According to a new Mexican study ballroom dancing is as good an aerobic workout as more conventional forms of exercise.
Reporting his findings to the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona , Spain, Dr. Hermes Ilarraza of the National Institute of Cardiology said, “The benefits of physical training in patients with heart disease are 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.”Ilarraza explained that in his study he followed a group of 40 heart disease patients. He reported that all the patients were committed into doing half an hour of exercise a day, five days a week for five weeks. He explained that half of them undertook exercises in the form of a dance routine that was choreographed by a professional dancer who also was suffering from heart disease, while the others exercised on stationary bikes.
Ilarraza concluded that he found that the dance group’s exercise capacity increased by 28%, almost as much as the 31% increase for the cycling group.
Source-Medindia
VIK
