What are the Benefits of Zumba?

Last updated on September 26th, 2022

Have you ever wondered why you could not get past a week with your exercise or jogging routine? Sometimes, you may be successful in clinging on to it for a month or so. But, what happens after that? Boredom steps in, and the motivation to get out of bed, each morning, slips away. Read this blog to know about the health benefits of Zumba dance.

You tend to lose mental strength to exercise. This negativity leads to laziness and is harmful to you if you are diabetic. The key to keep you motivated and help you to remain fit is Zumba.

What is Zumba Dance?

What if you work out in a way that doesn’t seem like a workout? You must be thinking about whether that’s even possible. Well, it is! Have you heard of Zumba? Zumba, created by a Columbian dancer and choreographer, Alberto “Berto” Perez, is inspired by various styles of Latin-American dance forms.

It is a dance fitness program that helps you lose weight, get back in shape, and stay fit, all this while having loads of fun. Dance and music can uplift our moods and have proven to be great stress-busters, sometimes therapeutic, even. It is a great form of fitness program that blends them both with physical activity.

Zumba Dance Benefits in General

Zumba gives you a lot more than that, as we’ll see in a bit.

Burn those calories, instantly

To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. Attend one Zumba class and you are sure to lose on an average 600 – 1000 calories. The combination of fast and slow-paced movements is carefully designed to accelerate fat-burning in our body. You can feel the change in a single class which is more than enough to motivate you to go to the next one.

The key to managing diabetes and having type 2 diabetic reversal, is essential to maintain proper weight. Numerous exercises and diet plans are suggested to have a proper weight control. Zumba is the best choice if you want to manage your weight to manage your diabetes.

Also Read: Indian Vegetarian Diet Chart for Diabetic Patient

It gives your body a complete workout

Yet another advantage of Zumba is the fact that it gives you a full-body workout. With movements involving head, neck, shoulders, waist, thighs, calves, and ankles; Zumba doesn’t let even a single part of your body remain idle. Your entire body moves in sync with the energetic music giving you an evenly toned body. Zumba also helps in strengthening your heart and respiratory system.

These types of complete workouts help the muscles to increase blood glucose absorption. This thus helps in blood glucose control and thus is vital for diabetic management.

You coordinate better

You may not realize this but while doing Zumba, your mind and body work quite hard to make sure your movements follow the fast beats of the music and that your steps are aligned with others who are also dancing around you. Regular practice of Zumba boosts your mind-body coordination.

Also Read: How to Lower Blood Sugar?

Zumba is fun!

Zumba is fast, intense, and rigorous. And Zumba is fun also. This is one of the main reasons why people who practice Zumba keep going back to it. They look forward to attending the class so they can dance away to the music along with their friends and family. Zumba also presents you with opportunities to socialize and make new friends.

Anyone and everyone can practice Zumba and reap all of its benefits. No matter what your current level of fitness is, the intensity of Zumba can be fine-tuned to suit your body. Kenneth Cooper, an Aerobics expert and the author of the book Aerobics rightly says, “Fitness is a journey, not a destination”, and Zumba is a great way to embark on this journey and make sure you never give up!

Also Read: Normal Blood Sugar Levels Chart for Adults Without Diabetes

Other Benefits of Zumba Workouts:

Zumba comprises various health benefits, like:

• Muscle Building: Zumba step workout includes weights. This helps build muscles in the arms, glutes, and legs.
• Muscle elasticity: Intended to improve muscle flexibility as Zumba moves tones and stretches the muscles of your body.
• Good for Overall Health: Zumba workout is just great for individuals with health problems like Diabetes, heart diseases, or high cholesterol. However, it is good to discuss with your doctor before going to the sessions.
• Improves heart stamina: Zumba is an interval workout. High- and mid-intensity interval dance moves get your heart rate up. Thus, it is just an ideal cardio workout program to boost your heart endurance and cardiac health.

Zumba Dance and Diabetes

Zumba grooves you to the beats of jazz music. You just can lose yourself in the MUSIC and find a FIT you. Feels more like a dance party than a workout! So joyous, refreshing, revitalizing, and full of energy! Zumba is a high-energy dance fitness program involving moves on international beats. 

All around the world, Zumba is being practiced owing to its health benefits, including mind relaxation, stress management, and physical fitness. Zumba is an exercise form that is not tedious but many people are fond of it nowadays. It creates an inspiration in people to exercise and get rid of their medical conditions. Zumba has better and multi-dimensional effects but it demands special or expertise training, continuous monitoring, as well as a fixed protocol.

