Is Belly Dancing A Good Workout?

_With modern life, our bodies can become lazy and out of shape. The ab muscles in particular are prone to turning into fat over time and with bad posture when we’re not working them enough.

Luckily belly dance is a great way to help your body find these lost muscles by toning up the abdominal (ab) or oblique muscle groups as well as those for your legs, lower back, arms etc.

_Belly dancing offers a great form of aerobic exercise with natural endorphins entering the body and boosting the mind, giving dancers an ‘exercise high’.

That happy feeling is hard to come by in everyday life.

Belly dance can have such beneficial effects on mental health that it may even be used as therapy for those recovering from depression or anxiety disorders.

_Belly dancing is a great way to work on your bones and joints.
Your body weight shifts from leg to leg, working different muscles such as the pelvis, spine, and abdomen while you dance!

It’s also an easy form of exercise because it doesn’t put that much pressure on your limbs but can still help prevent osteoporosis by strengthening our bone structure with every step we take.

The movements found in belly dance were designed to follow the natural flow of our bodies this means it’s not going against what comes naturally to us but enhancing what we already normally do.

Although our lower body will get a good exercise, you don’t have to worry because your feet never strike the ground in a violent manner.

This helps to preserve our knees, ankles, feet, spine, and neck, keeping the joints nice and healthy.

The name belly dance itself suggests you’re going to be moving your belly, and swaying your torso constantly this will feel like a gentle massage to your abdomen.

By continuously rolling and stretching your stomach and engaging with your abdominal muscles, you’ll start noticing that your digestion is improving, this doesn’t happen by accident it’s because when you’re performing these movements, you’re aiding food to run its course through the digestive system.

All forms of exercise will have this effect to some extent but belly dance is more effective because you’re constantly contracting your abdominal area, the very nature of belly dance ensures the improvement of digestion.

To sum it up, physical exercise combined with engaging of the core promotes healthy digestion.

Notice this is just an estimation because body types are different from each other, also depends on the level of intensity you’re conducting your dancing routine.

The best thing is since you’re having so much fun and not straining yourself because all you’re doing is following the natural flow of movements of the body, time will pass by super quickly (as they say time flies when you’re having fun), you won’t even realize you’re getting a cardiovascular exercise.

If losing weight is one of the reasons that propelled you to try this wonderful hobby, I suggest complementing it with other types of low impact exercises, such as swimming, or bike riding, they’re sure to boost your weight loss while making you feel great.

Combine it with a nice diet plan and you got yourself a workout routine that is fun doesn’t leave you overly tired and is easy to recover from, and that means you’ll be ready for another session sooner than later.

This is exactly why I love hobbies so much, once you start, it drives you into different avenues and just makes you enjoy your life so much more!

There’s much more happening than what meets the eye when you’re belly dancing, Every physical activity has hidden effects attached to it, some might be beneficial and some might not, it all depends on the type of movement you’re performing.

Luckily for Belly dancers, one thing they do not have to worry about is posture, Inadvertently whoever came up with the concept created a great way to work your back muscles just gently enough to avoid injury, and engaging enough to increase back health.

Although It’s a known fact that belly dancing improves Posture, there is something to be said about “the” why it happens.

It can be attributed to the nature of belly dance moves, a large number of them have the same effect on the body as doing Yoga or Pilates.

The constant twisting and turning of the spine combined with undulations and rib movements will work to strengthen and tone back muscles that will lead to the release of synovial fluid.

Synovial fluid occurs naturally in our bodies and it serves the purpose of lubricating the joints, this is yet another good example of belly dance working with the body not against it, by doing so triggers our body’s natural processes of promoting joint health.

With all the twists and turns, on your midsection, your back muscles will start to get stronger, and strong back muscles help to prevent back injuries, trust me I know, I have my fair share of back pain.

Because of all the aforementioned reasons, belly dance helps with your poise and your overall posture.

Even though there are male belly dancers I honestly believe, this is a dance better suited and heavily tailored to the female body, the moves are meant to accentuate the natural curves of women.

This sometimes can give the wrong impression, there’s a misconceived idea that belly dance was created as a means to seduce men, but that’s totally inaccurate.

The fact of the matter is that women like to express their femininity it’s in their DNA, it’s just the way they’re wired, and the fulfillment of this impulse will lead to gains in confidence, and a better acceptance of their bodies.

There’s a deeper connection that happens between women and their bodies while they’re showcasing parts of their body and getting a reaction from other people from doing so.
This works wonders for someone’s self esteem and confidence.

Another factor that we have to consider is the toning of your body muscles, as we mentioned above, as you’re dancing your working specific muscle groups and the more you work those muscles the more defined and toned they become.

Which leads me to the next point, we cannot leave out that as a physical exercise you’ll be burning calories and losing weight.

Now if you take into account these three factors, muscle toning, weight loss, and fulfilling the need to have your body admired by your peers, then it’s easy to understand how a boost to confidence will occur naturally.

As with any physical exercise, there’s a release of endorphins, and endorphins help you feel happy, excited, energetic and give you a feeling of well-being.

But endorphins are not the only factor to consider here, many belly dancing moves require concentration because you’re trying to work a part of your body isolating it from other body movements.

This is not an easy task to complete, you really have to let go of everything else and focus, especially if you’re in the early stages of learning.

This mental acuity is paramount to perfect execution, so while your brain is completely focused on this task it will completely forgo of any stress that you might have obtained during the day.

One of the effects of stress in your body is that your muscles will tense up and contract, this might cause spasms to the point it might even become painful, all due to the reduced blood flow to the muscles.

The gentle nature of the dancing exercise will cause your muscles to exit that state of griping or tightness, loosening and becoming refreshed and more flexible.

Relaxing your body through dance moves will send signals to your brain that there’s no need to clench your muscles therefore subconsciously the effects of stress will start to fade away as you enter a different disposition and state of mind.

This is where it gets really enticing for women, we’ve talked about how belly dance greatly enhances back muscle strengthening and toning, preventing injury and promoting poise and posture.

What we didn’t talk about was what other muscle groups will be impacted by this practice.
You’ll be happy to hear that Glutes (buttocks) are included in the criteria, yes your butt will also benefit from this fun art form, every woman desires a toned and firm behind.

If the promise of firm buttocks isn’t incentive enough to pick up this wonderful hobby, you’ll also be happy to know that you’re thighs or quads will also benefit, and all this without even feeling like your exercising, isn’t it great.

The stomach and obliques go without saying, aftercall it is called “Belly” dance for a reason, but it doesn’t end here, the slow and methodical arms movements actually require a lot of strength, and this means stronger and toned arms.

Don’t worry about injury, promote confidence, relieve stress, and have tons of fun what are you waiting for? this hobby is a win, win, win, win situation…