Expert Tips
Get Out and Exercise!
Expert Tips: Health and fitness
By this point in our lives, we all know that fitness should be one of our top priorities. At the very least, we should try to get a 30 minute walk in each day. Unfortunately for a lot of people, it takes way more energy to motivate to exercise than to actually exercise. The good news is that there are a lot of alternative forms of exercise that can take the place of pumping iron or running on the treadmill.
A hip-hop class at your local dance studio can do the trick. Most have adult classes set to popular music making it a fun and high energy workout. If you have ever worked with a personal trainer you know that most of the time you get a better workout when someone is right there with you-encouraging you and guiding you. It is the same in a dance class. The instructor pushes each student to keep their energy up and still have fun. Most dance classes will give you a good amount of cardio workout but will also include a fair amount of strength training as well.
Look for a class that starts with a good warm up that includes some basics such as stretches, sit ups and push ups. Again that instructor will lead you through this and help correct your posture and form to gain maximum physical benefit for each movement. This first section should take at least 20 minutes. After you are good and warm (hopefully sweating!), the instructor will then teach a dance combination for about 35 minutes. Learning choreography is not only good for muscles and cardio, but it is great for coordination and mental stamina as well. As with all exercise, the last 5 minutes or so should be used to stretch one more time. When the muscles are warmed up, this is the best time to stretch to increase your flexibility. If new choreography is taught every week, you will be targeting different muscle groups each week. You can still practice older choreography at home to target those other muscle groups from previous weeks. All you need to do is to turn on the radio and find a song with a beat that makes you want to move!
By Stephanie Prosenjak
Artistic Director of Cherry Creek Dance
303-399-8087
Cherry Creek Dance
September 24, 2008 Bookmark and Share
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