Dance for the Rhythm of Your Heart

Ballroom dancing is as good an exercise as a full workout in the gym, researchers have found.

Half an hour on the dancefloor improves physical fitness as much as a session on the treadmill or exercise bike.

But ballroom dancing is more likely to attract people - especially the elderly - who would never dream of doing conventional cardiovascular training.

Dancing to other music - including salsa or rock 'n' roll - also has the same effect as long as it's done vigorously, said a heart specialist at the National Institute of Cardiology, Mexico City.

Dr Hermes Ilarraza, who organised the unconventional study, said it works for heart patients and could do wonders for people who may appear healthy but need to get more activity into their lives.

He said: 'The benefits of physical training in patients with heart disease is well established. "However, exercise compliance is often inadequate because patients find exercise boring. People like to dance so we thought it would be an attractive option.

"Some exercise is perceived as being difficult, but ballroom dancing can improve physical capacity in heart patients like traditional training such as indoor cycling or aerobics.
But it has the added benefits of being fun and social."

Over five weeks for five days a week, 40 heart disease patients were asked to take part in 30-minute routines of dancing or indoor cycling routines at a gym. Half the patients danced a routine designed by a professional dance teacher - who was also a patient with cardiac valve disease.

The rest of the patients exercised with a conventional indoor cycling programme, he told the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona.

All patients were supervised by doctors throughout and their blood pressure and symptoms were monitored. Doctors measured the physical fitness of the patients before and after exercise testing.

The dancers used a variety of dance music including salsa, rock and roll, and Cuban dance music, according to the patient's ability to exercise.

The study found both groups achieved a similar training effect.

Patients who danced increased their exercise capacity by about 28 per cent - meaning their heart and lung capacity had risen during the exercise regime.

Almost the same effect was found among the cycling patients who gained 31 per cent extra exercise capacity.

Dr Ilarraza said dance hall dancing could make a significant contribution to physical fitness in patients and others. He said: "It is important to highlight that exercise capacity is closely related with the hazard of death.

"In other words when an unfit person increases his physical capacity, the probability of death diminishes. So the message is you should be dancing for the rhythm of your heart."