also an interesting list of FOODS THAT SUPPORT HEALTHY AGEING

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