Physical Demands

Over the years, competitive ballroom dancing has evolved so much in its choreography, requiring a higher level of athleticism. Many individuals that spectate or dance socially often underestimate the physical attributes and demands of ballroom dancing. In order to compete at a world level, elite competitive dancers undergo rigorous training to help and enhance their competition performance. These dancers seem to perform at such a high level of energy expenditure that a deeper understanding of these energy demands may help build specific training programs used to sustain a high quality dance performance consistent over a few rounds of a competition.

In 1988, an Australian study was conducted to determine the heart rate and estimated energy expended during ballroom dancing. Professors Blanksby and Reidy of the Department of Human Movement and Recreation Studies at the University of Western had ten competitive ballroom dance couples simulate a dancesport competition, dancing their competitive routines in either the Latin American or Standard division. After administrating all required laboratory tests (in order to record their height, weight, body fat percentage, fat free mass and the resting/maximal heart rate and VO2 values), the couples danced a five-dance final, given a 15 to 20 second break between each dance.Throughout the final their heart rates were telemetered and recorded. The purpose of this study was to estimate the energy requirements from heart rates acquired during competition simulation and previously recorded measures of VO2 and HR.

The average heart rate for male dancers in Standard was 170 beats min⁻¹ and 168 beats min⁻¹ in the Latin American.Females elicited 179 beats min⁻¹ and 177 beats min⁻¹ respectively.Astrand and Rodahl  classify any exercise being extremely heavy if it results in a heart rate above 150 beats min⁻¹. They also classify an exercise as extremely heavy if oxygen consumption is higher than 2.0L min⁻¹

Comparing the mean gross energy expenditures (in kJ min⁻¹) between ballroom dancing and other sports, it is evident that competitive dancing is equally as demanding in comparison to other sporting activities such as basketball (35.83 kJ min⁻¹) or cross-country running (44.37kJ min⁻¹) , and that ballroom dancing requires a cardiovascular to be able to work at a high energy level in order to match the given physiological strain.