Is dancing the ultimate anti-aging treatment?

We’ve always known that dancing makes us feel happy and gives us a great workout, but a study published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Journal takes its benefits a step further: dancing is the most effective exercise to slow down brain aging!

According to Dr Kathrin Rehfeld, lead author of the study, dancing beats endurance training for preventing and slowing the physical and mental decline of the brain due to aging. While endurance exercise does offer improvement to the hippocampus (the part of your brain that is responsible for memory, balance and learning), the study found that those who danced had changes made to specific areas of the hippocampus that the endurance trainers didn’t. This was thanks to the challenges of learning choreography and then challenging it every fortnight with new steps, movements and music speeds added during the trial. 

@theBarre master choreographer and former pro dancer Liza Gishen-Kloeckner has always known refreshing her signature @theBarre programs regularly was important for challenging your existing fitness levels. And now there’s another benefit to joining our Barre programs. So whether you get your dance cardio hit in Amplify, learn step sequences in our Ballet classes, boogie through Dance Warrior or feel the rhythm in Lyrical, you can rest assured when you’re @theBarre you’re not just getting fit, you’re also feeling ‘forever young’!  

Want to test the study results for yourself? Why not join an @theBarre class today, or book in for our Ballet 202 course, starting in April!