Dance your way to fitness with CARDIO DANCE!

by Connie Jo York, Group Fitness Instructor Certified with the American Council on Exercise

DANCE LIKE NOBODY’S WATCHING!

I am so excited about CARDIO DANCE class!  Dancing for exercise is certainly not a new concept, but I am thrilled to find it coming on strong right now in the fitness world.  This surge in dancing for fitness could be a result of the dance reality TV shows that are so popular now.  Whatever the reason I am glad to see it.  There are so many fitness fads that have come and gone over the years, some seem ridiculous looking back on them.  If you ever pulled the door knobs off your house with a contraption that looped around the knob and involved scissoring your arms and legs, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  That is not the case with dance.  We can know for certain that people will always move to music, and that dance will always be a great way to workout.

We know our bodies need both cardio (aerobic) activity plus strength training.  Without getting too technical, aerobic activity requires oxygen.  Aerobic exercise requires the heart and lungs to work harder to meet the body’s increased oxygen demand.  You will know that you are reaping the rewards of aerobic activity if you are feeling warm and slightly out of breath.  You want to be breathing harder than normal, but not so much that you are out of breath.  And you need to engage in moderate to vigorous aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes, 5 days per week.  I would consider Cardio Dance a low-impact, vigorous aerobic exercise.

There are many activities that provide an aerobic workout and it’s a good idea to mix it up.  Don’t let your body get complacent.  Shock it now and then!  Try different activities—take a brisk walk, ride a bike, kick box, participate in a Step class, and by all means, DANCE!  Participating in Cardio Dance class is an effective way to add some variety to your aerobic exercise routine; and, great news—It’s FUN, it burns a lot of calories, and you can do it at home and almost anywhere.

Cardio Dance does not have to be complicated.  Just listen to the music and make a step with every beat.  You do not have to learn extensive routines to be successful.  The method I use to teach a Cardio Dance class is this—I will have a short combination of dance moves in mind.  I break down the moves and repeat each one over and over to the music.  While we are all practicing and performing each basic move together, we are already working in an aerobic capacity!  We are already doing Cardio Dance!  Remember, it’s not the final destination that counts in fitness; it’s the journey we go through to get to that destination.  Practice does count in exercise!

After we’ve done the basic moves for several minutes we can hook them together into a short combination, usually just 32 counts (or beats of the music), easy to remember, no stress.  This gives us an opportunity to really get into the groove—to continue moving constantly, becoming more comfortable as the minutes whiz by.  And the more sure of yourself and comfortable you become, the more individualized you can make the moves.  You will start to find it comes natural to put your own unique “twist” on things.  I can’t really describe how much fun the Cardio Dance class is.  I love it.  

As I said, times simply flies by in this dance class.  And as for burning calories, different people will experience different results.  But just to give you an example so you can see how effective Cardio Dance is, in a typical Step Aerobics class (a class I also love), I normally burn 550 calories.  In the most recent Cardio Dance class that I instructed I burned 651 calories.  This was dancing for 75 minutes (and it felt like 30 minutes).

Remember you can do Cardio Dance in a group or by yourself at home.  Moves can be as basic as just walking forward or to the side four steps and returning for four steps, or skipping back and forth across the room, or cha-cha-cha/shuffle steps or big step touches.  The possibilities are endless.  Remember this tip, to work harder, cover as much ground as possible as you are moving. 

If you are beginning an exercise program for the very first time, you might want to phone your doctor to make sure there are no medical concerns that would keep you from participating.  And even though you can do Cardio Dance at home, you might want to attend at least one professionally led session to help get you started on the “right foot.”  Don’t forget to warm up prior to exercise, and do some stretches for the calves, shoulders, back and hamstrings following your workout.

One last thing, here is my favorite 32-count combination you can work on at home:

CARDIO DANCE COMBINATION:

½ mambo, cha-cha-cha to the right (1-4 counts)

½ mambo, cha-cha-cha to the left (5-8)

V-step (counts 9-12), Jazz Square (13-16)

Shuffle forward at an angle toward the left front corner of the room, twice (counts 17-20).

Walk back 4 steps (20-24).

Shuffle turn twice (counts 25-32).