American Diabetes Association (ADA) states that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise plays a key role in the prevention and management of Diabetes. A definitive study by Sigal et al., 2007 was carried out on 251 Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients. The study observed improvements that ranged from -0.38 to -0.97 % points in HbA1c levels from approx. 135 to 270 minutes of weekly exercise training for six months.

Another research study by Adriana et al., 2015 found that there was a significant improvement in body mass, fat mass, and fat percentage through the Zumba fitness program. The study was conducted on 12 females lying in the age groups 25-35 years.

Krishnan et al., 2015 performed a study in which 28 (14 Type 2 Diabetic and 14 Non-Diabetic) females were enrolled who had obesity as a co-morbidity. An improvement was seen in the form of motivation towards exercise and Zumba fitness. A remarkable loss in body weight and body fat percentage was noticed after they finished their 16-week intervention of the Zumba fitness program. The program was for three days weekly and the duration of the class was 60 minutes.

Apart from Diabetes or cardiovascular problems, the positive effects of Zumba have been widely studied. And an incredible improvement was noticed in the quality of life (QOL) of patients having neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease as well as musculoskeletal disorders.

Zumba Dance & Positive Impact on Diabetes

Numerous researches have proven the fact that moderate exercises help in lowering blood glucose levels. Due to exercise, the muscular absorption of glucose increases, and this increases insulin sensitivity [1].

Exercise of 12 to 48 hours is better to increase insulin sensitivity [2]. The exercise for a diabetic patient should be a combination of muscular strength and aerobic exercise. Zumba is the best choice in such a scenario.

Zumba has a combination of dance and aerobic exercises that makes it interesting.

28 overweight and obese women were asked to undertake 16 weeks Zumba course. Out of these 14 women were diabetic. The course comprised of dance classes of 3 days per week with each class of 60-minute duration. Zumba had the following effects on these people

1. It increased the motivation to exercise
2. There is an increase in the motivation for remaining fit & healthy
3. The stress and negativity around decreases.
4. It has helped in reducing weight and body fat. A single session of 60 minutes cans burnout 600 calories.

This fitness has helped them to manage their diabetes and have good diabetic control. It has proven to enhance insulin sensitivity. This has resulted in the good management of, especially type-2 diabetes. Thus, Zumba has proven to be a great way of remaining positive and have good management of diabetes.

Explore Tons of Zumba Dance Classes Through ClassHop

1. Zink Fitness (B-63, Sushant Lok 1, Gurgaon)
2. Moving Souls (21 Avenue, G Block Young Women’s Association (near PVR Cinema), Saket, New Delhi)
3. Gold’s Gym (behind Gold Souk) (Gold Souk, 3rd floor, Sector 43, Sushant Lok 1, Gurgaon)
4. Soul to Sole Dance Academy (Basement, Solo Victoria Hotel C-8, Greater Kailash 1, New Delhi)
5. Squad Fit (No. 610-611, 6th floor, Tower C, Nirvana Courtyard, Nirvana Country, Gurgaon)

Also read: Conversion blood sugar

FAQs:

References:

1. Vendramin B, Bergamin M, Gobbo S, Cugusi L, Duregon F, Bullo V, Zaccaria M, Neunhaeuserer D, Ermolao A., Health Benefits of Zumba Fitness Training: A Systematic Review., M R. 2016 Dec; 8(12):1181-1200. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2016.06.010. Epub 2016 Jun 16.
2. Krishnan S, Tokar TN, Boylan MM, Griffin K, Feng D, Mcmurry L, Esperat C, Cooper JA. Zumba® dance improves health in overweight/obese or types 2 diabetic women. Am J Health Behav. 2015 Jan;39(1):109-20. DOI: 10.5993/AJHB.39.1.12. PMID: 25290603.
3. Vrishti V, Ashwini D, et al. Project title – A comparative study of the effects of Zumba Aerobic technique versus walking on blood glucose level and quality of life in subjects with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. International Journal of Current Research. 2019 Apr; 11(4), pp 3173-3177.
4. Sigal RJ, Kenny GP, et al. Effects of aerobic training, resistance training, or both on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2007; 147, pp 357-369.
5. Adriana L, Vladimir J, et al. Effects of Zumba fitness program on body composition of women. SportLogia. 2015; 10(1), pp 29-33.
6. Krishnan S, et al. Zumba dance improves health in overweight/obese or type 2 diabetic women. Am J Health Behav. Jan 2015; 39(1), pp 109-20.
7. Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation, Inc. Questions And Answers – Exercise. Available from https://diabetesaction.org/questions-exercise. Accessed on 13 August 2021.
8. MedicineNet. Is Zumba Good for Losing Weight? Available from https://www.medicinenet.com/is_zumba_good_for_losing_weight/article.htm. Accessed on 13 August 2021.