Choreographer & Line Dancer Roland Ford (Dance & Be Fit) sole focus is Fitness & Health.  He promotes events for all ages especially Senior Citizens in the Pittsburgh PA area.   Roland does the Million Mile Step Challenge at the UC Star Awards...January 2022 will be his 7th consecutive year.  #DanceAndBeFit

---insert notes and update from Roland on

---Ask Roland if he has all the Step Challenge numbers over all the year at the UC Star Awards?

Pop Springs (Get Fit ) also focuses Fitness.  Get more info. 

1.      Cancer Survivors Dance for their Health (video)                                                                                                                   

2       TIME Health Newsletter 

3       Why Is Dancing So Good for Your Brain?  

4       Want to Keep Your Brain Youthful? You Should Be Dancing  

5       Why Dancing Is the Best Thing You Can Do For Your Body 

6       The Hidden Health Benefits of Dance 

7       Line-dancing is better than a walk to fight Alzheimer's:  

8       The Powerful Psychological Benefits of Dance  

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  https://www.9news.com/video/news/local/newscasts/aurora-breast-cancer-survivors-dance/73-58c1ffe5-c25c-4196-8fee-2fe97c3b7ca0?jwsource=fb&fbclid=IwAR0mRedkjamXNzDsSJ62N8q_6DJVOff4kzYirypocRKbxOA1IhgEAr6uUag    

Of course, the amount of energy you expend has a lot to do with how hard you’re pushing yourself. A gentle two-step isn’t going to measure up to an intense, hilly run. But torching calories isn’t the only upside to dancing. Just as trail running and hiking better engage your lower-body joints and muscles than straight-ahead, level-ground locomotion, the up-and-down and side-to-side movements of dance may likewise activate and train many of your body’s little support muscles and tendons.

Like other forms of cardio exercise, dancing also seems to have mood and mind benefits. A 2007 study found that hip hop dancing improved energy, buoyed mood and lowered stress in ways similar to aerobic exercise.

A more recent study, published earlier this year in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, linked dancing to improved “white matter” integrity in the brains of older adults. Your brain’s white matter can be thought of as its connective tissue. That tissue tends to break down gradually as we age, which leads to a loss of processing speed and the thinking and memory problems that arise later in life, says Agnieszka Burzynska, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Colorado State University and that study’s first author.

Burzynska and her colleagues looked at white matter changes among older adults engaged in regular walking, stretching or dancing programs. White matter integrity declined among the walkers and stretchers, but improved among those who danced three days a week for six months. “We saw this benefit in one area of the brain, not everywhere, and our findings are preliminary,” she says. But the early results are promising.

The psychological benefits are also impressive. For decades, some therapists have prescribed dancing as an effective therapy for those who suffer from social anxiety or fear of public speaking. The idea: if you can loosen up enough to boogie in front of strangers, you’re a lot less likely to feel self-conscious when hanging out or speaking in front of an audience. Research dating back to the 1980s supports the idea that dancing can curb anxiety.

Dancing also seems to encourage social bonding and what psychologists call “self-other merging.” Like chatting with a stranger and finding out you both attended the same school or grew up in the same neighborhood, moving and grooving in rhythm with others lights up brain pathways that blur the barriers your mind erects between yourself and a stranger, and so helps you feel a sense of connection and sameness, suggests a study from the University of Oxford.

Finally, the touch aspect of dancing with a partner may offer some special perks. Touch is the first sense that emerges during infancy, and the more experts examine the benefits of massage, holding hands and other forms of human-to-human physical contact, the more they find that touching improves well-being and reduces stress and anxiety. Basically, dancing with someone else is like exercise and a hug rolled together.

Put all this together, and it’s clear we could all use more samba, salsa or boot scootin’ in our lives.

Posted Oct 01, 2013

Dancing improves brain function on a variety of levels. Two recent studies show how different types of practice allow dancers to achieve peak performance by blending cerebral and cognitive thought processes with muscle memory and ‘proprioception’ held in the cerebellum. Through regular aerobic training that incorporates some type of dance at least once a week anyone can maximize his or her brain function.

