When it comes to fitness, Salsa dancing doesn’t necessarily come to mind…but it should! Dancing Salsa can do amazing things to your fitness, to your body, to your health, and ultimately, to your well-being and happiness!
Case in point: Sara (pictured above)! Sara joined her first Salsa class in December 2021. She took my Beginner’s and then the Intermediate class. Frankly, Sara wasn’t the best student in my class, but she kept taking classes and going to Socials. Sara quickly became the heart & soul of the Salsa scene in Da Nang. A Social without her feels kind of…empty! There are few people who really come to every Social, and Sara is one of them! Her dancing has improved greatly! She has her own style and not everything she does is my cup of tea, but dancing with her is always a lot of fun!
But let’s talk about what Salsa dancing did to Sara’s health, fitness and well-being: Look at the two pictures above! The one on the left shows Sara when she started dancing Salsa… the one on the right was taken merely 9 months later! What an amazing transformation had taken place!
Before picking up Salsa dancing, Sara, like many expats in Da Nang spent most of her nights in bars, drinking and smoking. During the day, she was unhappy…about her life, about her body, but she didn’t quite know how to break out of that vicious cycle. Then she decided to pick up Salsa dancing! Slowly, her life started changing, and with it her body! She started enjoying looking at her body in the mirror again! Just by dancing Salsa regularly, she lost 12 kg, no other fitness involved!
So is Salsa a dance…or a workout? Well, both! Salsa music is typically fast-paced and when dancing Salsa you move a lot! Throw in all the turns, and you definitely got yourself a nice workout! A Social typically lasts 3 hours, which beats most gym sessions I remember. Just out of curiosity, I once measured my heart rate during dancing a Salsa song: 165 beats per minute! That’s about the same heart rate I have during an intensive running or cycling training session when I train for Ironman!
The good thing about Salsa dance “workouts”: they don’t feel like workouts! You’re in a nice environment, surrounded by like-minded, friendly people, and you listen to exciting music. The workout kind of comes for free! And talking about free: Our “Salsa dance gym” (our Socials) is free!
If you find yourself in a spot in your life where you should work out, but you don’t, where you should drink & smoke less, but you don’t, and you’re avoiding looking at your body in the mirror, consider taking a Salsa class! I teach a Salsa workshop at Sala Hotel every Friday at 8PM, total beginners more than welcome! We’re also putting together new courses (Beginner’s & Intermediate…the same classes Sara took 9 months ago) as we speak…don’t miss them! You can sign up here!