If you’ve spent any time listening to or reading the material of longevity experts like Peter Attia, you’ll be convinced by now that stability is the primary physical quality leading to greater “healthspan,” or the ability to remain active and mobile well into old age.
I don’t know about you, but my vision of the future is to keep dancing until the very day that my body falls off that inevitable plank we all eventually reach the end of. There are lots of great examples, including dancers who still looked amazing well into their 90’s. Just look at how Hollywood veteran Dick Van Dyke shows that he’s still got the groove by dancing with wife Arlene Silver for a Valentine’s Day music video at the age of 96, just three years ago:
You can clearly see how he still retains core stability and lightness in his movement. That’s the result years of dancing can produce.
Many times I’ve talked about how dance enhances stability. This happens through a number of physiological and neurological adaptations within the body’s muscle structure, enhanced by greater bone density. Some of the mechanisms that contribute to improved stability include:
Proprioception Enhancement
Dance movements by their very nature help to train your spatial awareness. Dancers learn to be more aware of their balance and body positions, feeling instinctively when the body is in balance or out of balance. This reduces the risk of falls as you get older. Seniors develop better communication between the joints and the muscles as the body moves and the weight shifts through movement.
Dynamic Balance
Dance movement involves much more than just moving in a straight line, as you would through walking or running. These movements in multiple planes of rotation improve the ability to remain stable while moving. Studies have shown dramatically improved stability directly attributed to dance among older adults:
89% of studies demonstrated improvements in balance
82% demonstrated strength and endurance improvements
60% demonstrated improved flexibility
One study in particular showed up to 26% balance test improvements after just 6 weeks of dance.
Static Balance
While most dancing involves placing the weight between feet, dancers learn how to be aware of using their weight over one foot at a time. Research has shown that dancers outperform non-dancers in single-leg standing tests. Being able to sustain your weight over a single leg strengthens postural muscles.
Sensorimotor Integration
Because movement in complex patterns activates neural pathways that coordinate visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems, dancers become more well-rounded in their body’s integration of movement through different directional planes. Again, this leads to a greatly reduced likelihood of falls as age progresses into old age.
Muscle Coordination
Much like regular training in a gym, dance provides continuous shifting of body weight, which builds synergistic muscle activation and contributes to improved stability. Studies have found that seniors participating in dance programs show 15-20% greater leg strength compared to non-dancers.
Additional Benefits
There are many other ways that dance contributes to improved stability of the body as we age. These include the following:
Fall risk reduction: Improved stability decreases fall-related injuries by 30-40% in regular dancers, directly preserving mobility and independence.
Cardiovascular conditioning: Dance can elevate heart rate to 60-80% of maximum, strengthening cardiac output and reducing hypertension risks.
Cognitive preservation: The cognitive demand of remembering sequences increases neural plasticity. Studies show dance improves attention control and delays dementia onset by 2-3 years compared to walking alone.
Social engagement: Don’t ignore the social impact of dance! Group dancing correlates with 25% higher rates of maintaining healthy behaviors compared to solo lifestyle changes.
Psychological resilience: Resilience is a huge benefit, as it allows us to get through challenging times, whether psychological or physiological. Expressive movement reduces cortisol levels by 18-22% while increasing endorphins, combating depression and isolation common in aging.
Musculoskeletal maintenance: Dance preserves 5-7% more lean muscle mass than standard exercise programs in seniors, crucial for metabolic health.
The combination of physical challenge and artistic expression in dance creates unique neuroplastic adaptations that lead to improved stability. The Frontiers in Sport study cited earlier concluded that older dancers show 40% greater cerebellar gray matter volume compared to non-dancers. These multidimensional benefits explain why seniors engaging in weekly dance maintain 2.3 more years of disability-free living than sedentary peers.
Are you ready to start enjoying greater stability? Start dancing!
The post How Dancing Provides a Lifetime of Improved Stability first appeared on Delta.Dance.