Research on the Influence of Sport Dance on Physical Health in National Fitness Exercise

Abstract

Introduction: Sports dance is widely known as a competitive game, but as a leisure activity, there is little research on the efficacy of human health and fitness. Sports dance, as a popular national fitness exercise, has sound health promotion effects. At present, domestic and foreign researches mostly focus on the impact of sports dance on young men and women. Objective: This study will explore the influence of regular physical dance exercises on the body shape, function, and quality of middle-aged and older adults, provide a scientific basis for the role of physical dance in national fitness. Methods: This study recruited 20 healthy middle-aged and elderly members of a leisure sports dance club without professional dance experience for three months of dance training. The first two weeks are pre-experiments five times a week. Each exercise time is 60 minutes. The last ten weeks are formal experiments, two times a week, 90 minutes each time, and no other physical exercises are involved in everyday life. By comparing part of the body shape, physical function, and physical fitness index before and after the experiment, the impact of sports dance on middle-aged and older adults’ healthy physical fitness is evaluated. Results: After three months of physical dance exercise with different dance styles, in male, BMI index, body fat percentage, waist circumference, hip circumference, and thigh circumference indicators all decreased, but there was no significant difference. In women, BMI index, body fat percentage (P<0.01), waist circumference (P<0.05), diastolic blood pressure (P<0.01), sitting body forward bending (P<0.05), and standing with one foot and closed eyes all increased. In women, the indexes of grip strength (P<0.01), forward bending in sitting position (P<0.055), and standing with eyes closed on one foot all increased. Conclusions: It is suggested that long-term moderate-intensity aerobic sport dance exercise can improve the body shape of middle-aged and older adults and help increase physical fitness; meanwhile, sports dance can effectively improve the cardiovascular function of middle-aged and elderly subjects. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment results.

Priority scientific areas in sports dances research: the analysis of the scientific resources of Web of Science Core Collection

“…Dancing is one of the promising types of physical activity. The importance of sports dances in health-improving activities is emphasized [2,21,22]. Dancing is considered a type of organized leisure that can be used to improve the health of the population.…”

“…Sports dancing as a form of recreational activity Sports dances are widely known as a type of sport, but they have not been sufficiently studied as a leisure activity for middle-aged and elderly people [2]. The authors studied the effect of regular physical dance exercises on the shape, function and body quality of this age group.…”

“…Dancing combines sports and aesthetic components. Their duality is emphasized in the following studies [1,2,3,4,5]. There is debate about whether dancers are athletes or whether the sport has aesthetic qualities.…”