It’s Friday night and your lady wants to go out dancing with her gaggle of girlfriends. And she wants you to come along for the ride.
As soon as she mentions dancing, your mind starts racing with images of you at your senior prom, accidentally stepping on your date, breaking her foot and becoming the laughing stock of your high school for the rest of the year. Or you start thinking about how much you hate crowded dance floors and Lady Gaga’s shrill, bizarre voice.
Whether you loathe dancing or simply have two left feet, the next time your girl invites you to get all sweaty with her out on the dance floor, you should accept. Not only is it a great time to get a little physical with your girlfriend, you’ll also be burning a ton of calories and getting smarter.
A study performed by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City found that stimulating one’s mind and body through dancing can ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia. The 21-year study found that senior citizens who participated in physical or cognitive recreational activities, notably dancing, lowered their risk of dementia. The results concluded that those who danced frequently lowered their risk by 76%.
Dancing is also a great way to improve your health and burn calories. You can burn as much as 250 to 400 calories in a one-hour dance session. It’s also great for improving cardio fitness, increasing circulation, decreasing blood pressure and strengthening muscles. Dancing is also an awesome weight-bearing activity, which means that it’s beneficial for your bones. It’ll increase bone density and reduce your risk of osteoporosis.
Not only is dancing beneficial for your mind and body, it can also build self esteem. Most guys go their entire lives not learning how to salsa, tango, or two step. But women love men who know how to bust a move (and I’m not talking about the Running Man here). If you are a knowledgeable dance partner, you’ll not only be showing her your masculinity (remember, all traditional dances involve men leading the women in the steps), you’ll show her that you’re man enough to risk it all out on the dance floor. Knowing that you’re the only dude at a wedding or party that can dance with both grandma and the hot grand-daughter is definitely a confidence booster.
So why spend another weekend sitting in your man-cave playing lame video games? Take your girlfriend up on her offer to take you dancing and show her that Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights has nothing on you!
