Top 4 Health Benefits of Dance

Dancing is a great way for people of all ages to get and stay in shape. Besides being fun, dancing has many positive health benefits. Following are the top 4 health benefits of dance.

1. Flexibility

Flexibility is an important part of being healthy. Dance requires a great amount of flexibility. Most dance classes begin with a warm-up including several stretching exercises. Dancers must strive to achieve full range of motion for all the major muscle groups. The greater the range of motion, the more muscles can flex and extend. Most forms of dance require dancers to perform moves that require bending and stretching, so dancers naturally become more flexible by simply dancing.

2. Strength

Strength is defined as the ability of a muscle to exert a force against resistance. Dancing builds strength by forcing the muscles to resist against a dancer's own body weight. Many styles of dance, including jazz and ballet, require jumping and leaping high into the air. Jumping and leaping require tremendous strength of the major leg muscles. Ballroom dancing builds strength. Consider the muscle mass a male ballroom dancer develops by lifting his partner above his head!

3. Endurance

Dance is physical exercise. Exercise increases endurance. Endurance is the ability of muscles to work hard for increasingly longer periods of time without fatigue. Regular dancing is great for improving endurance, especially vigorous dancing such as line and ballroom dancing. Elevating the heart rate can increase stamina. Just as in any form of exercise, regular dancing will build endurance.

4. Sense of Well-Being

Dancing is a social activity. Studies have shown that strong social ties and socializing with friends contribute to high self-esteem and a positive outlook. Dancing provides many opportunities to meet other people. Joining a dance class can increase self-confidence and build social skills. Because physical activity reduces stress and tension, regular dancing gives an overall sense of well-being.

The Benefits of Gymnastics For Kids

Why should I enroll my children in gymnastics? Here are 10 excellent ways boys and girls of all ages benefit from gymnastics from the USA Gymnastics’ Guide:

• It’s fun
• Develops strength
• Develops flexibility 
• Develops coordination
• Teaches listening skills
• Gains self-esteem and confidence
• Provides social interaction with peers
• Teaches goal setting
• Develops cognitive abilities to help in the classroom
• Develops skills to enhance other sports

Gymnastics is an amazing developmental sport that has a profound impact on a child’s whole well-being. It benefits your child physically, academically and socially. Gymnastics provides the proper athletic foundations for all sporting endeavors. It helps increase flexibility, strength, speed, agility, coordination and balance. Also being physically active in gymnastics may prevent obesity, some types of cancer, and helps blood pressure and bone density. Active children tend to grow up to become active and healthy teens and adults.

Gymnastics has many other benefits that may not be as obvious as the physical ones. It can help your child outside of the gym too! Since gymnastics is a developmental sport it builds skills through progression of steps. This helps improve your child’s concentration which can help them with problem solving, math and reading in school. Gymnastics requires children to not only use both side of their brain separately, but it also requires both sides to work at the same time together! This is very beneficial for your child.

Gymnastics also helps enhance children’s social skills. During a class children will observe, practice waiting their turn, follow directions, respect other and listen. All of these skills are very important for a child to practice to enhance their social skills. As a child achieves skills and is encouraged by their coach they increase their self esteem, gain a sense of control over their body’s movements which increases healthy self empowerment and body awareness.

Children of all ages can reap the benefits from gymnastics. Now is the time to enroll your child so they can experience all the benefits gymnastics has to offer. The best part of gymnastics is that your child will be having so much fun they won’t even realize how much they are learning in the process!

How to Plan the Ideal Snack for the Young Athlete

The most important thing to keep in mind for the young, growing athlete is to offer snacks that provide good fuel and not too much pollution. Pollution is the side stuff your young athlete doesn’t need like extra, unnecessary protein, artificial ingredients, excessive sugar, or herbal additives. In other words, you’ll want to keep snacks wholesome and make sure they help athletic performance, while benefiting overall growth and health.

The Best Snacks

The best snacks for all young athletes include a combination of protein and carbohydrate, as well as other nutrients such as calcium, iron and potassium. Protein transforms a snack into a “power snack,” as it helps the muscles grow and recover after exercise. Carbohydrate provides a readily available fuel source for working muscles.

