Can dancing build muscle? The answer to this question is no. It does not build muscle, but rather, it tones them. Is there a difference? Yes, there are big differences between toning and building.
If you’re trying to bulk up, dancing is not the way to go, but lifting weights is. Dancing merely gives your body indirect benefits to help you build muscle, such as weight loss and endurance, so you can hasten bulking up.
While the activity does not directly build muscle, it can still help better prepare your body for developing bigger muscle mass. Let’s discuss the reasons why dancing does not build muscle but how it can help you do so.
Dancing is an Aerobic Exercise
To get a bigger and more sculpted body, you would need to do anaerobic exercises. Dancing is a form of aerobic exercise, which is known to improve muscular and cardio-respiratory endurance.
Aerobic exercises are known for improving cardiovascular health, strengthens the immune system, lowers the risk of high blood pressure, alleviates symptoms of diabetes, reduces the risk of stroke, and ideal for weight management.
Anaerobic exercises, on the other hand, involves short exertions that are “without oxygen.” These exercises are meant to build muscle but not necessarily increase endurance. Anaerobic exercises take the form of strengthening exercises, such as lifting weights. Anaerobic exercises also stimulate the production of testosterone in the body, which is needed for tissue growth. It also stimulates growth hormones, which also results in bigger muscles.
While dancing per se does not make you bulk up, some dance workouts can. These workouts include squats, crunches, and lifts.
Dancing Tones But Does Not Build Muscles
Dancing is more effective in toning rather than building muscles. Some people use these terms interchangeably but they’re actually quite different from one another.
Toning is about lengthening, strengthening, and leaning tissues out rather than building a bigger size. It is about reducing the appearance of body fat in certain areas of your body and giving them shape. These are done by repetitive movements, as well as through cardio exercises that burn calories to burn fat tissues in the body.
Bulking up, on the other hand, is more about building more muscle mass, which makes them look bigger. It is accomplished by lifting heavier weights than what the body is accustomed to. By doing so, the tissues get stronger, and thus, become bigger in size.
Being an aerobic exercise, dance movements tone and shape the body effectively. Body fat obscures the muscle tissues, making it harder to build a bigger mass. You would have to work harder to be able to get rid of fat tissues before you can begin to build muscle.
You can burn fat tissues faster through aerobic exercises such as dancing. The more fat you have, the more difficult it will be to build muscle. The less fat you have, the faster you can build muscle mass. Therefore, you can use dance as a means to burn fat, so you can sculpt and shape your body faster.
However, it is important to note that you would need more calories to be able to bulk up. Those who want to bulk up would need to eat more protein and calories to supplement their bodybuilding efforts. While cardio burns calories, you can use dance to burn fat, and not necessarily to lose weight. A program that can help you burn fat without sacrificing too many calories would be ideal if you wish to get bigger but you currently have a lot of body fat.
How It Helps You Build Muscle
As mentioned earlier, dance movements do not build muscle. However, it can help prepare the body to bulk up. It does this through the following:
- Burning fat tissues
- Strengthening your bones
- Tones your body
Burning fat tissues allows you to speed up building muscle since your body won’t have fat that obscures them. Dance can also strengthen the bones needed for increasing muscle mass. And lastly, through toning, the activity can help prepare the body to get bigger and sculpted faster and more efficiently.
The Bottom Line
Dance does not build muscle, but rather, it can be used to supplement your efforts to bulk up. It is an aerobic exercise and it’s more about improving your cardiorespiratory health rather than building muscle mass. If you have body fat that you need to get rid of so you can hasten your mass building ability, you can use dancing as a fun and effective cardio exercise.
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