Dancing — The Only Exercise You Need!

Rachel Dodman
5 min readOct 22, 2018
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

When we think about exercise, we have a lot of preconceived ideas. Lycra, gyms, running shoes, effort, exertion. When we imagine exercise we don’t imagine dancing, making friends and socializing. But we should. Dancing is a great form of exercise!

Social Dance Animal

Most adult types of dance are partner dancing, which is a very social form of exercise. You experience the dance both as a group and a couple. Compare that to swimming. Swimming is a solo form of exercise. You beat your own personal best. You swim in your own lane, trying not to connect with other people. You might get to know a few people if you always swim at the same time, but mainly it is an isolated activity.

When you dance you are physically connected to your partner. You are both dancing to the same music, trying to understand and reflect the way the other is expressing the music. One of you has picked up on a regular pattern in the music — the other has noticed, and you have dance magic. It is a great feeling when you both perfect a move it can be quite good fun when you make mistakes. You don’t get as frustrated because there are two of you. You muck something up, your partner laughs, you laugh. You both try again.

Most forms of modern partner dance involve dancing with different partners. This means you get the chance to meet lots of people. And you get to learn different things from different people. One partner might be great at timing — always knows where the breaks in the music are and is spot on the beat, whereas another partner might be fantastic at style, making the moves theirs. You dance differently with each person and learn something new each time.

This connection with another person is essential for humans and according to a study investigated by Psychology Today it can help prevent mental health problems like depression and lead to a 50% increase in longevity.

Awesome Aerobics

Dancing is an aerobic form of exercise, which is great for your heart and lungs. But it doesn’t feel like it. Your focus is on perfecting the moves and developing your dance style rather than getting fit or working certain parts of your body. It is like hiding chopped vegetables in a child’s dinner — with dancing you get a good…

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Rachel Dodman

Rachel is a freelance writer from the UK. Check out her latest novella Downhill From Wednesday on Amazon! www.racheldodman.com