By BARBARA ANDREA FRANCO BORGES | Volunteer
The Body and Mind in Motion project was carried out by the Velho Amigo Institute in partnership with the Heliopolis Center. It operates in nine community centers and one institution, promoting activities for the elderly aged 60 and over. The aim is to provide quality of life through physical conditioning, Zumba Gold, and Zumba Gold Chair dancing, accompanied by discussions on quality of life and guidance on healthy habits, with the aim of improving physical health, mental health, and socialization.
The workshops took place twice a week in each space, distributed throughout the burro of Heliopolis. They served 538 older people aged 60 and under and an indirect audience of 108 senior citizens.
Zumba is a popular exercise around the world. It uses dance moves combined with Latin and international music to get the heart rate up and pumping. This fast-paced exercise is perfect for anyone who has ever wanted to try dancing or does not enjoy conventional ways of keeping active. Here are some reasons why it can benefit your weekly exercise routine.
Improves Your Emotional Health:
Just as it is a great physical activity, it also provides many benefits for a person's emotional health. When taking part in any kind of exercise, your body starts to produce vital chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. These two chemicals help boost your mood and overall emotional outlook. On top of this, mastering a dance routine or a complicated movement can help lift a person's confidence level and give them something to look forward to.
Generating Low Impact On Your Joints:
Zumba is great for older adults because it is a low-impact exercise. For many older adults, the choice to remain sedentary can be due to painful, inflamed joints or stiffness. This means that strenuous exercises can be difficult or even impossible. Zumba is great because not only does it cater to individuals with joint issues, but it can also be modified to better suit people with agility issues by having simpler movements or a slower pace.
Enhances Agility and Balance:
Falls are one of the leading causes of injury and hospitalization among older adults. They can even have long-lasting effects on a person's mobility and physical capabilities. Zumba can help increase a person's balance and agility to reduce the risk of an accident due to a fall, as stabilizer muscles are honed and strengthened during the exercise.
I want to tell you the story of 63-year-old Marta, who started taking part in the Zumba Gold physical conditioning workshop a year ago through the Body and Mind in Motion Project; motivated to improve her health because she had difficulty walking due to severe knee pain.
They were very supportive of her physical, mental, and emotional health. Even though she had some limitations, she took part in everything proposed and felt good about being part of something she had never done before.
During the proposed activities, she wasn't thinking about anything else, which helped her relax because she was very anxious. In the end, she asked me if the activities would return and if she could take part.
Mrs. Marta observed the impact of the results, highlighting the benefits, the obstacles overcome, and the importance of physical activity as an essential tool for promoting well-being and quality of life.
Through Mrs. Marta's story, we hope to inspire others to embrace the importance of projects that make physical fitness essential to a whole and healthy life, regardless of age.
Marta's testimony: "The care and patience of the physical educator Adriano made me feel welcome, and the fact that I saw an improvement in my physical condition encouraged me to continue even when I felt discouraged."
Although you can try out Zumba alone by learning from a video, many people opt to take Zumba classes, especially if they want to pick up a routine involving a partner. Getting to know other like-minded individuals can lead to the formation of long-lasting friendships that exist even after the program has ended. This can benefit older adults experiencing social isolation or loneliness from living alone.
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