Health Benefits of Belly Dance

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Belly Dance - unbeatable for overall well being and health!

Belly dance works on so many levels and our natural, energetic and celebratory style provides a holistic approach towards well being, integrating all the spiritual and physical aspects. 

Society pressures by way of images of narrow stereotypes of perfection has created a culture of both bodily self dislike and fanatical extremes in terms of diets and mind numbing exercise regimes. (It is rumored that Britney Spears does a thousand crunches a day). But we are developing a new style of Belly Dance that is energetic and Celebratory in character that can instantly turn "works outs" into "pleasure outs." We can prove to you that you can excel no matter what your size, age, experience may be. 

We believe that our style of Belly Dance is more "Traditional" in the respect that it is based on nothing more than the sort of celebratory things that people would have done at any gathering ever since time immemorial. Jump up and down for Joy! So we get together and dance and dance a lot. All the hard work takes place at our end, working out sequences and moves that are effective and productive. 

We are a subculture of fun and joy! We bypass all the society crap and have fun by dancing to the best World Music around to the best instructors, brilliant venues and high tech' sound systems that put most club systems to shame. 

We believe that the human body is meant to move. Dance is simply movement to music so anyone can do it. The energizing and uplifting qualities of our style means that everyone - no matter what their experience, age, size or whatever simply is welcomed into the party. The capability of the body to rise to the tough challenges we put forward we have proved again and again - no matter at what point this starts - whether from inexperience or experience, large or small, old or young. And we have found that the differences between these factors isn't as great as Society would have you believe! 

Belly Dance is good for Overall body toning

A regrettable aspect of modern life is that we don't use our bodies enough. Computers and cars mean we sit and stay inactive so much and we can't do anything about that. But we can find something energetic and fun to do outside those times! Muscles that don't get used much become "flabby" looking. Conversely well toned muscles look shapely. With our style of energetic and celebratory belly dance your legs, bum and arms will become more shapely and your waist will pull in as the obliques (diagonal muscles from the ribs to the hip) tone up. particularly with our style of belly dance. Kylie Minogue swears that her shape, particularly her bum comes from dancing. 

Our style of belly dance uses all the muscles in the body in a really enjoyable way. What is of particular significance is the way all the smaller underlying muscles get used. The problem with conventional muscle training regimes is that they tend to focus on only the large really obvious muscle groups and there can then be a tendency to develop a "hard" muscular look. 

The belly dance we do tends to use all the muscles more evenly so you tend to develop a nice overall tone as the pictures of Zehara show. Yet Zehara has never done any physical training other than her dancing. (Other than an odd bit of stretching here and there). 

Our classes are upbeat and rely on generating a celebratory and uplifting atmosphere created by charismatic and expert belly dance teachers, good sound systems and using the best World Music around. 

Our style of Belly Dance is good for overall fitness

This is to do with general fitness and is completely separate to having a "well toned body." It is to do with with the heart, lungs and circulation system. So there are no visible signs of this. Being fit means being able to do continuous physical activity in an aerobic way which is sustainable. An activity that is completely "aerobic" is rather like that "second wind" you get once the heart gets really going. Up to that point muscles use local energy reserves of which the lactate system creates lactic acid as a waste product and hence the aching that most of us get when we sustain a moderate level of activity. 

 

Low levels of fitness means having poor energy levels, being more prone to illnesses, getting tired easily and having a low metabolic rate which means that to maintain an even weight one would have to eat very little. Not all types of dance help fitness much, but we try and bring in the aerobic element in as much as possible by having long non stop runs of energetic routines at the classes. The body releases natural endomorphins during aerobic activity so this one reason for the "high" and why some people get addicted to exercise. 

Zehara herself has had her fitness level tested last year (03)and she has a VO2 level of 59ml/kg/min. A national level female middle distance runner has an average  VO2 of 51 and (strangely enough) UK female ballet dancers average at around a mere 39.

 This has happened purely through her dancing and therefore shows that fitness can reach high levels through the right sort of dance. It means of course that Zehara can be an eating machine and still stay slim. 

This aspect is so important nowadays with health and weight issues being now in the forefront. The brilliant news is that this aspect of health is not significantly age related in terms of ability to improve. (Which is why you get so many people of pensionable age doing the marathon runs) 

  

Belly Dance is good for the joints and bones!

 

This may not sound very sexy but what is certainly not sexy is being riddled with pain, stiff nesses and joint trouble as the years advance on. Loads of people are plagued with lower back trouble, knee and ankle problems and osteoporosis is a major national problem along with obesity. Joints and bones are meant to be naturally stressed during their working life. If they are not then crippling conditions creep in relentlessly. Where belly dance is really brilliant is the way that the body weight is constantly focused on one leg and then the other leg. This naturally increases the loading on the hip joint, knees and ankles in a safe way and thus strengthening them. A lot of people take to belly dance later in life with lots of chronic back problems and they have been advised to take up some physical activity. Belly dance with caution can be absolutely marvelous here! Our style of dance with large movements and the emphasis on the lower back and hip area is second to none here. 

We can report numerous cases of people in our classes being really helped in these distressing conditions. In fact Zehara herself started developing arthritis in her early 20's. But once she started her dancing at this time this simply halted and the only sign left now is a tender joint on the large toe. 

Many people come to classes with lower back trouble so here is an extra page that may be of help. Belly Dance and lower back problems

Also here is a page on Belly Dance and Pregnancy

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