When was the last time you went out dancing? I make a habit of going to my local dance club called the Atlantic House at least once a week. I have been dancing to DJ David LaSalle’s music in the same spot in front of a huge speaker since 1988. Some of my friends make fun of me for ‘chasing butterflies’ and acting like a fool on the dance floor. I don’t care. I know that dancing and spontaneously trying to spin like Michael Jackson is good for my brain.

While researching this blog, I pulled up some old footage of Michael Jackson spinning. He was an incredible dancer. Please take a minute to watch Michael Jackson dance here. In this video you can see how practicing a dance move like ‘spinning’ from childhood reshapes the cerebellum (down brain) and allows a dancer to create superfluidity and not get dizzy while rotating quickly.

Professional dancers don’t get dizzy. Why?

Do you feel dizzy sometimes when you stand up? Does a fear of falling prevent you from exploring the world more? If you are prone to dizziness, a new study has found that dancing may help improve your balance and make you less dizzy. In September 2013, researchers from Imperial College London reported on specific differences in the brain structure of ballet dancers that may help them avoid feeling dizzy when they perform pirouettes. You don't have to train to become a professional ballet dancer to benefit from some type of dancing.

The article is titled, “The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Reflex Uncoupling in Dancers.” The research suggests that years of training can enable dancers to suppress signals from the balance organs in the inner ear linked to the cerebellum. The findings, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, could help to improve treatment for patients with chronic dizziness. Around one in four people experience this condition at some time in their lives.

In a previous Psychology Today blog titled “Fear of Falling Creates a Downward Spiral” I talk about the risk of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) due to a fear of falling and impaired balance. Taking time throughout your life to improve the function of your cerebellum through aerobic activity and some type of dance is a fun and effective way to avoid the perils of dizziness.

For this study the researchers at Imperial College London recruited 29 female ballet dancers and, as a comparison group, 20 female rowers whose age and fitness levels matched the dancers. Interestingly, most rhythmic aerobic exercise is going to be a bi-pedal motion or very linear—like rowing. It is interesting to note the benefits to proprioception and balance based in the cerebellum that is enhanced through dance.

The study volunteers were spun around in a chair in a dark room. They were asked to turn a handle in time with how quickly they felt like they were still spinning after they had stopped. The researchers also measured eye reflexes triggered by input from the vestibular organs. Later, they examined the participants' brain structure with MRI scans.

Normally, the feeling of dizziness stems from the vestibular organs in the inner ear. These fluid-filled chambers sense rotation of the head through tiny hairs that sense the fluid moving. After turning around rapidly, the fluid continues to move, which can make you feel like you're still spinning.

In dancers, both the eye reflexes and their perception of spinning lasted a shorter time than in the rowers. Sensory input evokes low-order reflexes of the cerebellum and higher-order perceptual responses of the cerebrum. Vestibular stimulation elicits vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) and self-motion perception (e.g., vertigo) whose response durations are normally equal.

I have a section in my book, The Athlete’s Way, which explores the connection to VOR and muscle memory during REM sleep that I will write about more in a future blog. On Page 54 I say, “It became clear to me that creating a dreamlike default state of flow through sport is linked to VOR, too. It is really like REM in reverse. This is my original hypothesis. My father thinks it makes sense, but other scientists have yet to explore this theory.” The new research from London this month offers exciting new connections to VOR and peak performance.

Dr. Barry Seemungal, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial, said: "Dizziness, which is the feeling that we are moving when in fact we are still, is a common problem. I see a lot of patients who have suffered from dizziness for a long time. Ballet dancers seem to be able to train themselves not to get dizzy, so we wondered whether we could use the same principles to help our patients."

The brain scans revealed differences between the groups in two parts of the brain: an area in the cerebellum where sensory input from the vestibular organs is processed and in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the perception of dizziness.

"It's not useful for a ballet dancer to feel dizzy or off balance. Their brains adapt over years of training to suppress that input. Consequently, the signal going to the brain areas responsible for perception of dizziness in the cerebral cortex is reduced, making dancers resistant to feeling dizzy. If we can target that same brain area or monitor it in patients with chronic dizziness, we can begin to understand how to treat them better."

"This shows that the sensation of spinning is separate from the reflexes that make your eyes move back and forth," Dr. Seemungal said. "In many clinics, it's common to only measure the reflexes, meaning that when these tests come back normal the patient is told that there is nothing wrong. But that's only half the story. You need to look at tests that assess both reflex and sensation." In summary, dancers display vestibular perceptuo-reflex dissociation with the neuronatomical correlate localized to the vestibular cerebellum.

Visualizing Movements can Improve Muscle Memory

A July 2013 article titled, “The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking” found that dancers can improve the ability to do complex moves by walking through them slowly and encoding the movement with a cue through ‘marking’. Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."

The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice — allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly. This creates what I call “superfluidity," which is the highest tier of ‘flow.’

Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking—loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions"—may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements. 

"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well. Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance." Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.

"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."

To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking. Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking—their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.

Conclusion: Synchronizing the Cerebrum and Cerebellum Creates Superfluidity

The researchers conclude that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance. This type of visualization and marking could be used to maximize performance across many fields and areas of life.

"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains. "Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.

It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition. He said, "Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."

If you’d like to learn more on these topics please check out my Psychology Today blogs: “The Neuroscience of Madonna’s Enduring Success”, “Gesturing Engages All Four Brain Hemispheres”,”The Neuroscience of Speaking With Your Hands”, “3 Daily Habits That Boost Brainpower.”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201310/why-is-dancing-so-good-your-brain

Christopher Bergland is a world-class endurance athlete, coach, author, and political activist.

This post is in response to Why Is Dancing So Good for Your Brain? by Christopher Bergland  (Article is above)

We all know that the songs of our youth are like time capsules that can make us feel young again. As we grow older, most of us typically experience a decline in mental and physical fitness, which can exacerbate conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. But there is good news: A growing body of clinical studies find that aerobic exercise — especially in the form of learning dance routines — can help maintain the youthfulness of your body, mind, and brain across a lifespan.

The latest research shows that dancing has surprising anti-aging brain benefits. MRI brain scans from a 2017 study on dancing showed that age-related degeneration in brain structure improved dramatically when people (with an average age of 68) participated in a weekly course to learn choreographed dance routines. These findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

For this study, researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and Institute for Sports Science in Magdeburg, Germany wanted to compare the neuroprotective benefits of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) alongside the brain benefits of taking dance classes. According to the authors:  "In sum, the present results indicate that both dance and fitness training can induce hippocampal plasticity in the elderly, but only dance training improved balance capabilities." 

The researchers found that both regular aerobic physical activity (walking, riding a stationary bike, using an elliptical trainer) and dancing increased hippocampal gray matter volume. This is notable because the hippocampus — which plays a significant role in learning and memory — is particularly vulnerable to age-related decline marked by a loss of gray matter volume. 

Dancing Boosts Brain Volume and Improves Functional Connectivity

Previous research has shown that learning and memorizing choreographed dance routines or tapping your fingers to musical beats presents unique challenges that promote neural activity and functional connectivity between multiple brain regions.

The authors of a 2016 study on the neural benefits of dancing, published in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology. concluded:  "Sport dancers had increased body intelligence sensitivity compared with matched controls. In addition, the characteristics of dance, including physical movement in accordance with rhythm perception, might be associated with increased brain activity in the somatosensory and rhythm perception networks." 

Another study, from 2014, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan participants' brains as they tapped their fingers to a beat, while listening to previously unheard songs with drum breaks that created changes in musical rhythm. Notably, the drum breaks within each song activated the left cerebellum, the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG), and the superior temporal gyri (STG) bilaterally. The researchers speculate that these brain areas may be recruited during rhythmic musical engagement as part of a predictive feed-forward control that involves the cerebellum and cortical areas. These findings were published in the journal Neuroscience. 

Kathrin Rehfeld, lead author of the recent dance study from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, said in a statement:  “Exercise has the beneficial effect of slowing down or even counteracting age-related decline in mental and physical capacity. In this study, we show that two different types of physical exercise (dancing and endurance training) both increase the area of the brain that declines with age. In comparison, it was only dancing that lead to noticeable behavioral changes in terms of improved balance."

The researchers hypothesize that the improvements in balance may be linked to the complexity of coordinating foot steps, arm patterns, along with speed and rhythm changes that are involved with learning a mixed genre of dance styles that included Line Dancing, Jazz, Square, and Latin-American, all of which were part of the 18-month dancing seminar. Additionally, study participants were asked to perform specific dance routines in recitals without any cues from the instructor. 

The added challenge of pushing beyond one's comfort zone during these performances may have accounted for some of the specific hippocampal benefits observed in the dancing group. 

The multidisciplinary research team in Magdeburg, Germany is adapting their neuroscience-based findings to create fitness programs that incorporate dance routines and music therapy in an effort to maximize the anti-aging brain benefits of physical activity. “Dementia patients react strongly when listening to music," Rehfeld said. "We want to combine the promising aspects of physical activity and active music making in a feasibility study with dementia patients."

The Bee Gees Were Right: You Should Be Dancing

https://youtu.be/4yAkkpbm_8E  You Should Be Dancing video 

Rehfeld leaves us with some practical advice that might inspire you to get down, boogie oogie oogie till you just can't boogie no more:   "I believe that everybody would like to live an independent and healthy life, for as long as possible. Physical activity is one of the lifestyle factors that can contribute to this, counteracting several risk factors and slowing down age-related decline. I think dancing is a powerful tool to set new challenges for body and mind, especially in older age."

References

Kathrin Rehfeld, Patrick Müller, Norman Aye, Marlen Schmicker, Milos Dordevic, Jörn Kaufmann, Anita Hökelmann, Notger G. Müller. Dancing or Fitness Sport? The Effects of Two Training Programs on Hippocampal Plasticity and Balance Abilities in Healthy Seniors. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017; 11 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00305

Kim, Young Jae, Eun Joo Cha, Kyoung Doo Kang, Bung-Nyun Kim, and Doug Hyun Han. "The effects of sport dance on brain connectivity and body intelligence." Journal of Cognitive Psychology 28, no. 5 (2016): 611-617. 

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2016.1177059

Danielsen, A., M. K. Otnaess, Jimmy Jensen, S. C. R. Williams, and B. C. Østberg. "Investigating repetition and change in musical rhythm by functional MRI." Neuroscience 275 (2014): 469-476. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.06.029

http://time.com/4828793/dancing-dance-aerobic-exercise/

 By MARKHAM HEID  

July 5, 2017

Dance floors tend to be sweaty places for a reason. All of those shimmies and shakes burn energy like you wouldn’t believe—and come with many other surprising health benefits, too.

When you cut a rug, you can expend more than 300 calories every half-hour, according to a report from the University of Brighton in the UK. That meets or exceeds the amount of energy you burn during an easy run or swim, the report shows. Even relatively tame forms of dance burn about the same number of calories as cycling.

Dancing demands a lot of energy output because it involves “movement in all directions,” says Nick Smeeton, a principal lecturer at the University of Brighton and coauthor of that report. While running, swimming and other propulsive forms of physical activity use rhythm and momentum to keep you moving, “there is a lot of accelerating and decelerating in dancing, which the body is less able to do in an energy efficient way,” Smeeton says.

If running is like driving on a freeway, dancing is more like motoring through a busy city, he says. All of that starting, stopping and changing directions burns a ton of fuel even though you’re not covering a lot of ground.Customers have questions, you have answers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.