Why You Should Start Dancing After Turning 40

Whether you’re looking to lose a little weight, improve your fitness, make some new friends, spice up your social life, inject a little passion into a relationship or keep your brain in tip-top condition, taking up dancing after 40 can be the answer to many middle age concerns.

Getting fit

Most people don’t worry about their weight throughout their 20s, then hit the gym in their 30s, but past 40 that can all seem a bit of a chore: attending a regular dance class is an easy way to stay fit, lose any excess weight and tone up. Not only is it great for gaining shapely muscles, it also affords a good cardio workout to maintain a healthy heart, helps to strengthen your bones, improves your balance and provides stimulating mental exercise.

Staying sociable

It’s very easy to settle into couch potato mode during the week when you get back from work, but going out to a dance class offers so much more than getting fit: you will enjoy yourself and extend your social circle by meeting like-minded people. Even if you’re not normally comfortable forming new relationships, learning a challenging skill at the same pace as your classmates provides a common ground for conversation, and swapping partners throughout the session means you meet everyone in turn without any awkward introductions.

Stress relief

As well as getting fit and being sociable, dancing is a very effective form of stress relief, which is particularly welcome at a point when the routine of work and family life can begin to get you down. It’s impossible not to laugh as you grapple with the fancy footwork, but the thrill of successfully moving your body to music and the exhilaration of mastering complex steps gives a natural boost to your system. Blood pressure is lowered by being physically fit and increasing happy endorphins in your system, both of which dancing achieves in spades.

Mental agility

Unless you’ve been a mature student in further education, it’s likely that you haven’t learnt anything since you were at school – but you’re never too old to start. Your brain needs regular exercise to maintain its condition as it only makes fresh neural connections when it’s needed to process information: dancing engages all parts of the brain from kinaesthetic and rational thought to musical interpretation and emotional connections.

Keeping your brain alert through dancing will help you become a better problem solver in all other areas of your life and is one of the best ways to stave off dementia as you get older.

Give yourself a boost

As you pass the big four-oh, you may experience the onset of middle-age blues and dancing is the best antidote to feeling low. Your self-esteem will rise as you get fit, meet new friends and conquer the dance floor, while you will also benefit from having a really fun night out.

So dust off those dance shoes and come down to the Arthur Murray Crows Nest Dance Studio to start enjoying yourself again – dancing begins at 40!