Dancing to your heart's content

Cross training, as we've explained before, is a varied approach to sports and exercise. Limiting yourself to one activity can be, well limiting. If you're a runner only, what do you do in a long rainy spell? Or what if you get bored with the same old thing? There's one excellent exercise you may already know how to do, or perhaps have always wanted to do-ballroom dancing - Cheek-to-cheek stuff, Fred and Ginger!

"But, " you may ask, "is it really aerobic exercise?" Indeed it is, or can be. Exercise specialists have reported that at the competitive level, fast ballroom dancing can elevate your heart rate just as much as running cross-country skiing. A study conducted at California State University at Long Beach showed that even beginning students can derive health benefits from ballroom dancing. Forty-five subjects (aged 18 to 35) did a five minute warm up and then a 20 minute aerobic section with a cha- cha and polka, two swing dances (jitterbug and Lindy), a Viennese waltz, and Samba . The great majority got their heart rates up to near maximum training rates, particularly in the polka, the swing, dancing and the waltz. As for caloric expenditures, even moderate ballroom dancing can burn between 250 and 300 calories per hour, and fast, vigorous dancing burns up-wards of 400 calories an hour.

Ballroom dancing is 'Mind Massaging Movement'. The body is moving while the mind has to memorize steps then think of what step to do next. This keeps the mind active and healthy. Ballroom dancing helps alleviate stress and depression by giving you something to do, a project that requires effort and patience. Ballroom dancing teaches you discipline and self-control. The physical exercise is good for the joints and good for the heart. The physical exercise of dancing helps keep weight down. Ballroom dancing can be done at any age right up to the time that you have one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel. Ballroom dancing is a social activity that gets you out of the house and into the community. Ballroom dancing can bring you emotionally closer to your partner as a sense of accomplishment sets in when the two of you move as one. Other senses can set in too, but we won't talk about that here. Ballroom dancing can be sexy and sensuous even for beginners. Ballroom dancing offers multiple skill levels from novice to competition level, always offering something new to learn.