Many people love to watch reality TV shows that see people dancing. One of the world’s most popular is Dancing With The Stars, which sees celebrities competing in a dancing competition to see who can jive their way to victory. For some reason people really love to watch famous people attempting to learn dance moves and perform them in front of a live audience, even if they aren’t particularly good. While many people are bemused by the popularity of the show, there can be no doubt that these sorts of dancing shows have re-popularised dancing to a very strong extent and more people than ever are taking up dancing classes or using dancing as part of their weekly workout regime.
If you are someone who thinks that dancing would be a great way to stay in shape, we’ve got a fantastic exercise regime for you. It’s the perfect way to get your body moving and make the calories slip away while doing something that you genuinely enjoy. And what’s more, it comes direct from Cheryl Burke, one of the dancing pros on Dancing With The Stars. But before you get started on the workout itself, it is important to get in the right state for it, both physically and mentally. Indeed, most of us are not naturally flexible – and that even goes for Cheryl.
“I am not one of those girls who can just land in a split – I need to warm up to be flexible,” she says. And it’s very likely that it is the same for you. So she recommends going through a warm-up routine before you try to do any of the demanding dance move that the routine asks of you. So spend eight minutes stretching and getting your body ready for the workout – it may seem like a waste of valuable time but you will definitely reap the benefits in the end of being able to perform the dance moves with far more agility and skill.
First off you should start with the ABC leg raise. To perform this move you should stand up straight, then extend your right leg with your toes pointed, then use your foot to ‘write’ the first three letters of the alphabet in lower case. Take a 30-second rest and then repeat the motion except writing the letters as upper case instead. You should then repeat the whole process with your left leg. The follow this move with other stretches including your thighs, groin and quads.
So now let’s get down to business with some dance moves to get you into it. One of the most popular dance routines is salsa. This is an energetic routine that burns off loads of calories while also being a lot of fun to perform. “The salsa is based on 3 counts, making it one of the easiest dances to learn,” Burke says. You should perform the salsa routine four times a week for 30 minutes each.
To learn a salsa routine it is strongly recommended that you visit a professional dance class in order to be shown the moves and how to perform them correctly. If you attempt to do them without really knowing them properly you risk injuring yourself and causing more harm than good in your attempt to lose weight. Once you know the routine you can really get into it and improve on it over time. As with most things, the more effort you put in, the more you will get out of it and not only will you know how to perform the dance impressively, you’ll also burn off more calories every time you do it.
Comments are closed.