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Ethnic Dancing Gets You in Shape
March 11, 2002 --
Move over spinning. Forget it, step. America's fitness studios have gone exotic, sensual, cultural. Ethnic dancing is hot, very hot.
In Florida, belly dancing -- with classic moves like snake arms, body waves, and belly rolls -- makes for an excellent low-impact aerobic exercise, says Marjorie Malerk, a.k.a., Sallamah Chimer, who has been teaching in Gainesville since the early '80s. Turkish belly dancing, on the other hand, "gets very wild, you're jumping, moving fast, it's very aerobic," she tells WebMD.
In New York, a dance called Masala Bhangra is on the menu at the tony Crunch Fitness club in Manhattan. A hip-swiveling, hand-clapping, foot-stomping workout, it's set to the beat of drums, flutes, and synthesized music.
In Chicago, a blend of rumba, merengue, samba and mambo cha-cha -- taught to the beat of live drums and sensual Latin sounds -- provides a 60-minute, full-body workout.
"Dance is the most natural form of fitness," says Matt Walters, a Crunch Fitness spokesperson. "When people have to use their minds as well as their bodies, they get a better workout."
It's also far more fun.
"People are tired of rote, repetitious routines and blasting music," says Peg Jordan, PhD, RN, editor of American Fitness Magazine and a spokesperson for the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America.
"They're shifting to downbeat rhythms, taking their shoes off, working with ethnic flavors and rhythms, and moving differently with their bodies," she tells WebMD. "They're saying, do I really want to jump up and down like a cheerleader anymore?"
Dancing has great health benefits -- it burns calories, keeps joints limber, and helps tone your muscles, including your heart.
"Dancing definitely gets your heart rate up," says Carol Krucoff, a journalist, and yoga and karate instructor. With husband Mitchell Krucoff, MD, a top cardiovascular surgeon at Duke University in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., she has authored Healing Moves, a book that looks at curing, relieving, and preventing common ailments with exercise.
One of her book's messages, she says: "It's really important to find movement you enjoy and customize it. You can't say to everybody you have to do a certain kind of movement, because that won't work. It helps if people have a broad menu of different kinds of exercise, including dance."
Tuning into the music makes any workout more palatable, she says. "Numerous studies have shown it. When you add music to exercise, you work at a higher aerobic intensity, but it just doesn't feel as hard."
Plus, dancing is something that people at any age -- and any fitness level -- can do.
In her belly dancing classes, Malerk has one 76-year-old student. "She took belly dancing 22 years ago, and she's back again."
Krucoff's mom is in her 70s, and she's discovered line dancing at the local senior center. "This is a woman who will not take the stairs, who will not do any form of physical activity. But they play the music, and she's the first one up on the dance floor."
In downtown Minneapolis, aerobics instructor Naomi Pelley has seen the same thing.
All sorts of people, from age 8 to 70, turn out for her Saturday morning classes. It's an African form of aerobics -- what's called "Afrobics." Pelley calls her version "Funjah," a twist on the African word, funga, which means strength.
At center stage, you'll see Pelley and three native African drummers. The drummers match their beat to her steps. All eyes in the crowd watch her movements; their feet follow.
"It's so fun, and it's very freeing," she tells WebMD. "The drums elicit a response in the body that's like nothing else you've ever experienced. It's like the movement and drums are one, they play off each other."
No one should be intimidated by these workouts, says Pelley. "I make it real clear that it's not a traditional dance class. It's more like natural movement rather than learning dance patterns. Legs and arms need to be in certain positions. But beyond that, I tell people just to feel the beat, to move with the beat."
If people aren't in the best physical shape -- whether they're overweight, elderly, or injured -- they always can take a break. "I tell people, just move your hands, just move your body," she says. "Many times people are just swaying from side to side. It's not been a problem."
Besides, all dance instructors factor in some variety, says Paul Collins, director of Ethnic Dance Chicago. "You don't have 10 high-impact dances in a row," he says. "The tempo, the type of music changes." Plus, the tunes typically don't last more than 15 minutes, so there's a natural break in the movement. "If the dance lasts too long, people get bored," he says
While his Friday-night sessions aren't labeled as aerobic dance classes, they would certainly qualify, Collins tells WebMD. "People who come here for the first time, you see them sitting on the side, really heaving. Some dances can be very aerobic."
In fact, people should take advantage of all those dance opportunities out there -- whether they're through fitness clubs or not, says Jordan, who is also a cardiovascular nurse.
"There's contra dancing, Brazilian, Afro-Caribbean, salsa everywhere you look," she tells WebMD. "They kind of sneak fitness in the side door."
Go for it, and don't be concerned about overexertion, she says. "The medical profession would have you think everybody is a walking time bomb. We have crippled America, and people are growing more sedentary and more overweight. We need to liberate people to explore safe movement again. And dance really is safe movement. It's not frenzied, like running up-and-down in step classes."
"Just relax about it and do it," Jordan says.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain
"Zumbear"- to invite people partying.
Alberto "Beto" Perez- Beto is the creator of Zumba and the star in the Zumba video set sold on TV. He is a pioneer in the Zumba movement.
What is Zumba?
Zumba is a very dynamic and exciting class full of Latin and exotic music flavors. The routines feature aerobic interval training with a combination of fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body. It targets areas such as glutes, legs, arms, abdominals, and the most important muscle in the body, the heart! It is a mixture of body sculpting movements and easy to follow dance steps, although you do not have to know how to dance to do zumba. Zumba is a fun, effective, and simple fitness system that uses the principal of fitness interval training and resistance training to maximize caloric output, fat burning, and total body toning. The sexy and explosive Latin rhythms create a party like atmosphere that delivers results, as well as a "feel happy" workout.
Zumba is fun, different, easy, exotic, effective, and is rapidly becoming the next fitness sensation! Lucky you, Zumba is now offered in the St.Petersburg area, so join Tanya and the Gang to ZUMBA!!!!!
Shut up and dance!
Surprising your body with new activities, DANCE, forces it to work harder because it is doing unfamiliar movements and using muscle groups in different ways. In the process youll burn more calories than doing the same old same old. Ballroom, Latin, Swing, or any dancing in general can raise the heartbeat anywhere from 80 to 120 beats per minute. Sustained in 2-minute bursts over a 45-minute period, dancing will build the hearts strength and endurance. Dancing is also the perfect blend of isometric and isotonic resistance, two key ingredients in muscle building and toning.
Besides working every muscle in the body, dancing is good for your heart and mind. Did you know that dancing relieves stress, aids relaxation, builds self-esteem, straightens your posture, helps your social ease, and boosts emotional and physical health? Just dancing! as you do out with friends and loved ones or alone around the house. So get together with friends and take a dance class, go out dancing, or stay home, turn up the tunes and cut a rug by yourself!
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