Editor’s experiment: how many calories can you burn during a dance workout?

Want to lose weight? Hit the cardio. And here everyone imagines the hell of the treadmill or endless laps at the stadium near the house. But what if we tell you that you can lose calories, get high to your favorite tracks and pump your body and heart in an unusual format of cardio training? And we’re not even talking about innovative exercise machines, popular saikling or a banal jump rope. We’re talking about dancing!

As part of our editorial experiment, we went to dance training at New York Dance Studio, armed with special sensors and a Suunto smart watch. The goal of our experiment was to find out how many calories you can burn during a typical dance workout at the Beginner level. The results exceeded all expectations, but more on that later.

For reference, we understand that the individual calculation of calories burned during a workout depends directly on your body parameters: height, weight, etc. Therefore, all the data below is individualized and cannot be accurate. But these figures can be taken as an average, if you do not plan to feel sorry for yourself and be lazy during training, and the trainer expects to squeeze the maximum out of you.

In the course of the experiment we attended two training sessions in the directions of “Hip Hop” and “House”. Let’s compare the data and try to understand what is right for you.

Hip-hop: squeeze the maximum to the beat

Class duration: 1 hour
Level: beginner
Teacher: Michelle Beatz (Mikhail Nikiforov).

Brief Synopsis: Hip-hop is a dance trend that absorbed the street philosophy of African Americans, elements of funk, pop, break and jazz. It emerged at the end of the last century as a dance of residents of poor American neighborhoods. But what came out of it – expression, passion, creativity, freedom and emotion – went far beyond street battles.

The training itself was quite diverse and divided into blocks: warm-up, learning and repeating individual basic elements that make up the dance, memorizing the choreography through the connection of different elements (ligaments). It was hot and difficult because the brain was fighting with the body. It was important not only to perform the element correctly, but also to remember its place in the bundle, to follow the technique and attention… to relax. Yes, yes, with all this it was necessary to relax, trust the music and start to get high from the process. But the results were worth it.

In the end, thanks to my meticulousness (I often repeated elements and a little wiggled to the beat in front of the mirror) in one training session I walked as many steps as I walk from the subway to home every day (3517 of them).

Minimum heart rate: 89
Maximum heart rate (peak): 137
Number of steps walked during the workout: 3517
Number of calories burned: 410 kCal
Training intensity: 6/10

House: catch the groove and lose calories

Duration of the class: 1 hour
Level: beginner
Teacher: Kerry (Karina Muslimova)

Brief Synopsis: House is a dance trend that originated from the electronic music style of the same name in Chicago in the early 80s. Interestingly, the name of the style came from the club Warehouse, where DJs started playing house music. What is in the music is reflected in the dance – it is high speed, rhythmic, drive. Wide, energetic movements are performed to short slowing and then accelerating fragments of house.

House is legs, legs and legs again. And when the coach says, “Let’s hook up the arms, swing to the beat and do a twist,” the brain explodes. But the amazing thing about it is that our body is much smarter than we are, and perceives a lot of things on some intuitive level. So after just a few reps, I started automatically (bingo) doing the binder. And honestly, it’s a real high, when you just on the same wave with the beat and sounds without unnecessary tension start to move. It’s like dancing at a disco, but without improvisation, but with clear blanks. All in all, an unequivocal recommendation from me.

Pomembno: do not skip the warm-up. This is necessary in order not to get a ridiculous and unnecessary injury. And also in dance it’s a great way to hone the technique of the basic elements that are used in the composition of ligaments and choreography.

The gadget readings surprised me: the house in terms of the number of steps traveled beat even my way from the subway and to the subway. Over the course of the workout, I found and bounced around 4120. That’s how you go to two workouts, and the norm for the day is ready.

Minimum heart rate: 97
Maximum heart rate (peak): 151
Number of steps walked during the workout: 4120.
Number of calories burned: 462 kCal
Training intensity: 7/10

In lieu of a conclusion

If you’re still undecided about which dance trend to choose, go with what you like. Look through your playlist and see what music makes you want to dance in front of the mirror or energizes you on the eve of your workday. You can burn 300 kcal in half an hour of hated (for me personally) crossfit, or you can not notice how two hours passed, honing elements and ligaments near the mirror.

Editor’s opinion: the main advantage of dancing is that it is simply impossible to think about anything unnecessary during training. Thought about the vanity of existence or routine at work – missed a couple of recommendations coach and already out of rhythm. Therefore, if you want to dance cool, at the master class will have to turn off your head and get involved in the process. This is such a budget motivation – cheaper than a session with a psychotherapist, and you will also burn calories.

You can find out more about dance styles, schedules and levels tukaj.