Let’s take a look at food sources of each:

Carbs:

• Fruit, including fresh, dried, canned and frozen
• Whole grains and refined grains, such as low sugar whole grain cereals, oats, white or wheat breads, bagels, crackers, pretzels, brown or white rice, whole wheat or regular pasta
• Dairy or non-dairy substitutes, like milk, soymilk, yogurt, and cheese
• Beans and starchy vegetables, such as kidney and black beans, peas, corn and potatoes
• Colorful vegetables like broccoli, green beans, asparagus, peppers, lettuce or squash

Protein:

• Eggs
• Beef
• Poultry, including chicken and turkey
• Fish
• Beans and lentils, including hummus and other bean dips
• Dairy and high protein non-dairy substitutes, such as cow’s milk, soy milk, Greek and regular yogurt, or low fat cheese
• Nuts and nut butters

Put them together: Combining a protein and carbohydrate source elevates snacks for young athletes to a whole new level. Try a fruit, milk and yogurt blended smoothie; dry cereal mixed with dried fruit and nuts; peanut butter and a banana; or pretzels and hummus.

These power snacks also offer other important nutrients, such as calcium and potassium, which not only help the young athlete perform at his or her best, they add to the nutritional quality of the diet and support his or her growth and development.

When should snacks be eaten?

Ideally, snacks are planned during the day between major meals and are typically eaten before exercise, about 1-2 hours before. This allows plenty of time for digestion and for blood sugar and glycogen (the carbohydrate energy stored in the muscle) to be available during exercise.

For the athlete who is exercising for longer than an hour, an additional carbohydrate-based snack eaten 30 minutes to an hour before exercise is a good idea. Good options include a banana, small box of raisins, small portion of pretzels, or ½ cup of yogurt. This offers an extra carbohydrate source, which helps the athlete keep his energy up during longer bouts of exercise.

If a young athlete is exercising for an hour or less, this additional small snack before exercise is not necessary. Regular meals and planned snacks during the day should cover the athlete’s hunger and calorie needs. However, if your young athlete seems to be hungry, consider beefing up regular snacks or add a small pre-workout snack. Be careful though, extra unnecessary snacking can work against your athlete, providing extra calories and potentially slowing him down.

After exercise, a snack such as a cup of chocolate milk may help young athletes recover more quickly from high intensity exercise of long duration (more than an hour). This combination of protein and carbohydrate serves two purposes for the young athlete: to reload muscles with energy (carbs) and to help with muscle recovery after exercise (protein). Any protein and carb combination can work well in this scenario.

While those grab-n-go bags of fishy crackers or chips are quick, yummy and convenient, they don’t offer the young athlete the nutrition and power they need to perform at their best. Get your athlete’s snacks right, and you may see athletic performance improve, as well as his overall health.

What are Barre Classes?

Barre classes have been all the buzz lately as the newest fitness trend. Academy West is offering Barre-Bata, a combination of the ballet barre and Tabata designed to create long, lean muscles.

So what is Barre?

A barre is a stationary handrail that is used during ballet warm up exercises. The term also refers to the exercises that are performed at the barre, as well as that part of a ballet class that incorporates barre exercises.

Barre exercises include both slow exercises, which stretch and warm up muscles, and fast exercises, which help dancers strengthen muscles and maintain technique at any speed. Each barre exercise has a specific purpose, such as to strengthen feet, increase extension, improve flexibility, and help a dancer find their balance. Proper placement and posture is emphasized in all exercises.

Today, anyone can try there hand at a barre class, its not just for dancers. Come join us at Academy West for our adult Barre-Bata class!

A Little About Tabata Workouts

Tabata training is a High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T) workout that lasts four minutes.

The History of Tabata

Tabata training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo.

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Tabata and his team conducted research on two groups of athletes: one group trained at a moderate intensity level while the other group trained at a high intensity level. The moderate intensity group worked out five days a week for a total of six weeks; each workout lasted one hour. The high intensity group worked out four days a week for six weeks; each workout lasted four minutes and 20 seconds (with 10 seconds of rest in between each set).

The results; group one had increased their aerobic system (cardiovascular), but showed little or no results for their anaerobic system (muscle). Group two showed much more increase in their aerobic system than group one, and increased their anaerobic system by 28 percent.

In conclusion, high intensity interval training has more impact on both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.

The Tabata workout lasts only four minutes, but is one of the longest four minutes you'll encounter. The structure of the program is:

Workout hard for 20 seconds

Rest for 10 seconds

Complete eight rounds

You push yourself as hard as you can for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds until you complete eight sets. You can do pretty much any exercise you wish. You can do squats, pushups, rows, etc... Any exercise that works your large muscle groups is strongly recommended. Kettlebells work great too.

Academy West offers Total Body Tabata!