Dancing, A Good Exercise for Boomers

bydarrellw

955 followers

9 years ago

Dancing is a very good exercise for baby boomers. It goes without question that we boomers need to exercise if we want to

maintain a good quality of life during our golden years. Exercising can be a task or a pleasure. If we have been involved in a formal exercise program, when we were younger, continuing a exercise program during our retirement years should not be a problem. That’s because we are used to exercising for a specific period of time, two or three times a week.

But what if we are like me. In my youth I got my exercise when the activities I was involved in offered the opportunity to exercise. I got my exercise when I was skiing. That works during the winter months, but what about the spring, summer, and fall. Thank goodness for golf. Needless to say, I was in better shape during the winter months.

The point I’m trying to make is that many of us get exercise because we are doing something we enjoy, and exercise is a byproduct of doing these activities that we find enjoyable.

My main form of exercise has been taken away from me. I now live in Hawaii, and the skiing here is not the best. Once again, thank goodness for golf.

As we age, we find that we can no longer do the things we used to do, for as long as we used to do them. I don’t know that if I still lived in Utah, THE HOME OF THE BEST SNOW ON THE PLANET, if I could ski the way I used to. After all, skiing is a very demanding activity. I’d need to find some other enjoyable activity to do, for which exercise is a bye product of. Let’s see, may I suggest DANCING. We may be able, once again, to do what we used to do, for as long as we used to do it.

Music and dance has been part of our culture since the beginning of time. The ancient Israelites had a choir, and dancers assigned to work in their HOLY TEMPLE. African tribes have always sang songs and danced to give them inspiration. Native Americans, likewise, put on their finest leathers, and feathers to chant and dance. Polynesians still chant and dance the hula, at birthdays, graduations, weddings, and even funerals. Polynesians dance every time the hat hits the floor. I should know, my wife is a hula dancer and she loves the hula, and the association with her hula sisters, and the people she dances for.

So my wife is doing something she loves doing, and she is probably getting more exercise than I get on the golf course. Should I start dancing? It sure wouldn’t hurt.

The reason we exercise is to strengthen our cardiovascular system, strengthen our muscles, to include our core muscles, increase flexibility of our joints, improve our balance, make us more mentally aware, and make us happy.

Does dancing accomplish these exercise goals? Lets take a look:

• Line dancing is goodCardio. Dancing improves the health of our entire cardiovascular system.
• Flexibility and balance. Just the activity of dance makes our joints more flexible, and improves our balance. This is very important, since poor flexibility and balance is a major reason for boomers falling, a getting injured. Once older folks are injured, they require more time to heal. DANCE, DON’T FALL IN THE FIRST PLACE.
• Strengthen our muscles. The mere activity of dancing strengthen our muscles. Also our important core muscles.
• Mental capacity. Dancing improves all functions of our brain. It improves our memory, our ability to reason, and prevents us from developing dementia.
• Decreases the effects of depression. This is done because dancing raises our endorphin levels.
• Lose weight. Want to shed a few pounds, try cutting a rug once a week.
• Make new friends. It comes with the territory. It’s pretty hard to dance with someone, and not get to know them.

The cool thing about dancing is that we can rip all these benefits, and not even realize that all this good stuff is happening to us.

Most of us enjoy music. And when a catchy tune comes on the car radio, or stereo, or even Pandora. What happens to our fingers on the steering wheel? They start tapping to the beat of the tune. YA MAN, our fingers start dancing. We do that without thinking about it. Music and dance are part of us. And dance is God’s way of keeping us fit. Dancing is dirt cheap, and painless. Just climb on and SHAKE WHAT YOUR MAMMA GAVE YA.

That’s all I got for now. Stay active My Friends. I do enjoy hearing from you though. So if you have any thoughts to add, please leave a comment below.

Thank You

Darrell