10 BENEFITS OF Ballet for Everyone
1. Posture, posture, posture!
You can always spot a ballerina in a crowd because of her immaculate posture. Studies show the benefits of good posture are not just physical. It has a huge psychological upside as well. Beyond looking taller (and slimmer!) standing up straight increases mental clarity, energy, and best of all, transmits self-confidence and authority. And who doesn’t need an antidote to all the slumping over computers, tablets, and smartphones involved in modern life? Ballet builds incredible posture that makes you look and feel fantastic!
2. Balance
Ballet literally teaches you how to stand on your own two feet (or one foot, as the case may be). Whether you are in flats, heels, or athletic shoes, time spent doing ballet helps with all the “balancing acts” we perform each day. Ballet footwork develops the muscularity of the feet and increases awareness of how to stand from the ground up. At the same time, ballet teaches “placement,” a combination of proper body mechanics and alignment that helps you control your movements and adds “poise” to everything you do.
3. Core strength
People often admire the extended arms and legs of the ballerina, but incredible core strength is really what drives her physical grace. Ballet (and Ballet Body Sculpture especially) teaches how to initiate and sustain movement using deep abdominal muscles. Developing core strength and awareness also helps to mitigate back pain.
4. BALLET IMPROVES MUSCLE STRENGTH
Ballet techniques is a wonderful way to improve muscle strength. The legs, back and core are the main muscle groups which will benefit from strengthening though ballet exercises but we also strengthen our arm muscles as well as neck and foot muscles. Each bend, stretch, lift, jump and twist builds our muscles making them stronger. Repeated use of the same muscles will increase strength more quickly. Each time we use a muscle, it heals and rebuilds to become stronger which will benefit your muscles and make you stronger. The beautiful thing about toning through our classes is that you never ‘over-bulk’ because we’re only supporting and lifting our own body weight. At the same time we are constantly stretching the muscles - which elongates them and results in that great ballerina shape.
5. Flexibility
Flexibility helps protect our bodies from injury and is a quality that ballet offers in spades. Unlike static or passive stretching, ballet increases flexibility through movement. This means that the muscles are lengthening and strengthening at the same time. Ballet technique works the body in extension with integrated, full-range motions. This produces long, lean, sculpted and flexible muscles that look as good as they feel!
6. BALLET IMPROVES CONCENTRATION AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION
Whether you’re new to ballet or have been dancing for years, your levels of concentration in class will always surprise you. Posture, positioning, turn-out, musicality, timing, counting beats and coordination of arms, legs and feet all require concentration. We rarely get it all right but just trying is great for our concentration skills and the more we do it, the better we get at it. There’s science behind this: Exercise helps trigger endorphins. As well as being happy chemicals, endorphins improve the prioritising functions of the brain. The best bit is that even after exercise, your ability to prioritise and think clearly improves.
7. BALLET INCREASES YOUR METABOLISM
We all have a different metabolic rate but one thing’s for sure - ballet will speed up your metabolism. This total body workout, it increases your circulation, breathing rate and muscular activity which all contributes to elevating your metabolism. One report claims that ‘dancing elevates your metabolism 3-6 times above your resting metabolism.
8. BALLET CAN PREVENT DEMENTIA
It’s true! A report published in 2003 found that dancing can reduce the onset of dementia. The test studied a range of cognitive and physical activities, such as reading; writing; doing crossword puzzles; playing cards; playing musical instruments; dancing; walking; tennis; swimming and golf. The results showed that regular dancing reduced the risk of dementia by 76%, twice as much as reading.
Ballet is a mental workout as well as a physical one and this helps our minds stay sharp and elastic. As well as strengthening neural connections, ballet can help to improve our memory and mood.
9.BALLET CAN REDUCE ONSET OF OSTEOPOROSIS & KEEP BONES HEALTHY
Because ballet is a weight-bearing exercise, it helps bones to grow healthy and increase in strength. Ballet for adults, in conjunction with a healthy diet can increase bone strength and prevent bone loss in old age. Additionally, because ballet strengthens muscles, bones are well supported and chance of injury is reduced.
10. Mindfulness
Ballet is a technique with many layers of complexity. It requires generalized focused attention. Just as yoga follows the breath, ballet hones total body awareness through the relationship of movements with music. Dancers go deep inside their bodies to feel the details of the technique, and in doing so, discover more of themselves both physically and mentally. Ballet is a beautiful journey into the body! The technique offers structured guidance that helps you appreciate and access more of your capacity to move and truly enjoy your physicality.
We have named just a few from the endless benefits of ballet exercises… The list could go on, as there’re certainly so many more benefits, like weight loss, gain of confidence, self expression, lymph drainage, sculpting beautiful legs & overall physique… Let us know & share your experience with ballet!
Happy dancing & exercising! We look forward to seeing you at our classes! Xoxo
Source: everydayballet.com