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Abstract

Introduction: Aging is inevitable and irreversible, but with the advancement of technology, life expectancy is increasing every year, bringing with it proposals for various interventions to improve the quality of life. One such intervention is physical exercise programs. Objective: Evaluated the functional fitness of senior female practitioners of ballroom and circular dancing. Methods: Senior women were recruited and distributed into three groups: ballroom dancing (BD, n=15); circular dancing (CD, n=16); control (C, n=10). Those in the dancing groups performed 60-minute dancing sessions three times a week over a 24-week period. Participants underwent anthropometric parameters and functional fitness tests (chair stand, arm curl, sit and reach, back scratch, agility, 6-minute walk) were performed. Results: No differences (p> 0.05) were found on anthropometric and body composition parameters between groups. However, the values of chair stand and 6minute walk tests by BD (13 ± 2 repetitions, 432 ± 103 meters) and CD (13 ± 4 repetitions, 384 ± 88 meters) respectively was higher (p< 0.01) than C (10 ± 3 repetitions, 300 ± 77 meters). No differences between groups (p> 0.05) were found on arm curl (C

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“…This proportion should increase to 25% in the coming decade (Economic and Financial Affairs, 2018). Regular physical activity (PA) is considered a basic element of healthy and independent ageing (Rocha et al, 2018). Conversely, sedentary behaviour (SB), which is recognized as any waking behaviour in a sitting/lying posture with very low energy expenditure (Tremblay et al, 2017), has been found to be associated with adverse health outcomes (Copeland et al, 2017) and increased risk of mortality (Ekelund et al, 2016).…”