Is Dancing Good Exercise? Absolutely!

Did you know dancing is actually good for you? It’s even better for you than walking. No, really.

A 10-year study of 48,000 adults linked moderate-intensity dancing with a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

That’s right, shaking it on the dance floor is good exercise and helps you live longer.

Now, this isn’t really new news.

A previous study found that dancing at least 3 times a week was associated with a 76% reduction in dementia risk.

But what about dancing vs. walking? How much is dancing good exercise compared to walking?

Dancing Vs. Walking Study

The study, Dancing Participation and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, examined if dancing “offers a greater protection against cardiovascular disease mortality than walking.”

The study was conducted in the United Kingdom with over 48,000 participants from 1995 to 2007 and tracked how often, the duration, as well as the intensity the participants danced and walked.

Dancing and walking were grouped in the categories of “light-intensity” vs “moderate-intensity.”

Light intensity dancing is defined as “usually at an effort not causing out of breath or sweaty” while moderate-intensity dancing is defined as “usually enough to cause out breath or sweaty.”

Light-intensity walking was defined as walking at a slow or average pace while moderate-intensity walking is walking at a fast or brisk pace.

Study Results

Among the 48,000 participants, 6.5% reported recreational dancing with 8.2% being women and 4.5% men.

The participants who danced had a lower BMI (Body Mass Index) and were less likely to have long-standing illnesses and psychological distress.

During the 10 year study, there was a total of 1,714 deaths due to cardiovascular disease. The mortality rates were 3.1 for walkers compared to 2.2 dancers meaning walkers died at a higher rate than those who danced.

Moderate-intensity dancing was found to have lower cardiovascular disease mortality compared to light-intensity dancing.

Final Thoughts

Is dancing good exercise? Yes, the study found that dancing helps to prevent cardiovascular deaths.

It doesn’t matter what type of dancing you do as long as you work up a bit of sweat; the higher the intensity, the better the results.

The author of the study said that there could be other factors as well that make dancing good for your health.

Possibly, people who dance have other life-long habits of being regularly active. Dancing reduces stress and improves your mood which adds to the health benefits.

So get out there and dance already. No excuses. Get on the dance floor…dance, dance, dance!



Feel free to share your thoughts below. Is dancing good exercise? What do you think?