It is important for everyone--including seniors--to find and enjoy a fitness routine. For senior citizens, low-impact dance can be a fun and healthy way to add exercise while enjoying a social atmosphere.
Choose Your Dance
Types of dancing for seniors are ballroom dancing, tap dancing and square dancing. These kinds of low-impact dances are not only fun, but they strike a sentimental chord with seniors. And they allow everyone to interact in a lively and social way, without causing too much stress on aging joints.
Livestrong.com (Lance Armstrong's exercise-focused group) describes the dances as follows:
• Ballroom dancing may bring back a memory from the past that makes it enjoyable and sentimental.
• Tap dancing is their chance to stomp it out on the dance floor, while improving their coordination and balance.
• Square dancing is a dance type that engages the seniors as couples working with a group. Many seniors belong to square dance clubs which travel to dance conventions where they meet and dance with other seniors enjoying life.
"Dancing is a great way for seniors to get more cardiovascular exercise in their lives," report experts from Livestrong. "The movement of the dances improves their circulation, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and eases tension. In addition, dancing helps seniors become heart healthy."
Chair Dancing
Another great way to utilize dance as a senior is to do the "Chair Dance" workout. This program developed by Jodi Stolove allows seniors to groove to the music without leaving their chairs. The workout can help coordination and offers a fun activity for those who may not be so sure on their feet. The exercise videos provide short workouts--some just three minutes long--that are easy enough for any senior, even if their movement is restricted. Stolove tells seniors that this fun and upbeat low-impact workout can be done at any time of day and requires no aerobic ability.
MUVE to the Beat
Created by Maggie Kunkel, MUVE is a multi-generational dance video class that allows both young and old to work out together. MUVE videos provide the music and on-camera dancers to demonstrate the movements. Suggestions appear around the dancers as the video progresses. "It provides an easy getaway from our busy everyday life and creates quality time using the power of original music and dance," said Kunkel at Muve.com. "MUVE strengthens muscles and improves flexibility for all your body parts in a natural way." Seniors can order the DVDs and organize dance groups where they live to get a group of friends dancing together.
All dance improves cardiovascular circulation, and the movement, and especially the camaraderie in a class setting, have been known to lift the spirits of participants.
Many local gyms and senior citizen clubs offer dance classes. To find one that suits you, check with your local organizations catering to seniors. If a dance class isn't offered--start your own!
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