Dancing Can Reverse Signs of Aging

Dance has long been a form of expression, celebration and has also been shown to literally shake the stress of the day away. Regardless of whether you took dance lessons growing up, or have two left feet, we can all admit that letting loose and dancing the night away feels good. Yet dance can do so much more for us, in fact, it has been found that the mental benefits may make it the number one activity for protecting and strengthening your brain. 

 

Dancing and Your Brain  

Research is constantly being done on the aging brain and how to combat, prevent and treat age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, Dementia and Parkinson's disease. Exercise has long been shown to have an impact on brain health, but scientists have discovered that dance, with coordinated movement and required stamina, may be the best type of exercise for your brain for several reasons:

1. Constant Learning  

A study conducted by Dr. Kathrin Rehfeld at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases compared various groups of elderly people who were given specific exercise routines for 18 months. Some groups were assigned endurance and flexibility training such as walking or cycling, and one group was given weekly dance lessons. 

 

Every week they were challenged with something new, be it a new genre of dance, a new step, or a new routine. It was found that all the groups experienced an increase in the hippocampus center of the brain - an area that is particularly vulnerable to age-related decline and diseases - though the dance group experienced a noticeable difference. Dr. Rehfeld explained that the most challenging aspect for the group was to recall the routines under the pressure of time, and without any cues from the instructor. 

2. Coordination and Balance 

Balance and coordination can be difficult, becoming even more challenging as we age. The challenge with aging is that you become increasingly dizzy, lose your balance and fall. As a result, you are also more likely to experience a serious injury. But dancing trains and improves all of these areas: Spins, turns, quick side-to-side and up and down movements, train the areas of the brain and the inner ear to deal with those quick changes and sharp movements. This helps you become less dizzy from everyday movements, such as going up the stairs or getting up and out of a chair. 

 

In addition, dancing also helps strengthen a variety of muscles in your feet, legs, and hips as well as your core, so that if you do lose your balance, you are able to stop yourself from falling. Dancing teaches coordination and muscle memory, so if you dance and practice routines, you are nurturing and developing the brain-muscle connection and neurons. 

 

3. Improved Memory  

We all would like to have better memory, but this is especially pertinent for older adults. As we age our ability to remember and recall names, dates, places, and facts declines. But dancing helps us connect the mental (learning new steps and the order they come in) with the physical (actually executing the routine). This results in memory improvement and strengthened neuronal connections in the brain.

4. Music Stimulates Brain Activity  

Scientists and researchers who study neurodegenerative diseases have long discussed the profound impact that music has on the brain, especially for those suffering from cognitive decline. Dance, not only offers benefits of the physical practice itself but as it is accompanied by music, this helps stimulate the reward centers of the brain in combination with the sensory and the motor circuits that are activated when you start dancing. 

 

Furthermore, studies done on Parkinson's disease found that those who practiced and learned dance, had an improved sense of balance and fell less, they also experienced a slower rate of motor decline and an overall slower progression of the disease. 

 

 5. Dancing Makes You Happy Whatever the style, dancing gets you moving. This form of exercise is fantastic for your heart, lungs, muscles, and joints and is a fun way to burn calories. It also helps you shed stress. It also allows us to connect with others, when we are at parties, for instance.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Learn the Overall Body Exercise That Will Do You Good

Exercising allows us to strengthen our bodies, activate our muscles and burn calories to lose weight and get the figure we want. In order to achieve all these results, a number of different exercises are usually needed to focus on each specific muscle group, but there is a special type of squat exercise that incorporates full fitness training! In just a few minutes a day you can get amazing results, and with the 10 benefits of this special exercise, you’ll want to try it right away.

Advantages of the Burpee: 

The special squat exercise that we’ll teach you how to do later in the article does not require special equipment, only an area where you can stretch your body comfortably. The exercise, dubbed "Burpee," has a number of advantages that’ll get all couch potatoes right up. 

 

1. Saves time 

While sets of different exercises take a lot of time and require at least half an hour each day, Burpees only take a few minutes. Doing the exercise for 10 minutes a day will work out your whole body, including many muscle groups, from head to toe, thereby increasing your metabolic rate in a short time.

2. Strengthens muscles and bones 

The Burpee belongs to a special group of palliative exercises that exert great force on the muscles, and immediately after the exertion, the muscles contract. What this does is "stimulate" the muscles and strengthen them, and these exercises also strengthen the bones. In a study published in 2017, it was found that palliative exercises strengthen not only the muscles but also the bones. These exercises improve the mineral content of the bones, their density, and structure, so they are an important factor in the removal of bone-thinning diseases that affect many people.

3. Increases cardio-pulmonary endurance 

Although Burpees are short, they are also intense and work out the muscles, lungs, and heart in the same way as complete sets of exercises. As a result, the muscles become stronger, the pulse rises and the lungs expand and bring more air into them - which translates into increased endurance. This endurance will make you breathe better, strengthen your body, and make you feel more alert.

4. Increases muscle mass  

As the years go by, the body loses muscle mass, and it happens very quickly if you don’t regularly exercise. Muscles are needed to metabolize and maintain a healthy body, so it is important to maintain normal mass at any age. The Burpee allows you to increase muscle mass and thus maintain a strong and healthy body. With your muscles strengthening, your body's metabolic rate will increase, your energy level will increase and your body will tighten and tone.

5. It's portable 

Do you have a busy day ahead of you, without enough time to hit the gym? With Burpees, you can no longer use the “I don’t have time to go the gym” excuse since every place can be your own personal gym! All you need is a space big enough to stretch your body, meaning even a small office will do. This way you can cram a whole body workout into your daily routine. 

 

6. Improves coordination  

The Burpee combines push-ups, squats and high jumps, which contribute to the improvement of physical coordination. The improvement in coordination between the different organs helps a variety of actions, such as driving, and also improves various athletic skills. In addition, the improvement in balance prevents falls and stumbling as a result of instability, so that you gain many benefits in one exercise.

7. Aids in weight loss 

Many people struggle with being overweight and don’t have the endurance for long exercises usually needed to shed the extra pounds. Burpees solve this problem because they strengthen muscles, increase metabolism and increase energy - three factors that together lead to weight loss. 

 

8. Improves self-confidence  

Besides improving your physical condition, Burpees can do wonders for your self-confidence. This challenging exercise is a bit difficult to do at the beginning, but as time goes by you’ll get better at it thus improving yourself and your self-esteem.

How to do Burpees 

Now that you are aware of all their benefits, let's go over their execution. This excellent exercise will train the arm, shoulder, buttock, abdominal, and leg muscles so that you can enjoy a total body workout in only 10 minutes.

Stand up straight, then get into a squat position placing your hands on the floor in front of you. 

 

Kick your feet back into a push-up position and quickly lower your chest to the floor. 

 

Raise your chest, then place your feet back to the squat position as quickly as possible. 

 

Immediately jump up into the air as high as you can. 

 

The first few times you do this exercise, do it slowly to feel comfortable and not over-strain yourself. 

Over time, try it faster to get the most you can out of it. At a preliminary or advanced stage, perform the exercise for 10 minutes and stop whenever you feel you need. In the video below you can see how to do the exercise in a slow and fast way and how your body should move. 

 

Have fun!

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement