Taking dance lessons? Don’t forget to do warm-up exercises!

Dancing provides everyone with a great mind-body workout and of course, it helps you get charged- both mentally and emotionally. But to get the maximum benefit out of your dancing routine and to avoid any sort of injury, it is important to warm up before you indulge in this holistic workout. Warm up exercises are a must before your dance routine, irrespective of the dance form you are about to indulge in.

Your muscles can be stiff and tight and can get injured easily if you are not careful. So you must leave a few minutes earlier for your class to give yourself enough time to stretch and warm up.

Both men and women can easily hurt their shoulder joints when leading turns and following them during dance movements. Even knees and hip joints can get hurt due to rotating incorrectly or because of wearing wrong kind of shoes that stick to the floor or don’t let you be stable and comfortable. Stretching exercises reduce these dangers by relaxing your body and readying it for rigorous movement to follow.

What should your stretching exercises consist of?
Your stretching exercises should include raising your arms up above your head and behind you; rolling your head around to loosen up neck joints; rolling shoulders in a backward and forward rotation and also pushing them backwards and downwards for a feeling of proper dance posture; circling ankles in and outwards so you don't twist them; moving legs from the hip joint forward and back to loosen those joints up as well to reduce the chances of a sprain or a ligament tear.

Now you are ready to shimmy and sway to impress just about everyone, without injuring yourself!